Cornerstone Research Inc.

Cornerstone Research Inc., a for-profit Subchapter S corporation based in San Francisco and West Menlo Park, California, is a pure-prime expert witness and litigation consulting firm serving federal agencies on full-and-open competitive contracts—86 awards across ten federal agencies with no set-aside usage and no subcontractor engagement on federal work. The firm delivers forensic accounting, tax and international economics analysis, antitrust economic testimony, and specialized subject-matter expert support for complex federal litigation and regulatory enforcement.

Cornerstone Research operates exclusively as a prime contractor delivering 100 percent of federal work through its own staff across the portfolio. The firm competes in full-and-open markets without leveraging 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB, HUBZone, or other set-aside vehicles. Service Contract Inventory reporting shows no named subcontractor engagement on any of its 112 SCI-reportable records spanning FY2022 through FY2025, and the source explicitly states Cornerstone "operates as a prime contractor on a 100-percent-prime basis" and "does not engage subcontractors on federal work."

Customer concentration is stark and stable across both volume and dollars. The Internal Revenue Service (Department of the Treasury) dominates, accounting for 28 awards valued at $58.2 million—42% of the combined potential value across the 86-award portfolio. The Federal Trade Commission places 20 awards worth $26 million (19% of potential value). The Securities and Exchange Commission's 23 awards carry $15.2 million (11% of combined potential value). The Department of Justice's Antitrust Division holds 4 awards worth $20.6 million (15% of combined potential value), while the Civil Division and Environment and Natural Resources Division round out the portfolio with smaller engagements. These five agencies cover 98% of combined potential value and 91% of award count.

Cornerstone's awards are almost exclusively expert witness work. The top PSC is "Support-Professional: Expert Witness," comprising 82 of the 86 awards. The NAICS profile reflects professional services: All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (33 awards), Other Management Consulting Services (28 awards), and All Other Legal Services (12 awards). Representative recent awards illustrate the scope: a $4.36 million time-and-materials definitive contract with DOJ Antitrust Division for expert witness services in economics (June 2026); a $3.5 million contract with the Federal Trade Commission for economic consulting and litigation support services (September 2026); a $1.114 million labor-hours contract with the IRS for expert witness services in federal tax matters (September 2026); a $1.669 million IRS labor-hours contract for expert witness services on Previously Taxed Earnings and Profits (PTEP) litigation (July 2026); and a $3.706 million IRS labor-hours contract for international economics expert witness services, with performance in Atlanta (April 2025). The firm also holds a five-year $2.54 million IRS labor-hours contract for general expert witness services (April 2025) and a $2.418 million IRS contract for litigation support covering IRS audit defense and forensic accounting (July 2024).

Activity has remained steady in recent years with six awards in 2025, eight in 2026, and an average of 5.6 per year across the 2022–2026 period. Twelve awards worth combined potential value $26.4 million reach ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months, triggering recompete exposure. SCI-reportable invoiced revenue totaled $32.3 million across FY2022–FY2025, with notable variance: FY2024 spiked to $15.5 million invoiced against 10.9 FTEs, while FY2025 fell to $5.1 million invoiced against 3.1 FTEs, reflecting the episodic nature of expert witness engagement and litigation-driven billing cycles. On federal services contracts captured in SCI, median government-paid rates run around $710/hr, with senior labor pricing extending to roughly $858/hr at the 90th percentile and junior labor at approximately $560/hr at the 10th percentile. Combined potential value across the full portfolio stands at $137 million, with $110.8 million (81%) obligated to date.