Banking / Lender Liability Expert Witnesses: 5

Max Holmes has over 40 years of experience in Finance as a portfolio manager, research analyst, board member, lawyer, NYU Professor and expert witness.

Mr. Homes has been an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Stern Graduate School of Business at New York University, teaching “Bankruptcy and Reorganization” since 1993.  He has been the Chief Investment Officer / Lead Portfolio Manager for two large hedge funds ($2.7 billion and $5.4 billion of peak AUM) as well as an insurance company portfolio and a mutual fund portfolio.

 The funds invested in credit, capital structure arbitrage, distressed debt, rescue finance, direct lending, specialty finance, event stocks and special situations securities, including long and short positions. The funds invested across the capital structure: bank debt, DIP loans, second lien debt, secured and unsecured bonds, floating rate and fixed rate notes, trade claims, preferred stock, common stock, put and call options and credit default swaps (CDS). Investments were in a variety of businesses, public and private, including startups, venture capital, infrastructure, leveraged buyouts, private equity, turnarounds, restructurings, bankruptcies and liquidations. Direct lending was conducted through a Business Development Company (BDC) ($1 billion assets under management). Mr. Holmes has analyzing thousands of companies and investment opportunities over his career.

Areas of Expertise:

Mr. Holmes has been the Chair and CEO of a life, health and annuity insurer and reinsurer and has been an independent director of a large bitcoin mining company. He worked in investment banking, research, trading and capital markets at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Salomon Brothers, NatWest Markets and Royal Bank of Canada. Since 2015, Max Holmes has been a Senior Advisor to American Industrial Partners LLC, a private equity firm with $16 billion of AUM.

Jay Hibert was in the Commercial Banking Industry for over 25 years before leaving to form his own company, a real estate lending and consulting company. The company provides services to banks, non-banks, and individuals in need of creative financing solutions.  Still an ACTIVE lender in the industry, Jay stays updated on current customs and practices and has transacted hundreds of real estate and non-real estate loan negotiations in times of economic growth as well as downturns in the economy. His extensive credit background arms him with the understanding of how banks and other lenders operate internally.  

Litigation Experience - Mr. Hibert has been providing expert witness and consulting services since 2010. He has been designated over 250 times as an expert in 25 different states concerning matters relating to commercial lending, real estate, construction finance, SBA loans, brokerage, hard money loan expert and investment issues. His experience includes both Federal and State court cases where he has provided deposition testimony, trial testimony and arbitration testimony. 

Jay is a licensed Real Estate Broker (Cal DRE #01523) and for 10 years his company was a California Finance Lender and Broker through the California Department of Business Oversight. He is experienced in trial and deposition testimony and his services are available to counsel representing both Plaintiff and Defense. 

Key areas of expertise in litigation work include:

• SBA Real Estate Loans
• Hard Money Loans
• Lending Policies, Custom and Practice/Lender Liability
• Broker Standards of Care and Fiduciary Responsibility
• Loan Underwriting and Credit Administration
• Loan Process and Bank Loan Restructure/Workout Process
• Note Valuations/Collateral Review
• Litigation and Discovery Consulting
• Banking Operations/Administration
• Expert reports adherent to Federal Rule 26
• Hard Money Lending
• SBA Lending
• Loan Syndication/Secondary Market Loan Sales
• Title Insurance Cases
• Private Money Lending
• Predatory Lending
• Financial Elder Abuse
• Covid Related Finance Issues

*****Experienced in trial and deposition testimony*****

View Jay Hibert's Consulting Profile.

MCS Associates is a nationally recognized consulting group that has provided financial, operations and regulatory/compliance consulting services nationwide to financial institutions, insurance companies and regulatory agencies as well as real estate and financial services organizations for over 40 years. Expert Witness and Litigation Consulting are a primary focus of our services. We undertake expert witness assignments throughout the United States and our clients include several hundred leading law firms around the country, working on behalf of both plaintiff and defendant financial institutions, borrowers, depositors, investors, developers, insurance companies and their insured, securities/insurance/real estate brokers/agents, regulators and government agencies, and individuals. 

Together with MCS Associates’ specialized resources in banking, financial services and real estate, we also draw on key strategic alliances in insurance, economics, academia and the securities industry to meet a wide range of expert witness needs. Our litigation experts include experienced bankers, lenders, consultants, regulators, managers, brokers & agents in insurance, real estate, and securities; insurance claims and underwriting managers; economists, accountants, appraisers, real estate analysts, and academics. 

Areas of Expertise Include:

• Banking Operations/Administration
• Check Fraud
• Lending Policies, Custom and Practice
• Loan Underwriting & Credit Administration
• Loan Securitizations & Servicing
• Bankruptcy, Foreclosures and Workouts
• Trust & Fiduciary Issues / Operations
• Securities Brokerage & Investments
• Valuations & Damages Analysis
• Forensic Accounting
• Employment / Compensation
• Real Estate Brokerage & Management
• Title Insurance & Escrow
• Real Estate Appraisal & Transactions
• Insurance Industry Custom & Practice
• Insurance Coverages / Claims Handling
• Insurance Bad Faith

Education:

• Princeton, 1964 (B.A., Economics, with honors)
• NYU Business School, 1966 (MBA, Top of class)

Expertise: Mr. Purcell has over 50 years of experience in every area of investment banking including the following:

• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Leveraged Buyouts and Recapitalizations
• Fairness Opinions and Fairness Issues
• Adequacy Opinions
• Solvency Opinions
• Bankruptcy issues, including fraudulent conveyance
• Valuations
• Advice to Special Committees of Boards
• Due Diligence and Disclosure Issues
• Fiduciary Issues
• Damage issues and analysis
• Lender Liability
• Fee issues
• Document Interpretation and Standards from investment banking point of views
• Criminal cases involving alleged securities violations and insider trading
• Financing of Debt and Equity (both public and private, taxable and tax-exempt, including structured financings)
• Venture Capital
• Leasing and Real Estate Financing

Background: William H. Purcell has been an Investment Banker for over 50 years. He was a Managing Director at Dillon Read for almost 25 years and has been a Senior Advisor to a number of medium-sized investment banks. Mr. Pucell has been a Senior Advisor and Director of Seale & Associates since 2001, an investment bank in the Washington DC area. He also has served as interim CEO of a public company and has served on Boards of Directors. 

Mr. Purcell is currently Senior Director to the Investment Banking Firm of Seale & Associates, Washington, DC. area. Mr. Purcell has been an expert in more than 200 cases with over 180 Law Firms, including cases for the SEC, IRS and the DOJ. Has testified in court trials and arbitration trials over 40 times. He represents both plaintiffs and defendants. Subjects include all areas mentioned above.

 View Consulting Profile.

Richard George is a Banking Expert Witness with 30 years of experience as a Commercial Banker for a global bank with emphasis in commercial real estate underwriting.  Formerly community bank CEO. Twenty-five years as expert witness.  Have Testified at deposition and at trial more than 50 times for major law firm clients.  Have testified for both Plaintiffs and Defendants.

Ideal Client Engagement - Major law firm acting on behalf of major banks in cases involving board-level issues.