Anthony Charlton

HKA

Paris www.hka.com

anthonycharlton@hka.com Tel: +33 1 44 43 52 00

Biography

Anthony Charlton is a partner with HKA, based in Paris, within their forensic accounting and commercial damages (FACD) practice. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales. Anthony has over 25 years of specialist experience in the quantification of damages in international commercial and investment treaty disputes, contentious valuations, expert determinations, shareholder/ joint-venture disputes, financial and fraud investigations, and other types of forensic accounting assignments.

Upon qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand (now PwC) in 1996, I had to weigh up my post-audit career options. Forensic accounting provided an excellent opportunity to bridge the worlds of law and finance, and gain exposure to some fascinating and high-profile disputes. Many years later and having worked at two Big Four firms and two boutiques (including HKA where I am now), I have no regrets whatsoever about choosing to specialise in expert witness work. I have worked on well over one hundred disputes – each and every one quite different - and have given evidence on some thirty or so occasions.

What qualities make for an effective expert witness?

Ability to identify, analyse, and solve the (quantum) issues at the heart of a dispute, to communicate clearly and with authority both in writing and orally, and to retain one’s calm and credibility when under the pressures of cross-examination.

If you could change one thing about giving testimony as an arbitration expert, what would it be and why?

It could be extremely helpful to know what the tribunal is most interested in before writing one’s report, and certainly before appearing at the hearing. Sometimes what one spends a lot of time analysing and writing about turns out not to be what a tribunal’s decision will turn on.

It follows from this that I’d like to see more ‘hot tubbing.’ I have no issue with defending my opinions under cross-examination, but I’ve often felt that far more value is added when arbitrators put the same questions to both experts in witness conferencing.

What underrated skills would you encourage the up-andcoming generation of arbitration professionals to develop?

I don’t know if report writing is an ‘underrated skill’, but I would absolutely encourage emerging arbitration experts to write in as clear and concise terms as possible. I sometimes read opposing expert’s reports that are in the hundreds of pages, but which could have been written in perhaps 50 to 100 pages and be much stronger as a result. Given the severe time constraints under which many arbitrators must operate, an expert would do well to limit the ‘main report’ to just the key findings, and put everything else in the appendices.

Beyond report writing, I always would encourage face-to-face networking to develop social skills, and also to work constantly on presentation skills. I used to dread speaking in public but after so much practice it became second nature.

What advice would you give someone beginning a career in your field?

Take advantage of any opportunity to learn from (an) expert(s) who have ‘war stories’ to tell. Find out what mistakes they made in the past, how they made them, what they learned from the experience, etc, so that you do not have to make the same mistake yourself. It’s always satisfying when a particular hearing goes well and/ or one gets positive comments from instructing counsel/ clients/ tribunal, etc, but it’s a sad fact that one learns most from mistakes!

A similar piece of advice is to find (an) experienced mentor(s) who can guide you as you begin your career and provide helpful pointers.

Peers and clients say: “Anthony is a very productive expert with great analytical skills” “In my view, he is one of the strongest practitioners in the market”