fcn-20241231
UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
FORM 10-K
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024
or
For the transition period from to
Commission file number 001-14875
FTI CONSULTING, INC.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Washington,
(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
(202) 312-9100
(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class Trading Symbol Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock, $0.01 par value FCN New York Stock Exchange
Securities registered pursuant to section 12(g) of the Act: None
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☒
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports) and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐
Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐
Emerging growth company ☐
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒
If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐
Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒
The aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was $6.8 billion, based on the closing sales price of the registrant’s common stock on June 28, 2024, the last business day of the registrant's most recently completed second fiscal quarter.
The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock outstanding as of February 13, 2025 was 35,922,453.
DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE
FTI CONSULTING, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
Annual Report on Form 10-K
Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2024
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
PART I
Item 1. Business 1
Item 1A. Risk Factors 15
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 28
Item 1C. Cybersecurity 28
Item 2. Properties 30
Item 3. Legal Proceedings 30
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 30
PART II
Item 6. Reserved 32
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 51
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 53
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 82
Item 9B. Other Information 82
Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 82
PART III
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 83
Item 11. Executive Compensation 83
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 83
PART IV
Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 84
SIGNATURES 95
FTI CONSULTING, INC.
PART I
Forward-Looking Statements
This Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), that involve uncertainties and risks. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning our plans, initiatives, projections, prospects, policies, processes and practices, objectives, goals, commitments, strategies, future events, future revenues, future results and performance, future capital allocations and expenditures, expectations, plans or intentions relating to acquisitions, share repurchases and other matters, business trends, new, or changes to, laws and regulations, including U.S. and foreign tax laws, environmental, social and governance (“ESG”)-related issues, climate change-related matters, scientific or technological developments, including relating to new and emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning and other information that is not historical. Forward-looking statements often contain words such as “estimates,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “plans,” “intends,” “believes,” “commits,” “aspires,” “forecasts,” “future,” “goal,” “seeks” and variations of such words or similar expressions. All forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, management’s financial guidance and examination of operating trends, are based upon our historical performance and our current plans, estimates, intentions and expectations at the time we make them, and various assumptions. Our actual financial results, performance or achievements and outcomes could differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, any forward-looking statements. Any references to standards of measurement and performance made regarding our climate change-, ESG- or other sustainability-related plans, goals, commitments, intentions, aspirations, forecasts or projections, or expectations are developing and based on assumptions. There can be no assurance that management’s plans, performance, expectations, intentions, aspirations, beliefs, goals, estimates, forecasts and projections, including any that are ESG- or other sustainability-related, will result or be achieved, and the inclusion of any forward-looking information should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the future plans, estimates, forecasts, intentions, aspirations, beliefs or expectations contemplated by us will be achieved. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements.
There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in, or implied by, this Annual Report. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this Annual Report include those set forth under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report, as well as in other information that we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) from time to time. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf apply only as of the date of this Annual Report and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included herein. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances and do not intend to do so.
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Unless otherwise indicated or required by the context, when we use the terms “Company,” “FTI Consulting,” “we,” “us” and “our,” we mean FTI Consulting, Inc., a Maryland corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries.
Company Overview
General
FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. Individually, each of our segments and practices is staffed with experts recognized for the depth of their knowledge and a track record of making an impact. Collectively, FTI Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist clients across the business cycle, from proactive risk management to rapid response to unexpected events and dynamic environments.
We report financial results for the following five reportable segments:
•Corporate Finance & Restructuring (“Corporate Finance”);
•Forensic and Litigation Consulting (“FLC”);
•Economic Consulting;
•Technology; and
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•Strategic Communications.
We work closely with our clients to help them anticipate and overcome complex business challenges and make the most of opportunities arising from factors such as the economy, financial and credit markets, governmental legislation and regulation, and litigation. We provide our clients with expert advice and solutions involving transactions, transformation & strategy, turnaround & restructuring, construction, projects, assets & environmental solutions, data & analytics, disputes, healthcare risk management & advisory, risk and investigations, antitrust & competition economics, financial economics, international arbitration, corporate legal department consulting, electronic discovery (or “e-discovery”) services and expertise, information governance, privacy & security services, corporate reputation, financial communications and public affairs. Our experienced professionals are recognized leaders in their chosen field not only for their level of knowledge and understanding, but for their ability to structure practical, workable solutions to complex issues and real-world problems. Our clients include Fortune 500 corporations, FTSE 100 companies, global banks, major law firms, leading private equity firms and local, state and national governments and agencies around the globe. In addition, major United States (“U.S.”) and international law firms refer us or engage us directly or on behalf of their clients. We believe clients retain us because of our recognized expertise and capabilities in highly specialized areas, as well as our reputation for successfully meeting our clients’ needs.
Our operations span the globe encompassing locations within: (i) the Americas, including 38 U.S. offices located in 20 states and Washington, D.C., and four offices located in Canada; (ii) Latin America, including six offices located in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and the British Overseas Territories of the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands; (iii) Asia Pacific, including 17 offices located in Australia, China (including Hong Kong), India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea; and (iv) Europe, Middle East and Africa, including 37 offices located in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Netherlands, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom (“UK”). In certain jurisdictions, our segments and practices are operated through one or more direct or indirect subsidiaries.
