HOW VALUATION SHAPES HIGH-STAKES LITIGATION
CD: Why has valuation moved from being a supporting consideration to a central battleground in major commercial and insolvency disputes?
Rollins: Courts are increasingly relying on valuation evidence not only to assess damages, but also to resolve threshold questions. In today’s modern capital markets, increasingly complex capital structures and competing stakeholder interests mean courts are often asked to decide issues such as solvency, the allocation of enterprise value and whether a transaction resulted in a fair transfer of value under a relevant legal framework. Those are inherently valuation-driven questions. This is especially true in restructurings, shareholder litigation and creditor disputes, where valuation can shape questions of control, priority and recoveries. In that environment, credible valuation evidence is critical. The more clearly and objectively experts can explain our analyses, the better equipped courts are to test competing views and reach sound conclusions.
Larkin: Valuation has become the central focus in major commercial disputes for several interconnected reasons. The stakeholders in these disputes – institutional investors or creditors, private equity sponsors, public companies and strategic acquirers – are highly sophisticated. They tend to approach litigation commercially and use it as a lever in a broader strategy to maximise the value of their investments or recover losses. This dynamic is particularly pronounced in insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings. Valuation lies at the heart of virtually every material determination in the case, and the court is tasked with determining whether the entity was solvent at the time of a challenged transaction, whether a transfer was made for reasonably equivalent value and how the distributable pie is divided among competing creditor classes.
Jul-Sep 2026 issue
Ankura
Hogan Lovells
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates