Confessions of a Business Appraiser: A Conversation with Chris Mercer

January 29, 2018

Business valuation contests in court, including those arising out of shareholder and partnership disputes, inevitably boil down to a battle of the appraisal experts, among whom Chris Mercer of Memphis-based Mercer Capital is one of the best known and most accomplished.

A listing of Chris’s professional accreditations, publications, speaking engagements, and expert witness engagements could fill a small book. To those who follow statutory fair value appraisal cases in New York, you know that Chris has played an outsized role as testifying expert in some of the most important and precedent-setting cases, including the Ferolito (AriZona Iced Tea) case, the Giaimo case, the Chiu case, and the recent Kassab case. Chris and some of his many publications also have been featured on this blog (here and here) and as the first guest on my Business Divorce Roundtable podcast doing a deep dive into the divisive discount for lack of marketability.

I recently invited Chris back onto the podcast to talk about a blog post of his entitled “A Reluctant Expert Witness Confesses” which in turn is based on a talk he gave last Fall at a business valuation conference. I assure you Chris’s “confessions” are not of a criminal nature although, as you’ll hear Chris describe, when he testified as an expert for the very first time in an imposing courtroom setting, as he was given the oath the thought involuntarily flashed through his mind, “I’m guilty!”

Rather, in our conversation Chris shares a series of interesting and often colorful insights he’s gained over many years of testifying as an expert business appraiser about the do’s and don’ts of testifying, his likes and dislikes about being an expert witness, what engagements he’ll take and which ones he won’t, and a number of other observations about his experiences as an expert on and off the witness stand.

It’s up close. It’s personal. It’s fun. I invite you to listen by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post.

By the way, if you’re a business divorce lawyer or business appraisal expert who’d like to share with podcast listeners a real-life experience from one of your cases for a Business Divorce Stories episode (no need to use real client, company or case names), please get in touch with me by phone or email and I’ll be happy to set up a recording session in person or via Skype.