We derive the majority of our revenues from providing professional services to clients in the U.S. For the year ended December 31, 2024, we derived approximately 64% and 36% of our consolidated revenues from the work of professionals who are assigned to locations inside and outside the U.S., respectively. Seasonal factors, such as the timing of our employees’ and clients’ vacations and holidays, may impact the timing of our revenues across our segments.
Summary Financial and Other Information
The following table sets forth the percentage of consolidated revenues for the last two years contributed by each of our five reportable segments.
Year Ended December 31,
Corporate Finance & Restructuring 38 % 39 %
Forensic and Litigation Consulting 19 % 19 %
Economic Consulting 23 % 22 %
Strategic Communications 9 % 9 %
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The following table sets forth the number of offices and countries in which each segment operates, as well as the number of billable professionals in each of our reportable segments.
December 31, December 31,
Offices Countries (1) Billable Headcount Billable Headcount
(1)“Countries” include the British Overseas Territories of the Cayman Islands and Virgin Islands
Our Reportable Segments
The Company is organized into five reportable segments, each of which seeks to be a global leader in its own right by serving as a trusted advisor when our clients are presented with challenging issues and the risks are high.
Corporate Finance & Restructuring
Our Corporate Finance segment focuses on the strategic, operational, financial, transactional and capital needs of our clients around the world. Our clients include companies, boards of directors, investors, private equity sponsors, lenders, and other financing sources and creditor groups, as well as other parties-in-interest and governments. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Transactions, Transformation & Strategy and Turnaround & Restructuring.
In 2024, our Corporate Finance segment offered the following services:
Transactions. We provide services that help clients strategize, structure, diligence, integrate, carve-out, value and communicate around business transactions, including the following offerings:
•Diligence (Financial, Tax, HR, IT, Synergy and Regulatory)
•Fairness and Solvency Opinions
•Investment Banking
•Merger Integration & Carve-Out Advisory
•Strategic Alternatives
•Valuation
Transformation & Strategy. We provide independent transformation & strategy expertise to deliver end-to-end value and drive change across the enterprise, enhance performance, build sustainable growth and foster a culture of excellence, including the following offerings:
•Cost Transformation
•Data & Technology Transformation
•Office of the Chief Financial Officer & Finance Transformation
•Operations & Supply Chain Transformation
•People & Change
•Revenue Transformation
•Strategy
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Turnaround & Restructuring. We provide advisory services to help our clients stabilize finances and operations to reassure debtors, creditors and other stakeholders that proactive steps are being taken to preserve and enhance value, including the following offerings:
•Company Advisory
•Contentious Insolvency
•Creditor Advisory
•Dispute Advisory & Litigation Support
•Interim Management
Forensic and Litigation Consulting
Our FLC segment provides law firms, companies, boards of directors, government entities, private equity firms and other interested parties with a multidisciplinary and independent range of services across risk & investigations and disputes, supported by our data & analytics technology-enabled solutions, with a focus on highly regulated industries. Our services are centered around five core offerings: Construction, Projects & Assets and Environmental Solutions, Data & Analytics, Disputes, Healthcare Risk Management & Advisory and Risk and Investigations.
In 2024, our FLC segment offered the following services:
Construction, Projects & Assets and Environmental Solutions (“Construction Solutions”). We provide dispute resolution, advisory and transformation services that address the strategic, financial, operational, regulatory and capital needs of complex construction and environmental projects, programs, liabilities and physical asset management for organizations across multiple industries, and help organizations address environmental programmatic challenges and liability-related issues. Our key services include the following offerings:
•Environmental Cost & Damages Analyses
•Environmental Dispute Resolution
•Expert Services in Delay, Disruption, Quantum & Damages
•Project Delivery and Asset Management Advisory & Transformation
•Technology Enablement, Data Intelligence & Construction Analytics
Data & Analytics. We provide in-depth analysis of large, disparate sets of financial, operational and transactional data, often when our clients are faced with a regulatory inquiry or a dispute. We provide strategic business solutions, including custom application and software development, to solve critical client needs. Our professionals, who include computer scientists, Ph.D. data scientists, mathematicians, business and finance experts, work together with industry, regulatory, legal and other experts. Our key services include the following offerings:
•Anti-corruption, Anti-money Laundering, Sanctions and Fraud Investigations
•Data Strategy, Governance and Reconciliation
•Data Visualization, Process Improvement and Business Intelligence Solutions
•Dispute Resolution
•Machine Learning and Other AI Solutions
•Remediation and Settlement Administration
Disputes. We provide courts and tribunals, parties to disputes and their legal counsel clear, reliable and objective advice on matters within our expertise, from discovery and investigation to expert witness testimony and damage quantification in international arbitration and dispute resolution consulting. We support our global clients with disputes of all kinds, including the following offerings:
•Claims in International Public Law
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•Complex Commercial and Regulatory Disputes
•Energy-related Disputes
•Financial Products and Broker-dealer Disputes
•Insurance-related Disputes
•Intellectual Property
•Labor and Employment
Healthcare Risk Management & Advisory. We work with healthcare providers, healthcare payers, life sciences companies and law firms to discern solutions that address business risks and advise and prepare our clients for both short-term and future strategic, operational, data and technological, financial and legal challenges. Our key services include the following offerings:
•Disputes and Investigations
•Financial Advisory
•Managed Care & Value-based Care
•Risk, Regulatory and Quality
Risk and Investigations. We provide compliance, risk assessment, investigative, litigation consulting and remediation expertise on a wide range of investigations to boards of directors, executive management, in-house counsel and their outside legal advisors at law firms. Our experts conduct investigations over a wide scope of issues and allegations, including the following offerings:
•Accounting Advisory & Restatements
•Anti-bribery & Corruption Investigations
•Anti-money Laundering Investigations
•Cybersecurity
•Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) & Sustainability
•Export Controls, Sanctions & Trade
•Financial Regulatory Investigations
•Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”) Violations
•Forensic Accounting & Fraud Investigations
•Geopolitical and Related Security Risk
•Monitorships
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Economic Consulting
Our Economic Consulting segment, including subsidiary Compass Lexecon LLC (“Compass Lexecon”), provides law firms, companies, government entities and other interested parties with analyses of complex economic issues for use in international arbitration, legal and regulatory proceedings and strategic decision making and public policy debates around the world. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Antitrust & Competition Economics, Financial Economics and International Arbitration.
