Braden Billiet

FTI Consulting

Seoul www.fticonsulting.com

braden.billiet@fticonsulting.com Tel: +82 10 2191 8550

Biography

Braden is a senior managing director at FTI Consulting, where he has led the economic and financial consulting practice in Korea since 2017. He specialises in valuation and the assessment of complex damages in cases of litigation and international arbitration, and has been appointed in a wide range of cases across a wide range of industries. He is a CFA charterholder, a CAIA charterholder, a CVA charterholder and a member of CIArb.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, Inc, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of having a global practice?

FTI has a strong global footprint, which comes with many advantages for our international arbitration team. For one, we are close to our clients in their local markets – including in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore, Delhi and Mumbai within Asia – and have the cultural know-how and language skills to, for example, attend meetings and review documents without the need for translations.

The only disadvantage I can think of is in the form of an increased coordination burden, but I think we are good at working together across offices and time zones – particularly now, having become more adept at remote working during the pandemic.

What motivated you to pursue a career as a damages expert?

I was working on a master’s degree in finance when I first learned about this career path. At that time, I had been planning to pursue a PhD and, eventually, a career as an academic, but I was drawn to the fact that this role incorporates elements of academic work (rigorous research and analysis, intellectual debate, etc.) while having a more immediate, ‘real-world’ impact by helping governments, companies and individuals resolve high-stakes disputes.

What I enjoy most is the variety of cases we see (both in issues and industries) and the challenge in studying something complex and then stepping back and explaining it in a way that is easy to understand.

How has the dynamic between arbitral tribunals and experts changed since you first started practising?

In recent years, I have seen many tribunals take a more hands-on approach to damages than what was common in the past, including by leading witness conferencing sessions during hearings and by working with the experts after hearings to get the specific calculations that they want, having heard all the evidence.

Developments that improve communication between tribunals and experts and allow experts to address the issues that tribunals are interested in (such as these) are important, given that the expert’s role in the process is to assist the tribunal.

How is covid-19 affecting the damage calculations experts can conduct at this time, and how are you adapting to these changes?

Covid-19 has not affected the calculations we can conduct (we still run the same calculations, using the same toolkit of valuation approaches), but it can be an important factor affecting our conclusions. Thus, amongst other things, it has put an increased focus on the appropriate date of assessment of loss and the relevance of subsequent events, if any, in assessments of lost profits (which are legal matters).

How does your position as a charterholder across multiple institutions compliment your practice?

There was the immediate benefit of building knowledge in areas relevant to my work. The CFA curriculum, for example, covers (among other things) topics in finance, economics, statistics, valuation, and accounting; and the CAIA curriculum provides a ‘deep dive’ into alternative asset classes – hedge funds, venture capital, private equity, commodities, derivatives, land, etc.

In addition, by association with these organisations, one becomes a part of large networks of finance professionals with different perspectives and has access to an array of seminars and conferences, as well as published research.

To what extent is document production becoming increasingly burdensome in complex disputes? How can this be resolved?

I am aware of this view held by some practitioners, but in relation to disputes in East Asia, it is not something I have particularly noticed.

I appreciate that my perspective on this, as an expert, may well be different from those of the users of arbitration and counsel, as sometimes the quality of our work is dependent upon the extent to which we can get access to relevant data and documents held by the other side.

That said, we frame our requests for such items narrowly and generally need to support them with explanations as to why the data or documents are relevant and material to our analysis.

How would you like to develop your practice in 2022–2023?

First, with barriers to travel now being lifted here (and elsewhere), a priority for me is getting around the region to see clients, colleagues, and friends face-to-face again – particularly in Singapore and Japan.

Second, we recently added expertise in regulatory economics to our Seoul-based team. I am keen to explore ways to leverage that expertise in the damages work that we do, including in the energy space.

What advice would you give to up-and-coming damages experts preparing for their first testifying role?

If you are getting ready to testify for the first time, it is impossible to overprepare. Read everything. Then, read all the key documents again.

Understand the format. Will there be witness conferencing, for example?

If there is an opening presentation, start work on that well in advance of the hearing (it will take time to finalise and can distract from other prep work if left too late). Also, prepare about half the number of slides you initially think you need – something that is easier said than done!

Peers and clients say: He is highly competent, thorough and honest in his approach” “Braden is a very strong communicator and an incredibly intelligent expert” “Mr Billiet is very responsive and works hard to achieve the best result for the client”