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Charles River Associates
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At a Glance

Uppers

“Ability to learn and develop new skills.”

“It has good name recognition and the more you put in the more you get out.”

“Smart coworkers and collaborative work.”

Downers

“Administrative requirements and attempting to breach the walls between practices.”

“Limited advancement without advanced degree.”

“Sometimes hours can be on the longer side.”

About Charles River Associates

Charles River Associates is a global consulting firm specializing in economic, financial, and management consulting services. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance related issues. Clients engage CRA for its combination of analytical rigor, functional expertise, and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems. 

Clients include national and international companies; federal, state, and local government agencies and foreign governments; public and private utilities; and trade associations, which operate in a number of industries. Among those industries are banking and capital markets, capital projects, chemicals, communications and media, energy and utilities, entertainment, financial services, health care, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, metals, mining, & materials, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, retail, sports, telecommunications, and transportation. 

Growth at CRA 

CRA has grown its two main areas of business recently: management consulting and litigation services. Under the former, its consultants offer advice on corporate and business unit strategy, performance improvement, portfolio management, market supply-demand dynamics, pricing, technology management, capital allocation, and managing for value. 

Law firms, businesses, and government agencies turn to the firm for its litigation support, expert analysis, and guidance on regulatory and corporate matters. CRA's consultants and academic affiliates have in-depth industry knowledge and expertise in economics, accounting, finance, and business. Service offerings include class certification, damages analysis, expert reports and testimony, and regulatory analysis. CRA also offers business advisory services, including strategy development, valuation of tangible and intangible assets, risk management, and transaction support. 

Minding your Is and Ps 

CRA is a prolific publisher, regularly putting out studies, surveys, and reports. It also has a number of newsletters that focus on the energy industry, accounting and valuation, antitrust and competition issues, financial markets, life sciences, transfer pricing, and the oil and gas industry, among other subjects. 

Note: For information on Marakon, a CRA subsidiary, please refer to Firsthand's profile of Marakon.

Why Work Here

A "stimulating" place to work

Employees at Charles River Associates laud the firm's "scholarly" and "meritocratic" culture, which they hasten to add is far from "rigid - someone seems to understand that talent is usually accompanied by some level of eccentricity," says one insider. The "stimulating" work environment is "an interesting blend of the academic and business worlds," says another. Charles River Associates provides an unparalleled opportunity to work with "high caliber, experienced people, with incredible educations and experience" while working on "extremely high-profile cases that are national in scope." Says one insider: "It's pretty cool to be driving home listening to NPR and hearing them talk about a case I'm working on or picking up the New York Times and seeing my boss quoted on the front page."

Charles River Associates

John Hancock Tower
200 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA 02116-5092
Phone: (617) 425-3000

Firm Stats

Employer Type: Public
Stock Symbol: CRAI
Stock Exchange: NASDAQ
President & CEO: Paul Maleh

Major Office Locations

Boston, MA (World HQ)
Chicago, IL
College Station, TX
Dallas, TX
Los Angeles, CA
New York, NY
Oakland, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco, CA
Summit, NJ
Tallahassee, FL
Washington, DC
Brussels
Cambridge
London
Munich
Sydney
Toronto
Zurich

Major Departments & Practices

  • Antitrust & Competition Economics
  • Auctions & Competitive Bidding
  • Analytics
  • CEO Advisory
  • Class Actions
  • Damages & Quantum
  • Energy
  • Employment & Compensation
  • ESG and Sustainability
  • Finance
  • Financial Economics
  • Financial Litigation & Regulation
  • Forensic Accounting
  • Forensic Services
  • Information Security & Privacy
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Arbitration
  • Investigation & Compliance
  • Labor & Employment
  • Life Sciences
  • Management Consulting
  • Marakon
  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Risk, Investigations & Analytics
  • Services
  • Transfer Pricing