In 2024, our Economic Consulting segment offered the following services:
Antitrust & Competition Economics. We perform sophisticated economic analyses and provide expert testimony on international and regulatory antitrust and competition proceedings, practices and litigation, including the following offerings:
•M&A-related Antitrust
•Non-M&A-related Antitrust
Financial Economics. We perform sophisticated economic analysis and modeling of issues and provide expert testimony relating to transactions, commercial disputes, regulatory proceedings and a wide range of securities litigation to regulated and unregulated industries and government regulators, including the following offerings:
•Contractual Claims
•Rate Setting
•Securities Litigation & Risk Management
•Transfer Pricing
•Valuation
International Arbitration. We work with companies, governments and members of the international bar to provide independent advice and expert testimony relating to business valuations and economic damages in a wide variety of commercial and treaty disputes before international arbitration tribunals, including the following offerings:
•Business Valuations
•Commercial and Treaty Disputes
•Economic Damages
•Litigation Support
Technology
Our Technology segment provides companies, law firms, private equity firms and government entities with a comprehensive global portfolio of digital insights and risk management consulting and data services. Our professionals help organizations better address risk as the growing volume and variety of enterprise and emerging data intersects with legal, regulatory and compliance needs. We deliver a wide range of expert and analytics-powered solutions driven by investigations, litigation, antitrust and competition, M&A, restructuring and compliance and risk through three core offerings: Corporate Legal Department Consulting, E-discovery and Analytics Services and Expertise, and Information Governance, Privacy & Security Services.
In 2024, our Technology segment offered the following services:
Corporate Legal Department Consulting. We help companies streamline and optimize legal operations through an expert-driven approach leveraging technology and analytics, including the following offerings:
•Advisory on Governance, Policy, Standards and Execution
•Advisory on Operational Efficiencies
•Contract Services
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•Legal Technology Selection and Implementation
•Subscriptions and Managed Services
E-discovery and Analytics Services and Expertise. We provide services that help companies more efficiently manage complex and evolving data collection and discovery amid a rapidly evolving landscape of new data sources and types, including the following offerings:
•AI & Data Analytics
•Analytics Research
•Cryptocurrency Disputes and Investigations
•Digital Assets and Blockchain Advisory Services
•E-discovery and Data Compliance Management
•E-discovery Managed Services
•Emerging Data Sources Discovery and Governance
•Investigations and Digital Forensics
•Managed Document Review and Production
•M&A-related Second Requests
Information Governance, Privacy & Security Services. We help clients manage emerging data, navigate their evolving regulatory and privacy obligations, including AI, prepare for and respond to external threats, decrease storage costs, remediate and secure corporate data, enable faster and deeper insight into data, and provide expert testimony to defend corporate data management processes, including the following offerings:
•AI Governance
•Data Privacy Program Development and Implementation
•Data Remediation, Disposition and Protection
•Data Subject Access Requests
•Migration of Enterprise Data to Cloud Applications
•Pixel, Ad Tracker and AdTech Services
•Post-data Breach Privacy Analysis and Response
•Regulatory Readiness Advisory and Implementation
Strategic Communications
Our Strategic Communications segment develops and executes communications strategies to help management teams, boards of directors, law firms, governments and regulators manage change and mitigate risk surrounding transformational and disruptive events, including transactions, investigations, disputes, crises, regulation and legislation. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Corporate Reputation, Financial Communications and Public Affairs.
