Providing expert financial analysis advice during litigation becomes more difficult—and often unpleasant—when the lawyers who hired you don’t understand that business valuers are held to the same professional standards as they are.
BVWire—UK subscribers might want to include a new short article by Colin Everson, associate managing director at Kroll/Duff & Phelps, and David Welford, the BVI Dispute Resolution partner at Ogier. “Valuations Can Play a Key Role in Contentious Cases,” which appeared last month in Global Banking & Finance Review, makes the simple but often overlooked point that the two professions share a similar definition of independence. Using this third-party source might make discussions easier than trying to educate lawyers on BV standards yourself.
Everson and Welford draw simple and clear professional parallels:
- “The independence of the valuation exercise is mission critical. Valuers must be alert to potential conflicts of interest that might arise.”
- “The obligations of a valuation expert are to the court, not to fight the client’s case. At the same time, the expert must be prepared to robustly defend their methods and conclusions against challenge from the other side.”
- “The credibility of any analysis depends on the expert’s ability to stand behind it without lurching into advocacy of the client’s position.”
“Lawyers will recognise the tension created by professional obligations sometimes outweighing their duty to the client,” the authors hopefully and wisely conclude. “Ultimately, we are all in the value business.”