Retained by Jones Day
Vega supported three experts, Dr. Thomas Lys, Peter Ross, and Stephen Rudner, in a case brought against an RMBS master servicer. The sponsor plaintiff claimed the master servicer failed to provide notice of representation & warranty breaches and failed to properly monitor the primary servicers.
Dr. Thomas Lys is the Eric L. Kohler Professor Emeritus at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is a specialist in accounting and in financial economics, holding a Ph.D. in accounting and finance. In this case, he analyzed and rebutted the opposing damages expert’s assumptions and methodology. Dr. Lys uncovered several flawed assumptions as well as instances that the opposing expert double counted damages and improperly extrapolated losses. Dr. Lys provided recalculated damages to illustrate biases and errors in the opposing expert’s calculations which reduced damages by 50% or more.
Peter Ross is a Principal at PMI Consulting. He has first-hand experience directly managing three separate servicing operations and then working with over 20 mortgage banking companies. He opined on whether the master servicer acted in accordance with customary and usual servicing practices. Mr. Ross addressed allegations though a loan-level review of the servicing histories for over 1,000 at-issue loans in over a million pages of servicing files and comments.
Stephen Rudner is an Executive Vice President at Phoenix, a mortgage capital markets advisory firm. He has more than thirty years of experience in the financial industry. He discussed the customary industry practices in structuring RMBS deals. To address plaintiff’s allegations, Mr. Rudner opined on the sponsors’ expectations regarding master servicer’s responsibility.
After report submission, all experts continued to provide analyses of the plaintiff’s reply reports in preparation for deposition.