In 2024, our Strategic Communications segment offered the following services:
Corporate Reputation. We design and provide communications to protect and enhance business reputations, build organizations’ public profiles and support their business outcomes, including the following offerings:
•Crisis and Issues Management
•Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Communications
•Digital, Analytics and Insights
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•Litigation Communications
•People & Transformation
Financial Communications. We design and provide communications strategies to help business leaders deliver consistent and credible narratives to raise capital, engage with investors and navigate transitional business events, including the following offerings:
•Corporate Governance & Shareholder Activism
•ESG & Sustainability
•M&A Communications
•Restructuring and Financial Issues
Public Affairs. We combine public policy, capital markets and sector-specific expertise to offer unique insights for clients operating at the critical intersection between business and government, including the following offerings:
•Government Investigations
•Government Relations
•Public Affairs Research & Opinion Polling
•Public Affairs Strategy
•Public Policy Advocacy
Our Industry Specializations
We employ professionals across our segments and practices who are qualified to provide our core services plus a range of specialized consulting services and solutions that address the strategic, reputational, operational, financial, regulatory, legal and other needs of specific industries. The major industry groups that we service include:
•Aerospace & Defense
•Airlines & Aviation
•Blockchain & Digital Assets
•Chemicals
•Construction & Environmental
•Energy
•Financial Services
•Food & Agribusiness
•Healthcare & Life Sciences
•Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure
•Industrials & Automotive
•Insurance
•Mining
•Private Equity
•Power, Renewables & Energy Transition
•Professional Services
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•Public Sector & Government Contracts
•Real Estate
•Retail & Consumer Products
•Telecom, Media & Technology
•Transportation & Logistics
Our Business Drivers
Material factors that drive demand for our business offerings include:
•AI and Other New and Emerging Technologies. We have been leveraging AI to develop solutions for our clients for over a decade, building a leading position in the legal market. We continue to invest in machine learning and AI-related platforms to support our internal infrastructure. We help our clients adapt to the changing technological, regulatory and ethical landscape and actively partner with them to integrate these new technologies into their organizations, including embedding these technologies into our transformation & strategy and disputes offerings, among others. Our AI experts craft tailored AI strategies that align with our clients’ business objectives, leveraging AI and other technologies in their organizations to respond to the market, unlock growth opportunities and manage risk. We continue to invest in our open-source approach while making judicious investments in new and emerging technologies, adapting and refining our strategy by embracing new ways of working to develop services, identify commercial opportunities, improve our performance, increase internal efficiencies and otherwise add value for our clients. We have seen, and continue to believe, that the demand for AI and other technology-enabled consulting services will continue to grow as these capabilities advance in sophistication.
•Cybersecurity Risk. The evolving cybersecurity risk landscape, characterized by increasingly sophisticated threats and rising incidents of data breaches, drives demand for cybersecurity preparedness, post-breach investigations, crisis communications and related services, particularly in our FLC, Technology and Strategic Communications segments. Our global team of cybersecurity experts, incident response experts, developers and data scientists provides cyber incident response solutions across the event lifecycle, including preparedness and response planning, analysis, identification, containment, eradication, mitigation and system refinements. Additionally, we provide strategic communications services such as crisis management, corporate reputation and public affairs support for our clients during high-stakes cybersecurity breaches, as they work to manage stakeholder communications with investors, clients, employees, business partners and regulators, among other key stakeholders.
•Developing Markets. The growth and continuation of multinational companies and global consolidation can precipitate antitrust and competition scrutiny and the international spread of issues and practices that historically have been more common in the U.S., such as increased and complex litigation, corporate restructuring and bankruptcy activities, and antitrust and competition scrutiny. Additionally, shifts in trade and tariff policies can create significant challenges for companies operating in developed and emerging markets, often impacting supply chains, market access and cost structures. Companies in the developing world and multinational companies can benefit from our expert advice to access capital and business markets, comply with the regulatory, trade and other requirements of multiple countries, structure transactions and conduct due diligence, which drives demand for services across all of our segments.
•Emerging Data, Including Cloud-Based Collaboration and Communications Platforms. New and disparate communication systems, built on the cloud to enable easier access for global and mobile workforces, present new challenges for organizations to control, understand, manage and remediate their data. These emerging data systems were not designed to support discovery or investigations, yet regulators and the courts have made clear that if emerging data contains relevant information, it should be collected and produced or the company is at risk of spoliation and fines. Organizations need a broad range of services like ours to ensure that emerging data is governed in accordance with global regulations and security best practices, and incorporated into normal legal and regulatory processes.
•Financial Markets. Financial market factors, including credit and financing availability, terms and conditions, the willingness of financial institutions to provide debt modifications or relief, corporate debt levels, default rates, bankruptcies and restructuring, capital markets transactions, increased consolidation and the growth of emerging currencies, including digital assets and related exchanges, are significant drivers of demand for our business offerings, particularly our Corporate Finance and Technology segments.
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•Litigation and Disputes. Litigation and business disputes, the complexity of the issues presented, and the amount of potential damages and penalties drive demand for the services offered by many of our segments, particularly our FLC, Economic Consulting and Technology segments. Law firms and their clients, as well as government regulators and other interested third parties, rely on independent outside resources to evaluate claims and data, facilitate discovery, assess damages, provide expert reports and testimony, manage the pre-trial and in-trial process, and effectively present evidence.
•M&A Activity. M&A activity is an important driver for all of our segments. We offer services across all phases of the M&A life cycle. Our services during the pre-transaction phase include government competition advice and pre-transaction analysis. Our services during the negotiation phase include due diligence, negotiation and other transaction advisory services, government competition and antitrust regulation services, expert witness testimony, asset valuations and financial communications advice. Our services following the close of a transaction include post-M&A integration, transformation and disputes services.
•Operational Challenges and Opportunities. Operational challenges and opportunities drive demand for services across all of our segments. Businesses facing challenges require the evaluation and re-evaluation of strategy, risks and opportunities. Businesses seek our enterprise transformation services in the normal course when they want expert advice to increase profitability or as a result of crisis-driven situations, competition, regulation, innovation and other events that arise in the course of business. These challenges include enterprise risk management, reputational scrutiny, global expansion, competition from established companies, emerging businesses and technologies, doing business in emerging markets, and new and changing regulatory requirements and legislation. Management, companies and their boards need outside help to recognize, understand and evaluate such events and effect change, which drives demand for independent expertise that can combine general business acumen with the specialized technical expertise of our service offerings and industry expertise.
