The superstition that a broken mirror brings seven years of bad luck stems from the Ancient Roman belief that the body renews itself every seven years and that any misfortunes would be remedied after that period of time had passed. I Googled to see if there was anything on the flip side of that coin – was there anything that might bring seven years of good luck? So far I’ve struck out.
Seems that maybe for seven years of good luck you need a combination of comradery, intellect, grit, hard work, integrity, great relationships with colleagues and clients, and one heck of a support staff at work and at home. And this is exactly the recipe that was behind our success in the Capacitors Class Action litigation.
In 2015, Infotech Consulting was first hired by Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs to determine whether capacitor prices were elevated to the direct purchasers, and if so, by how much and how persistently across the class (say that three times fast). I was a Project Manager with Infotech at that time – with no major leadership responsibilities outside of raising my three kids who were 15, 11 and 7 at the time. Seven years later, at the conclusion of the case, I am now President of Infotech Consulting, and my kids have let me know that my leadership “expertise” is no longer needed thankyouverymuch because they are wise citizens of the world at 22, 18 and 14 years old.
In the time that we worked on Capacitors, Infotech Consulting doubled our experts, with the addition of Ph.D. economists Rob Kneuper and Kevin Caves. We increased our staff by 50 percent. We had retirements, kids graduate from high school and college, marriages, and new babies. We’ve become good friends with clients who were once strangers. In short: a whole lot of life happened while we worked on Capacitors.
Seeing that case from pre-discovery through class certification, two trials, and final settlements has been a team achievement for which we will forever be proud. There isn’t one person on our team who didn’t bang their head in frustration work incredibly hard on our database creation, research, and multivariate analysis for Capacitors. Twenty Defendant databases; 100s of 1000s of product codes in need of a secret decoder ring to decipher; 10s of 1000s of data files, most in need of translation, many with missing information that wouldn’t allow us to move forward; all told, our team spent over 30,000 hours to provide analysis and four reports, two depositions, hot tub testimony, and testimony and support during two trials, the first interrupted by a very pesky and persistent pandemic. So much of our work was like that 1000 piece puzzle you worked on over the holidays only to find that the dog ate the last 3 pieces. Or that the pieces from 20 different puzzles had been mixed together. But we sorted it all out. Patiently. Carefully. And put the puzzle together in a way that would withstand 13 opposing experts’ critiques, cross examination from some of the most respected attorneys in Antitrust law, and scrutiny from one very tough but fair Federal Judge.
So what was behind the successful outcome of this intense litigation? Seven years of good luck? Maybe. We for sure had our share. But I’d say our dedication to integrity, our never-give-up attitude, and the synergy that happens when you put top legal minds together with top econometric minds had something to do with it. It is rare we have the opportunity to be involved in every step of a litigation. It was an honor and a pleasure to do so here. I hope we have many more chances in the future.