Katie Galley heads Cornerstone Research’s Los Angeles office. She developed the firm’s financial institutions practice, and has been active in the firm’s securities and corporate and government investigations practices for more than thirty years. In addition, she has managed cases involving breach of contract, consumer class actions, corporate governance, valuation, and auditor liability.

Financial institutions

For more than three decades, Ms. Galley has consulted on litigation involving all types of financial institutions and the agencies that oversee them, including such cases as the ACC/Lincoln Securities Litigation and the Glendale Federal Bank breach of contract case, which resulted in a major judgment against the U.S. government.  

She has worked extensively on matters involving savings and loans and banks, along with credit cards, insurance, mutual funds, pensions, and real estate. Ms. Galley has also addressed many institutional failures, including matters brought by regulatory agencies such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of Thrift Supervision, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and various state insurance departments.

Securities

Expert in all types of securities litigation, Ms. Galley has experience with matters involving equities, debt, and derivatives. She has addressed structured financial instruments such as asset securitizations, including residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities. She has also assisted attorneys at all stages of these matters, including settlement negotiations, expert reports, depositions, and trial.

Auditor liability

She has addressed auditor liability issues in all types of industries, including distressed financial institution litigation. Ms. Galley has worked on matters related to external audits, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) reporting, tax advice, and internal controls. She has addressed damages that allegedly resulted from the challenged auditor work, along with loss causation defenses.

Ms. Galley coauthored "Bank Failures: Regulatory Actions and Litigation" published in Litigation Services Handbook: The Role of the Financial Expert (Fifth Edition), along with a series of reports on FDIC lawsuits against directors and officers of failed financial institutions. Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Ms. Galley was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and assistant director of research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.