The Most Expensive Forensic Mistake Is Made Before the Expert Is Chosen
The most expensive forensic mistake I see attorneys make is not choosing the wrong expert. It is asking the wrong questions from the start. A matter arrives. There is a financial crime or accounting fraud element. Counsel retains a forensic accountant to quantify damages or trace funds. The work gets done. The report gets produced. And that financial crime dimension, the one that explains why the money moved the way it did, who controlled the entities behind it, and what the exposure looks like across multiple regulatory regimes, is never fully developed.
In my experience working alongside litigation teams on antitrust, breach of contract, and securities fraud matters, the forensic and financial crime dimensions of a case can rarely be separated. A vendor fraud case is also an AML exposure question. An FCPA matter is also a funds flow and asset tracing problem. A breach of contract dispute involving international counterparties in high-risk jurisdictions almost always has a sanctions or beneficial ownership dimension that should inform the litigation strategy, whether or not it reaches trial.
Those who get the most out of forensic advisory relationships are those who bring forensic experts in early enough to shape the investigative theory, not just to produce the report. The difference between a report that answers the question you asked and one that surfaces the question you did not know to ask is almost always a function of when in the matter the forensic advisor was engaged and how much latitude they were given to follow the money wherever it leads.
Across nearly two decades of forensic investigations and financial crime advisory at A&M, Kroll, and EY and in active litigation support today, the engagements that produce the best results for clients are the ones where counsel and the forensic team operated as one unit from the beginning.
If you are working on a matter with a financial crime or cross-border forensic dimension, I am happy to discuss how I approach the scoping questions.
