The 2025 Women Leaders in Consulting: Ellen Paulus

Ellen Paulus is a vice president at Cornerstone Research. Dr. Paulus specializes in investments, financial markets, financial institutions and valuation matters. She consults to financial services firms, including asset managers and broker-dealers, focusing on issues involving the performance, pricing, trading, portfolio allocation, and alleged manipulation of a range of investments and financial products. Dr. Paulus supports clients and experts through all phases of litigation, including mediation, deposition, class certification and trial. She has published research in the Journal of Empirical Finance. Dr. Paulus’s investment expertise encompasses portfolio management, regulatory investigations involving the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice, and class action litigation. She handles pricing and trading of mutual, exchange-traded, and closed-end funds and structured products, analyzing portfolio allocations, mutual fund fees and defined contribution plan performance. In collusive conduct claims, Dr. Paulus assesses alleged manipulation of bid-ask spreads, analyzes asset/benchmark prices across various markets, and provides forensic trading analyses for antitrust litigation. In valuation matters, Dr. Paulus has led teams to conduct company valuations, notably in matters before the Delaware Court of Chancery and the United States Tax Court, and particularly for high-growth technology companies and private equity and hedge funds.