James Pearce is Vice President in the Bryan, Texas office of Welch Consulting. Since joining Welch Consulting in 1992, Dr. Pearce has acted as testifying expert, consultant, and project leader for wage and hour, discrimination, and lost earnings matters. His experience in discrimination includes fair lending and redlining cases as well as employment discrimination.

Dr. Pearce’s research, which includes studies of mortgage markets, illegal immigration, and the behavior of labor markets over the business cycle, has been published in the Journal of Political Economy, the Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. He has also conducted contract research for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and for Freddie Mac. Before joining Welch Consulting, Dr. Pearce managed and conducted economic research at the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta.and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

SELECTED CASEWORK

Expert Witness, Employment Discrimination: Calculated damages for two firefighters allegedly passed over for promotion. The analysis involved projecting pension losses, which were very sensitive to whether the plaintiffs took advantage of an option to take some benefits as a lump sum rather than an annuity. Prepared an expert report and testified at deposition.

Consulting Expert, Wage & Hours: Class action involving production line employees in a single California facility who claimed unpaid pre-shift and post-shift time and meal period violations. Quantified additional overtime pay under alternative assumptions of donning/doffing time. Also evaluated penalties for meal break violations and restricted meal periods.

Expert Witness, Wage & Hours: Class action involving production line employees in a single Texas facility who claimed unpaid pre-shift and post-shift time. Served as statistical consultant to the industrial engineer retained to measure actual donning and doffing times. Provided an expert report expressing the opinion that the sample of times recorded by the engineer was adequate for extrapolation to the proposed class.

Consulting Expert, Wage & Hours: National class action in which IT consultants alleged that they were wrongfully classified as exempt. Used  data on hours billed to clients to estimate overtime due. Translated these estimates into damages that varied according to statutes of the various states. Supported attorneys during mediation and provided class lists and other support after settlement.

Expert Witness, Employment Discrimination: Evaluated disparate impact and damages for 33 police officers in a major Texas city. The officers alleged that they were treated adversely in a reorganization because of their age. Prepared an expert report and testified at deposition and trial.

Testifying Expert, Wrongful Termination: Single plaintiff matter in which an electric utility terminated a lineman whose injury prevented him from climbing. Provided an expert report showing that plaintiff’s expert had not taken the plaintiff’s physical limitations and lack of job search into account. Case settled after deposition of plaintiff’s expert.

Consulting Expert, Wage and Hours: Estimated damages from off-the-clock work for a class of California retail employees, who were required to clock out shortly before leaving the stores after they closed. Estimated damages before settlement and provided support in calculated settlement amounts for individual class members after the settlement was approved.

Expert Witness, Insurance Discrimination: A homeowner’s insurance company was sued by a local fair housing group over a restriction on the amount of coverage that could be purchased when the property’s market value was low relative to estimated replacement cost.  The plaintiff alleged that the restriction had a disparate impact on minority homeowners.  I argued that this practice had a valid business justification, and I provided a statistical analysis showing there was no disparate impact. The judge cited my discussion of moral hazard in the order granting summary judgment.

Consulting Expert, Employment Discrimination: Multi-plaintiff matter in which an airline’s vacation accrual policy was alleged to discriminate against pilots in military reserves, thereby violating USERRA. I computed the amount and value of additional vacation to be awarded under a wide range of scenarios. Both sides relied on my estimates in reaching a settlement, and I calculated the settlement payment made to each class member.

Project Manager, Employment Discrimination: Plaintiffs alleged that a steel manufacturer discriminated against African Americans in promotions. Maintained client contact, analyzed the data, and drafted reports for the testifying expert Finis Welch. Prepared the initial report opposing class certification and two subsequent declarations.  Assisted counsel in deposing plaintiffs’ expert and preparing their motion opposing class certification. Class certification was denied.

Project Manager, Insurance Discrimination: Class action in which a fair housing group alleged that a national insurer’s past underwriting criteria for homeowners insurance had a disparate impact on minorities in five metropolitan areas. Among other things, we showed that there was no increase in policies in minority neighborhoods after the guidelines in question were eliminated. I coordinated production of data to plaintiffs, prepared analysis and drafted the report for the testifying expert, and supported defense counsel in deposing the opposing expert.

Consulting Expert, Employment Discrimination: National class action in which plaintiffs alleged age discrimination in reductions in force over five years. Provided comprehensive analysis of the issues in the case as well as support for interviews with company management and depositions of named plaintiffs. Reviewed reports prepared by experts on both sides and supported counsel in deposing opposing expert and in settlement negotiations.

Consultant, Mortgage Lending: Assisted Freddie Mac with its formal comment on revisions to a regulation proposed by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The regulation set goals for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae for lending to “underserved areas” and low- income borrowers. We used data produced under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and the Census to analyze the effect of the revisions HUD was proposing.

Consultant, Mortgage Lending Research: Under a contract with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, co-authored a study of the effects of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on mortgage interest rates. The report was included in a collection of studies on Privatizing Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and it was relied on by HUD, Treasury, GAO, and CBO in their reports to Congress.