•Regulatory Complexity, Public Scrutiny and Investigations. Regulatory complexity, public scrutiny and investigations drive demand for services across all of our segments. The uncertain and shifting regulatory environment, complex global regulations and legislation, greater scrutiny of corporate governance, instances of corporate malfeasance, including fraud, and evolving reporting requirements drive demand for our service offerings. The need to understand and address the impact of new or changing regulation and legislation, as well as the increasing costs of doing business, including the growing number of differing data sources maintained throughout the enterprise, has prompted companies to focus on better assessing and managing risks and opportunities. In addition, boards of directors, audit committees and independent board committees have been increasingly tasked with conducting internal investigations of financial wrongdoing, regulatory non-compliance and other issues. These factors and laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in the U.S., have contributed to the demand for independent consultants and experts to investigate and provide analyses to support the work of outside legal counsel, accountants and other advisors. These types of investigations also increasingly demand the use of multiple disciplinary service offerings like ours, which combine skills and capabilities across segments and practices with industry expertise.
Our Competitive Strengths
We compete primarily on the basis of the breadth of our services, the quality of our work, the prominence of our professionals, our geographic reach, our reputation and performance record, our specialized industry expertise and our strong client relationships. We believe our success is driven by a combination of long-standing competitive strengths, including:
•Pre-eminent Positions and Professionals. As a leading global expert firm for crises and transformation, we believe that we have pre-eminent market positions and experts. During 2024, awards and recognitions received by the Company include the following:
•FTI Consulting and subsidiary Compass Lexecon led the Lexology Index (formerly Who’s Who Legal) Arbitration: Expert Witnesses list for the 15th consecutive year with 75 experts recognized, including 12 professionals identified as Future Leaders in Arbitration.
•FTI Consulting recognized as Consulting Firm of the Year by Lexology Index for the eighth consecutive year.
•FTI Consulting named to Forbes magazine’s list of the World’s Best Management Consulting Firms for the third consecutive year, recognized in 13 sectors and functional areas.
•FTI Consulting ranked #1 U.S. Restructuring Advisor by The Deal for the 17th consecutive year.
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•Compass Lexecon was named Competition Economics Firm of the Year by Lexology Index for the 10th consecutive year.
•FTI Consulting recognized as a leading firm in the Chambers Litigation Support 2024, Chambers Crisis and Risk Management 2024 and Chambers FinTech 2024 guides.
•FTI Consulting and its subsidiary Compass Lexecon ranked in the top 3 on Global Arbitration Review’sGAR 100 Expert Witness Firms’ Power Index.
•FTI Consulting was ranked #14 on Forbes magazine’s inaugural list of Most Trusted Companies in America.
•FTI Consulting recognized as one of the 50 Most Prestigious Consulting Firms in North America and one of the 150 Best Internships by Vault.
•FTI Consulting recognized as being one of America’s Greatest Workplaces for Diversity 2024 by Newsweek.
•FTI Consulting named a Great Place to Work–Certified company in the U.S., Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, the UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.
•FTI Consulting named to U.S. News Best Companies to Work For by U.S. News & World Report.
•Compass Lexecon ranked as an Elite Competition Economics Firm in the Global Competition Review 100 2024.
•Diversified Service Offerings. Our five reportable segments offer a diversified portfolio of practices providing services across our four geographic regions. Our broad range of practices and services, the diversity of our revenue streams, our specialized industry expertise and our global reach distinguish us from our competitors. This diversity helps to mitigate the impact of economic cycles, crises, events and changes in a particular practice, industry or country.
•Diversified Portfolio of Elite Clients. We provide services to a diverse group of clients, including Fortune 500 companies, FTSE 100 companies, global financial institutions, banks, private equity funds and local, state and national governments and agencies in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, all of the top 100 law firms as ranked by American Lawyer Global 100 Most Revenue List refer or engage us directly or on behalf of numerous clients on multiple matters. We are also an advisor to 90 of the Fortune 100 companies and 71 of the top 100 private equity firms on the Private Equity International 300 list.
•Demand for Integrated Solutions and a Consultative Approach. Our breadth and depth of practice and service offerings combined with our deep industry expertise and global footprint drive demand from clients that seek our unique cross-segment and cross-region client solutions as a leading global expert firm for crises and transformation: both event-driven and well-planned situations, including mergers and acquisitions, reputational issues, antitrust issues, liquidity issues, investigations and disputes, and long-term transformation and strategy events across different jurisdictions.
•Strong Cash Flows. Our business model has several characteristics that produce consistent cash flows. Our strong cash flows support business operations, capital expenditures and our ability to service our indebtedness and pursue our growth and other strategies.
Our Business Strategy
We build client relationships based on the quality of our services, our brand and the reputation of our professionals. We provide diverse complementary services to meet our clients’ needs around the world. We emphasize client service and satisfaction. We aim to build strong brand recognition. The following are key elements of our business strategy:
•Leverage Our Practitioners’ and Businesses’ Expertise, Geographic Reach, Diverse Service Offerings and Client Relationships. We work hard to maintain and strengthen our core practices and competencies. We believe that our recognized expertise, geographic reach, diverse service offerings and client relationships, coupled with our successful track record of serving as a trusted advisor for our clients when they are facing their greatest challenges and opportunities, are the most critical elements in a decision to retain us. Many of our professionals are recognized experts in their respective fields.
