Charles River Associates

What Charles River Associates does

Charles River Associates (legal entity CRA International, Inc.; NASDAQ: CRAI) is a global economic, financial, and management consulting firm headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1965. The firm serves major law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments through senior-led teams of academic experts and industry practitioners, providing expert economic testimony, antitrust and competition analysis, financial litigation support, forensic investigations, intellectual property damages analysis, energy and regulatory economics, transfer pricing, life sciences, labor and employment economics, and corporate strategy consulting via the Marakon brand. The firm operates across 20+ offices spanning North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia with 959 consultants and colleagues from 60+ countries, reaching FY2025 revenue of $751.6 million — its eighth consecutive year of record annual revenue.

CRA generates revenue primarily through professional services engagements, billed on a project-by-project basis with rates negotiated based on scope, complexity, and expertise required. Its go-to-market motion is enterprise field sales: senior practitioners engage directly with general counsels, CFOs, regulators, and law firm partners. The firm maintains a portfolio of trademarked proprietary analytical tools (Damages Calculator, Merger Effects Calculator, Securities Litigation Toolkit, Settlement Insight, Market Efficiency Scorecard, CRA AdequacyX) and reinforces demand through thought leadership publications, conference speaking, and consistently top-tier rankings across Chambers, Global Competition Review, Lexology Index, IAM Strategy 300, and the ABA Economics Committee. Approximately 20% of revenue is generated internationally.

The firm's competitive position is supported by deep institutional client relationships (including marquee engagements on Microsoft's $69 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, HPE/Juniper Networks, and Worldpay's $24.25 billion Global Payments deal), an academic talent pipeline, and a debt-free balance sheet that funds selective M&A (Welch Consulting 2022, bioStrategies Group 2022, IP team 2024) and shareholder returns ($47M repurchases plus $14M dividends in FY2025). FY2026 revenue is guided to $785M-$805M with non-GAAP EBITDA margin of 12.0%-13.0%, supported by a record $420M backlog reported in Q4 2025.

Name

Charles River Associates

Legal name

CRA International, Inc.

Website

http://www.crai.com

Company type

Public

Founded year

1965

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Charles River Associates (NASDAQ: CRAI) is a global economic, financial, and management consulting firm providing expert testimony and advisory services to law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments across 20+ offices worldwide, with FY2025 revenue of $751.6 million.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Management Consulting

NAICS

Management Consulting Services (54161), Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services (5416)

SIC

Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Litigation Support & Expert Witness Services (BPAHALAG)

Keywords

• Economic consulting services
• Antitrust competition economics
• Litigation expert testimony
• Management consulting advisory
• Forensic investigations consulting

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices22 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Professional Consulting Services: CRA generates revenue through providing economic, financial, and management consulting services to law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments. Revenue is generated on a project-by-project basis through professional service engagements.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Charles River Associates is a global consulting firm that delivers economic, financial, and strategic expertise to major law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments. Senior-led teams of academic experts and business leaders provide expert testimony, damages quantification, merger review support, forensic investigations, transfer pricing, energy economics, and management consulting for complex, high-stakes litigation, regulatory, and strategic matters.

Product overview

Charles River Associates (CRA) is a global economic and financial consulting firm providing expert analysis and testimony for high-stakes legal, regulatory, and business matters. The firm operates as a multi-practice consulting organization offering services through distinct practice areas including Antitrust & Competition Economics, Forensic Services, Life Sciences, Labor & Employment, Energy, Intellectual Property, Transfer Pricing, Risk/Investigations & Analytics, Financial Litigation, International Arbitration, and Management Consulting (including the Marakon strategy practice). CRA specializes in supporting law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and governments with economic expertise in complex litigation, merger reviews, regulatory compliance, and strategic decision-making.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Charles River Litigation: Trademarked brand name
• Charles River Consulting
• Marakon

Products and services

• Antitrust & Competition Economics
• Forensic Services
• Life Sciences
• Labor & Employment
• Energy
• Intellectual Property
• Transfer Pricing
• Risk, Investigations & Analytics
• Marakon Corporate Strategy
• Financial Litigation & Regulation
• International Arbitration
• Management Consulting

Quantifiable outcome

• Eighth consecutive year of record annual revenue in FY2025 at $751.6 million, up 9.3%
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• FirstEnergy Corp.minorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026CRA is managing a January 2026 auction process for FirstEnergy Corp.'s three Ohio subsidiaries, approved by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
• ExelonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerExelon commissioned a CRA report arguing that allowing rate-regulated utilities to build and own generation in the PJM region could save customers $9.6 billion to $20 billion.
• Fivetran and dbt LabsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRA Competition advised on the merger of Fivetran and dbt Labs, completed June 1, 2026.
• Microsoft / Activision BlizzardcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRA Competition supported Microsoft's historic $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, providing expertise across all jurisdictions. Matter of the Year at GCR Awards 2024.
• HPE / Juniper NetworkscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRA Competition team advised on HPE's acquisition of Juniper Networks across jurisdictions worldwide, announced 18 months after the deal was publicly announced in January 2024.
• Worldpay / Global PaymentscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCRA Competition experts were retained globally by Worldpay, helping it successfully complete its $24.25 billion acquisition of Global Payments.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Analysis Group: Direct competitor in economic and financial consulting with deep expertise in litigation support, antitrust economics, and expert testimony. Hitesh Makhija's recent move from Analysis Group back to CRA illustrates the close talent competition between the two firms.
• NERA Economic Consulting: Direct peer providing economic consulting and expert testimony across antitrust, securities litigation, regulatory economics, and energy. Part of Marsh McLennan, NERA competes head-to-head with CRA in litigation support and competition economics.
• Cornerstone Research: Direct competitor specializing in economic and financial consulting for litigation and regulatory matters, with strong academic expert-witness networks across antitrust, securities, and IP. Frequently competes with CRA on expert testimony engagements.
• The Brattle Group: Direct peer providing economic consulting and expert testimony with strong overlap in energy economics, antitrust, and financial litigation. Competes directly with CRA in regulated industries and complex damages analyses.
• Compass Lexecon: Direct competitor in competition economics and litigation support, particularly strong in European antitrust matters. Competes with CRA on cross-border merger reviews and competition authority engagements.
• Berkeley Research Group: Economic and litigation consulting firm with overlapping practices in antitrust, healthcare, and financial services consulting. Comparable business model with academic-expert-driven expert testimony offerings.

Broad incumbents

• FTI Consulting: Broader consulting incumbent with significant overlap in forensic services, litigation consulting, and economic damages work. Larger public competitor with cross-selling advantages across corporate restructuring and disputes.
• AlixPartners: Global consulting firm with adjacent practices in forensic accounting, litigation support, and economic consulting. Overlaps with CRA's Forensic Services and Risk, Investigations & Analytics practices.
• Alvarez & Marsal: Global professional services firm with significant overlap in disputes, investigations, and valuation consulting. Comparable client base of law firms, corporations, and government entities.
• Bain & Company: Global strategy consulting incumbent with overlapping management consulting and corporate strategy advisory work through practices like Bain's Antitrust practice. Differs from CRA's narrower litigation-support focus but competes for strategic advisory engagements.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@charlesriverassociates
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/6511
• Xx.com/news_cra
• Facebookfacebook.com/CharlesRiverAssociates

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles13 records

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A6 records

Investments9 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Charles River Associates