David K.A. Mordecai

Senior Affiliate David K.A. Mordecai, Ph.D. serves as an expert on (i) loss causation and economic damages related to liability from operational and model risk, machine testimony, and algorithmic bias, as well as (ii) the analysis of computational and digital forensics, (iii) market structure, (iv) financial institutions governance, (v) complex issues related to finance, economics and market standards and practices within securities, derivatives, reinsurance, and commodities markets, as well as (vi) industrial engineering, economics and market structure across a diverse range of non-financial industry sectors.

With nearly forty years of direct industry experience across a range of commercial sectors and capital markets as a former senior executive at global banks, diversified financial institutions and a large multistrategy hedge fund management firm, Dr. Mordecai actively conducts applied research at the intersection of risk engineering and industrial economics. His expertise includes forensic financial and economic analysis, financial engineering, the valuation of fixed income securities and structured products, including over-the-counter derivatives, complex insurance and reinsurance liabilities, M&A and successor liability analysis, operational risk, reliability and warranty-indemnity analysis, environmental liability, trade credit and political risk, as well as asset-liability and risk management models and practices. He has advised and provided technical oversight for pattern and practice investigations, internal regulatory investigations, insurance investigations for state regulators, as well as stress-testing for global financial institutions.

Dr. Mordecai is President and Co-Founder of Risk Economics®, a New York City based advisory firm, which specializes in the application of computational economics and statistics to the proprietary development and scalable implementation of robust modeling and data analytic frameworks for valuation, strategic and systemic risk analysis, and dynamic asset-liability management.

Having testified extensively at deposition, trial, arbitration, and international arbitration, he has been admitted as an expert in federal, state and county courts, and cited favorably in court decisions. Most recently, as appointed by the Colorado Attorney General, Dr. Mordecai co-led extensive statistical and empirical analysis of data, and preparation of the technical appendix presenting the results related to police interactions, arrests and uses of force by the Aurora Police Department, conducted in conjunction with the first of its kind pattern and practice investigation under the law enforcement accountability Senate Bill 217.

In 2019, the opinions in Dr. Mordecai’s expert report and deposition testimony were relied upon and cited extensively in the decision by Judge Kiesselbach to deny the motion for summary judgement filed by Langan Engineering and Environmental Services in Laura S. Lehman v. Transbay Joint Powers Authority, et al., No. CGC-16-553758 (Super. Ct. San Francisco Cty., Cal.). He also served as the plaintiff’s causation expert in the MF Global cases against Corzine et al, and against PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), respectively. In the MF Global case against PwC, which settled mid-trial, Dr. Mordecai’s testimony was cited extensively, both in the pre-trial Summary Judgment Decision issued by Judge Marrero, and in the plaintiff memorandum of law filed at trial and upheld by Judge Marrero, opposing the miscellaneous motion by PwC seeking a mistrial. As the expert for the U.S. Government in the C.V. Starr case, he testified regarding market evidence of economic damages and the commercial reasonability surrounding the Government rescue of AIG. His damages testimony was cited in the Federal Claims Court decision issued by Judge Wheeler, and subsequently further acknowledged by the Court of Appeals affirming those and other opinions presented in his testimony. Dr. Mordecai advised the Unsecured Credit Committee in the bankruptcy resolution of Lehman Brothers, and provided technical oversight for the valuation team assigned to validate the fair market value of the exotic structured notes portfolio with a notional value in excess of $15 billion. In addition, he advised on a merger-related intellectual property dispute involving Samsung and Microsoft. He has also provided analysis and testimony for a number of complex municipal finance, environmental, structured property-casualty reinsurance and life insurance matters.

As a Visiting Scholar at Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences NYU and Adjunct Professor at NYU, he has advised research activities at RiskEcon® Lab for Decision Metrics since its establishment in 2011, as well as co-leading R&D and commercialization industrial and governmental sponsored innovation, as co-founder and managing member of a technology adoption and enablement firm. Since November 2013, Dr. Mordecai has served as the Scientist-in-Residence at FinTech Innovation Lab sponsored by the Partnership Fund for NYC. In 2014, he was appointed the Course Director to lead the NYU Center for Data Science (NYUCDS) Capstone graduate applied research program in its inaugural year, and has also been associated with the NYU interdisciplinary research collaboration that conducts graphical analysis of social networks, social media and political behavior. Dr. Mordecai serves on the Board of Governors for the New York Academy of Sciences, and is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Risk Finance a quarterly peer-reviewed research periodical (ca. 1999), addressing topics in financial risk intermediation.

Dr. Mordecai earned a PhD with concentrations in Econometrics/Mathematical Statistics and Economics/Industrial Organization from the University of Chicago, and an MBA in Finance from the NYU Stern School of Business.

He currently serves as Chair of the Nanotechnology Committee, Co-Chair of the Space Law Committee and Vice-Chair of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Committee for the American Bar Association Science & Technology Law Section. In 2019, he was appointed technical advisor to study committees commissioned by the Uniform Law Committee (ULC) on automotive Event Data Recorders and in 2020, on mitigation of public health emergency business disruptions.

Dr. Mordecai has been a member of the Investment Advisory Committee of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), has served as an advisor on systemic risk issues to the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the US Treasury, and the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and as an advisor on hedge fund valuation issues to the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).