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•Grow Organically. Our strategy is to identify where we are best positioned to help our clients solve their most complex issues, invest behind those positions and leverage that success to grow organically.
•Strategic Acquisitions. We consider strategic and opportunistic acquisition opportunities on a selective basis. We seek to integrate completed acquisitions and manage investments in a way that fosters organic growth, expands our geographic presence or complements our segments, services and industry positions. We typically structure our acquisitions to retain the services of key individuals from the acquired companies.
•Profitable Growth. We endeavor to leverage our investments to build positions that will support profitable growth on a sustained basis through a variety of economic conditions.
•Enhance Value through Capital Allocation. The strength of our balance sheet gives us the flexibility to allocate capital and create shareholder value in numerous ways, including investments in organic growth, share repurchases and acquisitions, among other capital allocation vehicles.
•Marketing.We rely primarily on our senior professionals to identify and pursue business opportunities. Referrals from clients, law firms and other intermediaries and our reputation from prior engagements are also key factors in securing new business. Our professionals often learn about new business opportunities from their frequent contact and close working relationships with clients. In marketing our services, we emphasize our experience, the quality of our services and our professionals’ particular areas of expertise, as well as our ability to quickly staff large engagements across multiple jurisdictions. While we aggressively seek new business opportunities, we maintain high professional standards and carefully evaluate potential new client relationships and engagements before accepting them.
Human Capital Resources
At FTI Consulting, we seek to provide the highest quality services to our clients. We do this by attracting and retaining experts in their fields, empowering a diverse and inclusive global workforce, providing opportunities for advancement and personal growth, and supporting the communities in which we do business. As of December 31, 2024, we employed 8,374 employees, of which 6,633 were billable professionals. We also engage independent contractors who provide services to FTI Consulting to supplement our professionals on client engagements as needed.
We aim to advance the best interests of all our stakeholders through:
•Attracting and Retaining Highly Qualified Professionals. Our professionals are crucial to delivering our services to clients and generating new business. Through our staff of highly qualified professionals, we can handle a large number of complex global assignments simultaneously. To attract and retain highly qualified professionals, we offer various compensation opportunities, including sign-on bonuses, incentive pay opportunities, and retention bonuses (including forgivable loans), along with a competitive benefits package and the opportunity to work on challenging global engagements with highly skilled peers.
•Experts-Driven Model. Our professionals include Ph.D.s, MBAs, JDs, CPAs, CPA-ABVs (CPAs accredited in business valuations), CPA-CFFs (CPAs certified in financial forensics), CRAs (certified risk analysts), Certified Turnaround Professionals, Certified Insolvency and Reorganization Advisors, Certified Fraud Examiners, ASAs (accredited senior appraisers), construction engineers and former senior government officials.
•Inclusive and High-Performing Culture. We are committed to fostering an inclusive and high-performing culture where our professionals can grow their careers and achieve their full potential. We are dedicated to recruiting, employing and maintaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. We believe that a workforce reflecting the diverse identities of our clients and vendors with whom we do business, our stakeholders and the populations of the regions in which we have operations improves the quality of our services, drives employee engagement and retention, attracts top talent and elevates the overall value of our business. Our recruitment and employment practices are designed to comply with the applicable laws of the jurisdictions in which we conduct those activities, reinforcing our commitment to equitable opportunities and a culture of belonging.
•Talent Development. We support the development of our professionals at all levels of their careers. Our robust Talent Development program includes onboarding programs for new hires, training programs to prepare promotes for success in their new roles and leadership readiness programs to help our people build the skills needed to advance to our most senior positions. These training programs are supplemented by self-directed e-learning programs, among other segment-level talent development and training opportunities.
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•Corporate Citizenship. We practice responsible corporate citizenship to drive positive change in the communities in which we do business. All full-time FTI Consulting employees are eligible to participate in our Corporate Citizenship program, which includes charitable gift matching, paid time off for volunteering and corporate-sponsored pro bono engagements.
Employment Agreements, Incentive, Retention and Sign-on Payments
We have written employment agreements with substantially all of our 806 Senior Managing Directors and equivalent personnel (collectively, “SMDs”) that set forth their terms and conditions of service and compensation opportunities. These written employment agreements can, but are not required to include, incentive compensation opportunities that may take the form of cash, equity or loans (including forgivable loans). Incentive-based opportunities are subject to financial or individual performance criteria. We may also impose meaningful time-based service requirements. In the case of incentive pay that is subject to vesting or loans that are subject to forgiveness conditions, we generally limit accelerated vesting or loan forgiveness protection to qualifying termination of employment and corporate events.
We also administer other incentive compensation programs that include cash, equity awards, loans or some combination thereof, depending on the jurisdiction in which the participant is employed. Cash awards generally provide for fixed payments at some future date. In most cases, equity awards granted by the Company take the form of shares of restricted stock or restricted stock units subject to fixed vesting schedules ranging over two to nine years depending on the dollar value of such awards at grant. Loans provide that the principal amount and accrued interest will be forgiven, or repayment will be funded through an additional cash bonus payment, over the passage of time (subject to continued service) ranging from two to nine years. Participants in non-U.S. jurisdictions may receive other forms of compensation under similar programs with substantially equivalent values and subject to comparable conditions. In substantially all cases, incentive compensation opportunities are subject to continued employment conditions.
