Amanda Kurzendoerfer, PhD, CFE

Amanda Kurzendoerfer chairs the Finance Practice. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner and specializes in economic and statistical analysis involving complex data to help clients assess the extent of alleged conduct and quantify potential harm in litigation and investigations. She brings deep expertise in consumer financial services, FinTech, and fair lending, providing strategic insights into economic issues facing these dynamic arenas.

Amanda provides expert consulting and testifying services to address issues involving statistical sampling, regression analysis, and damages, and prides herself on building trust and a strong rapport with her clients by providing reasoned advice based on rigorous analysis. Her expert testimony spans economic issues involving lending discrimination, consumer banking sales practices, deferred interest financing, regulatory investigations, and division of settlement proceeds.

She also serves as a senior advisor on the firm’s pro bono coordinating committee. She has helped build the firm’s program from its inception to an active practice area, with a special emphasis on pro bono matters involving issues related to housing, including source of income discrimination and analysis of housing assistance programs.

PhD, Economics, University of Virginia

MA, Economics, University of Virginia

BA, Mathematical Economics, University of Kentucky

Expert testimony and retentions

• On behalf of plaintiffs, served as expert in In re Wells Fargo Mortgage Discrimination Litigation. Submitted expert reports, declarations, deposition, and hearing testimony regarding statistical analysis of disparities in mortgage approval rates by race and ethnicity.

• On behalf of Synchrony Financial, served as expert in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) investigation alleging misrepresentation of the terms of deferred interest promotions. Provided testimony regarding incidence of complaints and analysis of consumer outcomes. The CFPB decided not to recommend an enforcement action. 

• On behalf of a federal agency, served as expert in a litigation alleging unlawful sales practices of a large regional bank. Submitted expert reports and provided deposition and hearing testimony. The case settled. 

• On behalf of defendant, retained as expert to assess federal regulator allegations of deceptive marketing and sales of consumer financial products. Case dismissed prior to the submission of expert reports. 

• On behalf of a financial services company, served as expert and submitted declaration analyzing account closures and refund durations in response to a federal regulatory investigation alleging unfair acts or practices. Consent order entered. 

• On behalf of a financial services company, served as expert and submitted declaration performing statistical sampling, extrapolation, and analysis of transaction dispute data in response to a state regulatory investigation alleging unfair acts with respect to consumer financial products or services. Consent order entered. 

• On behalf of fiscal intermediaries, served as expert and submitted report analyzing bid scoring data associated with the New York State Department of Health Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. Analyzed bid scoring data and award rates to assess consistency across reviewers. 

• On behalf of plaintiff, served as expert in In New Jersey Primary Care Association, Inc. v. State of New Jersey Department of Human Services, et al. Analyzed Medicaid claims data and developed a statistical sampling strategy to advise the allocation of settlement proceeds among Federally Qualified Health Centers. 

• On behalf of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), served as expert to analyze the timeliness of PG&E’s responses to excavator requests to locate and mark underground gas and electric lines. Authored reports and testified at a hearing before the California Public Utilities Commission (Investigation 18-12-007). The parties settled for $110.0 million.

• On behalf of plaintiff, authored declaration in a mediation to divide settlement proceeds between two plaintiffs in a case concerning gender-based discrimination in compensation. Analyzed defendant’s compensation structure and data to determine an appropriate allocation.

Selected litigation and consulting experience

• Supported the expert on behalf of the Equal Rights Center (ERC) in Equal Rights Center v. Adams Investment Group, LLC. ERC alleged that the defendant engaged in unlawful income and race discrimination by refusing to accept Housing Choice Vouchers as a source of payment at its property in the District of Columbia. Issues included assessing the potential disparate impact based on race that resulted from the alleged policy. 

• On behalf of recipients of Paycheck Protection Program loans, supported expert in loan application review and disbursement tracing analysis in response to government investigation. 

• Supported the expert retained to advise three state attorneys general in litigation against Navient Corp. Numerous state attorneys general alleged that Navient, a student loan servicer, steered borrowers to forbearances (postponing payments temporarily but capitalizing interest owed) without fully explaining the benefits of income-driven repayment plans, misallocated borrower payments, and demanded borrowers make payments before they were due. Navient ultimately agreed to pay 32 state attorneys general $142.5 million and make major changes to its business practices to settle these claims. 

• On behalf of the CFPB, supported the expert in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Navient Corporation and Navient Solutions, Inc. The CFPB alleged that Navient steered borrowers experiencing financial hardship into costly payment relief instead of more beneficial long-term options. 

• Led economic and statistical analyses for a government agency that used the results in its effort to successfully resolve a multibillion-dollar enforcement action against a major financial institution. 

• Provided services to the Independent Monitor in monitoring Citigroup’s adherence to its settlement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding residential mortgage-backed securities loans. Conducted a statistical analysis of race and ethnicity disparities using the Bayesian Improved Surname Geocoding method and authored report. Provided data integrity and compliance assessments relating to central terms of the agreement. 

• Advised the Department of Justice (DOJ) in its investigation regarding certain Wells Fargo stated-income mortgage loans. The DOJ alleged that, despite its knowledge that a substantial portion of its stated-income loans contained misstated income, Wells Fargo failed to disclose this information, and instead reported to investors false debt-to-income ratios in connection with the loans it sold. Provided analysis to assist DOJ during its investigation. Wells Fargo agreed to pay a $2.1 billion penalty.