Principal, The Brattle Group

Yvette R. Austin Smith helps clients reduce the risk and cost of litigation arising from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and related financing transactions. Austin Smith is a managing director in the Valuation & Financial Opinions Group at Stout Risius Ross. She specializes in fundamental valuation and credit and solvency analysis for equity and fixed income capital markets transactions. Situations in which she has advised include M&A, recapitalizations, going private transactions, dissenting shareholder actions, and adversary proceedings in bankruptcy. Austin Smith issues fairness and solvency opinions, serves as a financial expert in M&A and bankruptcy litigation, and consults with companies and their legal counsel on quantifying damages in threatened valuation litigation. She is based in the firm's New York office.

Austin Smith is co-chair of the American Bar Association's (ABA) Financial Advisor Task Force. Austin Smith is also the author of a financial appendix to the ABA's Model Merger Agreement for the Acquisition of a Public Company (2011) and a contributor to the ABA's forthcoming Dictionary of M&A Terms. Austin Smith has written articles for and is a member of the Business Reorganization Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute.

MBA, Columbia University School of Business