The compensation opportunities that we offer differ depending on the professional’s title, level, individual expertise and other qualifications, as well as across the jurisdictions in which we operate. We believe the compensation opportunities that we offer are competitive with our peers in terms of mix and magnitude and are designed to comply with laws of the applicable jurisdictions in which we conduct business. The value of our incentive-based opportunities, in the aggregate, as well as on an individual basis, has been and is expected to continue to be significant.
Clients
During the year ended December 31, 2024, no single client accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated revenues and no reportable segment had a single client that accounted for more than 10% of its respective total segment revenues. In some cases, we may have engagements through law firms that represent a larger percentage of our consolidated revenues or the revenues of a segment; however, in these situations, each law firm engages us on behalf of multiple clients.
Competition
We compete with different companies or business segments within companies depending on the particular nature of a proposed engagement and the requested types of service(s) or the location of the client or delivery of the service(s) or product(s). Our businesses are highly competitive. Our competitors include large organizations, such as the global accounting firms and large management and financial consulting companies that offer a broad range of consulting services; investment banking firms; information technology consulting and software companies that offer niche services that are the same or similar to services or products offered by one or more of our segments and small firms and independent contractors that provide one or more specialized services.
We compete primarily on the basis of the breadth of our services, the quality of our work, the prominence of our professionals, our geographic reach, our reputation and performance record, our specific industry expertise, our ability to staff multiple significant engagements across disciplines and industries in multiple locations, and our strong client relationships. Our Technology segment, particularly with respect to hosting and e-discovery services, and to a lesser extent our other segments, may also compete on price. Since our businesses depend in large part on professional relationships, there are low barriers of entry for professionals, including our professionals, electing to work independently, start their own firms or change employers.
Our Corporate Finance segment primarily competes with specialty boutiques and publicly traded companies providing restructuring, bankruptcy and M&A services and, to a lesser extent, large investment banks, management consulting firms and global accounting firms.
Our FLC segment primarily competes with other large consulting companies, specialty boutiques and global accounting firms with service offerings similar to ours.
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Our Economic Consulting segment primarily competes with individually recognized economists, specialty boutiques and large consulting companies with service offerings similar to ours.
Our Technology segment primarily competes with consulting and/or software providers specializing in e-discovery, electronically stored information and the management of electronic content.
Our Strategic Communications segment competes with large public relations firms, as well as boutique M&A, crisis communications and public affairs firms.
Some service providers are larger than we are and, on certain engagements, may have an advantage over us with respect to one or more competitive factors. Specialty boutiques or smaller local or regional firms, while not offering the range of services we provide, may compete with us on the basis of geographic proximity, specialty services or price. In addition, some segments compete in industries subject to significant and rapid innovation. Larger competitors may be able to react more quickly to new regulatory or legal requirements and other changes.
Corporate Information
Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol FCN. Our executive offices are located at 555 12th Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20004. Our telephone number is 202-312-9100. Our website is http://www.fticonsulting.com.
Available Information
We make available, free of charge, on or through our website at http://www.fticonsulting.com, our annual, quarterly and current reports and any amendments to those reports, our proxy statements, as well as our other filings with the SEC, as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing them with the SEC. Information posted on our website is not part of this Annual Report or any other report filed with the SEC in satisfaction of the requirements of the Exchange Act. Copies of this Annual Report, as well as other periodic reports filed with the SEC, may also be requested at no charge from our Corporate Secretary at FTI Consulting, Inc., 555 12th Street NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20004, email address: mike.rosenthall@fticonsulting.com.
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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS
All of the following risks could materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In addition to the risks discussed below and elsewhere in this Annual Report, other risks and uncertainties not currently known to us or that we currently consider immaterial could, in the future, materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and financial results. Some of the factors, events and contingencies discussed below may have occurred in the past, but the disclosures below are not representations as to whether or not the factors, events or contingencies have occurred in the past, and instead reflect our beliefs and opinions as to the factors, events, or contingencies that could materially and adversely affect us in the future.
Risks Related to Our Reportable Segments
Changes in capital markets, M&A activity, legal or regulatory requirements, general economic conditions and monetary or geopolitical disruptions, as well as other factors beyond our control, could reduce demand for one or more of our segment or practice offerings or services, in which case our revenues and profitability could decline.
Different U.S. and/or international factors outside of our control could affect demand for a segment’s practices and our services. These include: (i) fluctuations in U.S. and/or global economies, including economic downturns or recessions and the strength and rate of any general economic recoveries; (ii) the U.S. or global financial markets and the availability, costs, and terms of credit and credit modifications, including interest levels and inflationary pressures; (iii) level of leverage incurred by countries or businesses; (iv) M&A activity; (v) frequency and complexity of significant commercial litigation; (vi) overexpansion by businesses causing financial difficulties; (vii) business and management crises, including the occurrence of alleged fraudulent or illegal activities and practices; (viii) new and complex laws and regulations, repeals of existing laws and regulations or changes of enforcement of laws, rules and regulations, including antitrust/competition reviews of proposed M&A transactions; (ix) other economic, geographic or political factors, including wars and other geopolitical conflicts; (x) widespread public health crises, including epidemics and pandemics and government restrictions or regulations enacted in response thereto, or employees’ refusal to adhere to such restrictions; and (xi) general business or other conditions in the U.S. and other jurisdictions in which we conduct business or our employee population resides.
