DECISION
ANALYSIS
Donny combines his legal and accounting background to apply Decision Analysis techniques to assist clients seeking to get a better understanding of their risk in a dispute. He led a team that pioneered the development of the service offering whilst a partner at HSF to a level described by clients as unparalleled, and the initiative was Highly Commended at the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Europe Awards in September 2019.
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Decision Analysis supports clients to make better decisions in litigation or arbitration, by use of a bespoke decision tree model of the case. Each issue will be ascribed a set of probabilities (rather than one over-arching probability for the whole case), and each outcome will be valued, taking account of award value, costs, possible cost recoveries and present-value discounting.
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Once the model is built, a financial dashboard can be compiled, together with sensitivity tests and visual aids, to help parties to get a better understanding of their litigation risk and to support them in their decision-making.
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While it can be used in any situation where a decision needs to be taken amidst legal risk, its paradigm use case is in the settlement context. As such, Donny offers the service as part of a settlement counsel role to support one party, or as part of a mediator appointment for the benefit of all parties.
​Representative use cases
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Settlement decision-making: Built a 20,000-limb tree to support a listed engineering company decide whether or not to accept a nine-figure settlement offer in a highly complex insurance dispute​
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Negotiation advocacy: Provided a manufacturing client with materials to deploy in settlement negotiations in an M&A dispute
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Case strategy / resource allocation: Supported a global consumer products company in case management decisions, including which issues of a case to prioritise and invest in
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Decisions to commence proceedings: Helped a commercial real estate company decide whether or not to challenge a tax assessment
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Stakes in litigation – sell or hold: Assisted a leading global investment bank in deciding whether to sell distressed debt in the secondary market or hold pending the outcome of litigation
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Risk-sharing in litigation: Modelled a contingency fee arrangement to support alternative fee arrangement negotiations with a mining client
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Client feedback
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"The best thing I've seen so far for answering the question" about how to weigh the various factors – Managing Director (Legal), global consumer goods company
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“I haven't heard of any other law firm doing anything like this” – Associate General Counsel, global banking group
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"This should be mandatory on all new cases on which we instruct you" – Co-Head of Litigation, leading UK-based bank
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"The decision tree method and visual outputs were very helpful in evaluating risks and settlement strategy at Board level … well worth the cost." – Chief Compliance Officer, listed European engineering group