Mary O’Connor, ASA, CFE, is the partner-in-charge of Forensic and Valuation services. She specializes in business valuation and the appraisal of tangible and intangible assets for litigation and financial statement reporting with special focus in intangible assets in property tax appeal, securities, and transaction matters. She also possesses extensive experience with fairness and solvency opinions.
Mary has provided opinions to a wide variety of public and private clients in a range of industries including health care, governmental entities, agricultural businesses and food companies, senior living, technology, financial services, automotive, hospitality/gaming, manufacturing, natural resources, retail, utilities, waste management/recycling and real estate development. She has also provided litigation consulting and expert witness testimony to federal, state and local jurisdictions (including U.S. Tax Court, Delaware Chancery and Property Tax Appeals Boards) nationally and internationally in cases related to business valuation, lost profits damage analysis, diminution of business value, fraudulent conveyance, shareholder dispute, intangible assets in property assessment, breach of contract, fraud, estate taxation, marital dissolution, sale/leaseback, subrogation, ability to pay, insurance defense, condemnation and bankruptcy matters for both Plaintiffs and Defendants.
She is experienced in melding the skills of investigative accounting, valuation, economic analysis, fraud investigation and forensic technology in cases of all sizes. She has been called as an expert in large cases related to the 9/11 attack and has provided business valuations for diverse assets including the Polish Stock Exchange and the Chicago Bears. Mary has conducted many investigations of fraud and employee dishonesty for both publicly traded and privately held companies as well as municipal units and school districts.
Affiliations
- American Society of Appraisers, Member, Board of Governors, 2009-2013
- Senior Member, American Society of Appraisers (ASA)
- Chicago ASA Chapter President, 2005
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE)
- Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel (IDC)
- Counselors of Real Estate (CRE)
- Institute for Professionals in Taxation (IPT)
Education
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign
- Master of Business Administration in Fraud Investigation, St. Xavier University
- Master of Business Administration in Finance, Georgia State University
