Charles E. Bates is a founding member of Bates White. Dr. Bates specializes in the application of statistics and computer modeling to large complex litigation matters requiring novel quantitative solutions. He has more than 20 years of experience and has testified in a variety of forums including the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Federal Bankruptcy Court, United States Tax Court, California Supreme Court, and arbitration hearings.
Dr. Bates is the leading expert on methods of asbestos-liability forecasting. He has maintained an ongoing research program for the last 20 years on improving asbestos liability estimates. He is regularly retained on asbestos liability matters by insurance companies, corporations, and financial creditors’ committees in federal bankruptcy proceedings. Dr. Bates has published numerous papers on the trends and developments in the asbestos litigation environment and often speaks on these topics at national and international forums.
Selected Experience
- Currently retained as an expert by Fortune 500 companies to produce asbestos expenditure estimates for annual and quarterly financial statements. Estimations aid clients with Sarbanes-Oxley and SEC reporting compliance.
- Testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the economic viability of the Trust Fund proposed under S.852, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution (FAIR) Act of 2005. Testimony clarified Bates White’s independent analysis on the difference between current tort liabilities and potential entitlements created by the administrative no-fault trust fund that uses medical criteria for claims-filing eligibility.
- Led a team of economists that provided expert services in the historic antitrust case, In re Vitamins Antitrust Litigation, the largest US price-fixing case at that time. Case involved developing state-of-the-art economic models, damages analysis, client presentations, pretrial discovery, and industry research, as well as preparing evidence and testimony, depositions, and a critique of opposing expert analyses and reports for a consortium of more than 150 companies.
- Served as testifying expert on behalf of Sealed Air in the fraudulent conveyance matter regarding the 1998 acquisition of Cryovac from W.R. Grace. Developed the then new standard of more detailed liability forecasting model and software in order to estimate the contemporaneously foreseeable asbestos liability of a defendant with more than $200 million in annual asbestos payments.
- Provided expert testimony on behalf of the taxpayers on the statistical basis and accuracy of shrinkage accruals in Kroger v. Commissioner. Citing Dr. Bates’ testimony extensively, the Court ruled in favor of Kroger.
- Testified in deposition on behalf of the Unsecured Creditors Committee in the ASARCO bankruptcy proceedings regarding the valuation of past and future asbestos-related personal injury claims.
- Testified in the Babcock & Wilcox bankruptcy confirmation hearing on behalf of the Insurers Joint Defense Group to address asbestos liability. Developed claims criteria evaluation framework to assess asbestos liability forecasts and trust distribution procedures.
Education
PhD, Economics, University of Rochester
MA, Economics, University of Rochester
BA, Economics and Mathematics, University of California, San Diego
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Practices
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Expertise
- Asbestos and mass tort litigation
- Complex litigation damages estimation
- Data decision tools and database design/applications
- Econometrics
- Financial analysis
- Forecasting
- Microsimulation modeling
- Predictive modeling
- Product liability estimation
- Statistical analysis
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Industries
- Asbestos products
- Automotive parts
- Construction
- Heavy equipment
- Industrial products
- Manufacturing
- Mining
- Railroads
- Refractory manufacturing
- Transportation
