Litigation expert finds niche lucrative, special, calculable

by Judy Temes

People laughed at Chris Campos when he left the safety of a partnership position at Ernst & Ernst to found his own firm. Now he's doing the laughing.

Campos & Stratis is one of the country's leaders in claim evaluations and litigation support, with revenues of $14 million a year. What was a very narrow market niche with limited potential in 1969 has blossomed into one of the most profitable specialties in the accounting profession. And with intense competition squeezing profit margins, more and more accountants are considering specializing by creating similar boutiques.

In claim evaluations, Campos gives insurance companies a financial analysis of risks and claims. Litigation support involves testifying in court on the financial value of claims in law suits and consulting with lawyers in damage suits.

"I was never anti-establishment," says Mr. Campos, who remembers his associates thinking he was insane for leaving his steady job. "It's just something I wanted to do. Now more and more firms are trying to broaden and expand into this area."

Mr. Campos started with one client, the Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, which encouraged him to start his own firm. His fledgling firm got a big boost in the mid-1970s with a rash of cases involving utilities suing the makers of electric generators that were malfunctioning. Campos' job was to assess the reasonable value of the damages. "It was a shot in the arm for us that multiplied business five, maybe six times at least," Mr. Campos says.

Fueling the growth of his firm has been the increasing number of large, complex claims against insurance companies.

"The more risk, the more exposure we have, the more we need their help," says Richard Gregoire, an assistant vice president at New York-based Home Insurance Co.

The firm is also getting more litigation support work because more attorneys want to establish damages as well as liability.

Leslie Trager, an attorney with the firm Snow Becker and Krauss, remembers retaining Mr. Campos for a million-dollar claim by a manufacturer who allegedly lost his goods to a fire in Libya.

After digging in, Mr. Campos discovered that this was actually the third time the same manufacturer put in a claim for the same set of goods. The first time the goods were allegedly lost to a burglary; the second time they were lost at sea; and finally they were burned.

"We could not have traced that down without him," Mr. Trager says.

Reprinted with permission of Crain's New York Business.

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