Cornerstone Research, a leading provider of economic and financial consulting and expert testimony, has appointed Dr. Gopal Das Varma as Vice President in its Washington, D.C. office.
With more than 25 years of experience across government, consulting, and academia, Dr. Das Varma brings a deep well of expertise to the firm’s expanding antitrust, competition, and mergers practice.
An accomplished industrial organization economist, Dr. Das Varma has advised on high-stakes merger reviews and competition matters for both public agencies and private clients.
His previous roles include serving as an economist with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Reserve Board, as well as a tenure-track professorship at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Most recently, he held leadership roles at a prominent international economic consulting firm.
Throughout his career, Dr. Das Varma has been retained as an expert witness in complex legal matters by the DOJ, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and private parties.
His high-profile casework includes mergers such as Bayer/Monsanto, American Airlines/US Airways, Comcast/Time Warner, and Flakeboard/Sierra Pine, along with several vertical conduct investigations.
Rahul Guha, CEO of Cornerstone Research, emphasized the strategic significance of the hire:
“Gopal brings a unique combination of regulatory, consulting, and academic experience to our firm. In addition to consulting on high-profile matters, both while in government and in private practice, he has served as an expert witness, testifying in depositions and at trial. He will play a key role in driving the growth of our thriving antitrust, competition, and mergers practices.”
Dr. Das Varma’s arrival also drew praise from Celeste Saravia, Cohead of Cornerstone’s Antitrust and Competition Practice, who noted:
“His insights from both sides of the table, consulting for merging parties and for the government, will help us continue to anticipate and address the complex challenges our clients face in merger review and other competition contexts.”
Reflecting on his appointment, Dr. Das Varma stated:
“With its commitment to excellence, client service, and collaboration, Cornerstone Research is a perfect fit for my expertise and experience. I am eager to collaborate with the firm’s deep bench of mergers, antitrust, and competition professionals, as well as its outstanding academic and industry experts, to deliver high-quality, data-driven analysis in our clients’ most consequential matters.”
In addition to his consulting work, Dr. Das Varma is a frequent speaker at academic seminars and antitrust conferences and has published research in peer-reviewed economics and professional journals.
He earned a Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University, a postgraduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a bachelor’s in engineering from Jadavpur University.
His addition is widely seen as a strong signal of Cornerstone Research’s commitment to deepening its expertise in navigating complex merger and antitrust cases, an area of increasing regulatory scrutiny and economic impact.
