Regulatory Consulting at Charles River Associates (CRA)

Overview

Charles River Associates is a leading global economic, financial, and management consulting firm — among the top handful in the roughly $6–7 billion economic-consulting and expert-services market — with a leading U.S. position in antitrust and litigation economics. Founded in 1965, CRA sells defensible expert judgment for high-stakes cases: economic analysis, advice, and testimony for litigation and regulatory proceedings, plus corporate strategy work. Its AI relevance is concentrated in two fast-growing areas. First, competition economics: as antitrust scrutiny of AI markets, mergers, and platform conduct intensifies, CRA’s Antitrust & Competition Economics practice is directly engaged — the firm has specifically strengthened this bench with expertise in generative-AI competition. Second, intellectual property: CRA provides economic analysis and testimony in IP disputes including copyright infringement, the exact terrain of the wave of litigation over AI training data. With roughly 70% of revenue from the U.S. and practices spanning antitrust, forensic services, life sciences, energy, and IP, CRA is one of the expert shops courts and regulators rely on as AI-related economic questions reach litigation and merger review.

AI-Focused Regulatory Work

CRA’s most telling AI signal is a hiring one: the firm publicly strengthened its Antitrust & Competition Economics practice by adding an expert (Keler) described as specializing in industrial organization, microeconomic theory, and data science, ‘with extensive experience related to generative AI competition and IP matters’ — exactly the skill set the AI antitrust and copyright docket now demands. As CRA’s global antitrust practice leader Margaret Sanderson framed it, that expertise spans theoretical and econometric models addressing complex legal questions in antitrust, mergers, damages, and copyright. That positioning matters because the biggest open economic questions in AI are increasingly litigated rather than legislated: whether foundation-model markets are becoming anticompetitively concentrated, how to value IP allegedly used to train models, and what damages flow from copyright claims against AI developers. CRA’s economists have assessed damages in thousands of IP disputes — patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret — and testified in merger challenges and FRAND/standard-essential-patent matters, giving them the courtroom credibility to carry AI-era cases. Industry analysts note that AI tools, faster dispute analytics, and tighter antitrust scrutiny are themselves reshaping demand for firms like CRA in 2025–26, making ‘proof and credibility’ matter more than scale. For a directory reader, CRA represents the economic-expert layer of AI policy: the place where abstract concerns about AI competition and IP become quantified, testable claims a court can act on.

Notable AI Policy Work

• Strengthened its Antitrust & Competition Economics practice with an expert specializing in generative-AI competition and IP — signaling CRA’s direct engagement in AI antitrust and copyright matters.
• Provides economic analysis and expert testimony in IP disputes — including copyright infringement, the core terrain of litigation over AI training data — having assessed damages in thousands of IP matters.
• Advises on contested mergers and competition investigations where AI market structure is at issue, applying econometric techniques to quantify competitive effects.
• Serves law firms, corporations, private equity, and regulators across antitrust, forensic services, life sciences, energy, and IP, with senior-led expert engagement.
• Operates in a ~$6–7B expert-services market where AI tools and tighter antitrust scrutiny are reshaping demand, per 2025–26 industry analysis.

Thought Leadership

1. CRA Strengthens Its Antitrust & Competition Economics Practice
   Announces a senior addition with extensive experience in generative-AI competition and IP matters, signaling CRA’s move into AI antitrust and copyright economics.
2. CRA — M&A Antitrust Litigation
   CRA’s expert testimony and econometric analysis for contested mergers — the framework it brings to AI-market competition questions.
3. CRA — Intellectual Property / Patent 1000 profile
   CRA’s economic analysis and testimony in IP disputes including copyright — directly relevant to litigation over AI training data and damages.

Clients

Law firms, corporations, private equity, and regulators retaining CRA for economic testimony and analysis in antitrust, merger review, and IP litigation. U.S. contributes 70%+ of revenue; EMEA ~20–25%; APAC growing. Specific engagements are confidential, consistent with expert-witness work.