We are not able to predict the positive or negative effects that future events or changes to the U.S. or global economies will have on our business or the business of any particular segment or practice. Fluctuations, changes and disruptions in financial, credit, M&A and other markets, political instability, significant geopolitical conflicts and general business factors could impact various segments’ operations and could affect such operations differently. Changes to factors described above, as well as other events, including by way of example, contractions of regional economies, or the economy of a particular country, trade restrictions, sanctions, prohibitions or restrictions, or laws, regulations, or other conditions or limitations, on conducting business in certain geographies or with certain persons or governments or authorities, monetary systems, banking, real estate and retail or other industries; government shutdowns; inflation and interest rate fluctuations; debt or credit difficulties or defaults by businesses or countries; new, repeals of or changes to laws and regulations, including changes to the bankruptcy and competition laws of the U.S. or other countries; tort reform; banking reform; a decline in the implementation or adoption of new laws or regulations, or in government enforcement, litigation or monetary damages or remedies that are sought; climate change; or political instability and wars may have adverse effects on one or more of our segments or service, practice or industry offerings.
Our revenues, operating income and cash flows are likely to fluctuate.
We experience fluctuations in our revenues and cost structure and the resulting operating income and cash flows and expect that this will continue to occur in the future. We experience fluctuations in our annual and quarterly financial results, including revenues, operating income and earnings per share, for reasons that include: (i) the types and complexity, number, size, timing and duration of client engagements; (ii) the timing of revenues; (iii) the utilization of billable professionals, including the ability to adjust staffing levels up or down to accommodate the business and prospects of the applicable segment and practice; (iv) the number of new hires, their compensation and the time it takes before a new hire becomes profitable; (v) the departure of professionals in the ordinary course of business; (vi) the geographic locations of our clients or the locations where services are rendered; (vii) billing rates and fee arrangements, including the opportunity and ability to successfully reach milestones, and complete engagements and collect success fees and other outcome-contingent or performance-based fees; (viii) the length of billing and collection cycles and changes in amounts that may become uncollectible; (ix) changes in the frequency and complexity of government regulatory and enforcement activities; (x) business and asset acquisitions; (xi) fluctuations in the exchange rates of various currencies against the U.S. dollar; (xii) wage and cost increases; and (xiii) other economic factors beyond our control.
The results of different segments and practices may be affected differently by the above factors. Certain of our practices, particularly our restructuring practice, tend to experience their highest demand during periods when market and/or industry
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conditions are less favorable for many businesses. For example, in periods of limited credit availability, reduced M&A activity and/or declining business and/or consumer spending, while not always the case, there may be increased restructuring opportunities that will cause our restructuring practice to experience high demand. On the other hand, those same factors may cause one or more of our other segments and practices, such as our antitrust & competition practice in Economic Consulting, to experience reduced demand. The positive effects of certain events or factors on certain segments and practices may not be sufficient to overcome the negative effects of those same or other events or factors on other parts of our business. In addition, our mix of practice offerings adds complexity to the task of predicting revenues and results of operations and managing our staffing levels and expenditures across changing business cycles and economic environments.
We derive a portion of our revenues from large engagements. The loss of a large client or the completion of a major engagement can impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations if we do not obtain a sufficient number of new large engagements to replace lost clients or completed engagements. Our results are also subject to seasonal and similar factors, such as during the fourth quarter when our professionals and our clients typically take vacations. We may also experience fluctuations in our operating income and related cash flows because of increases in employee compensation, including changes to our incentive compensation structure and the timing of incentive payments, which we generally pay during the first quarter of each year, or hiring or retention payments, which are paid throughout the year. Also, the timing of investments or acquisitions and the cost of integrating them may cause fluctuations in our financial results, including operating income and cash flows. This volatility makes it difficult to forecast our future results with precision and to assess accurately whether increases or decreases in any one or more quarters are likely to cause annual results to exceed or fall short of previously issued guidance. While we assess our annual guidance at the end of each quarter and update such guidance when we think it is appropriate, unanticipated future volatility can cause actual results to vary significantly from our guidance, even where that guidance reflects a range of possible results and has been updated to take account of partial-year results.
If we do not effectively manage the utilization of our professionals or billable rates, our financial results could decline.
Our failure to manage the utilization of our professionals who bill on an hourly basis, or maintain or increase the hourly rates we charge our clients for our services, could result in adverse consequences, such as non- or lower-revenue-generating professionals, increased employee turnover, fixed compensation expenses in periods of declining revenues, the inability to appropriately staff engagements with employees and/or independent consultants (including adding or reducing staff during periods of increased or decreased demand for our services, or redeploying staff to other practices or engagements), or special charges associated with reductions in staff or operations. Reductions in workforce or increases of billable rates will not necessarily lead to savings. In such events, our financial results may decline or be adversely impacted. A number of factors affect the utilization of our workforce, some of which we cannot predict with certainty, including general economic and financial market conditions; the complexity, number, type, size and timing of client engagements; the level of demand for our services; appropriate staffing levels, in light of changing client demands, expectations or market conditions; redeployment or utilization of staff across segments and geographic regions; competition; acquisitions; or the utilization of temporary independent consultants who may be compensated on a different or higher basis than certain employees, provide services under fixed-term and/or fixed-fee contracts that are not amenable to extension or early termination, or are not as disposed to redeployment to other client engagements, segments or practices. In addition, our global expansion into or within locations where we are not well-known or where demand for our services is not well-developed could also contribute to low or lower utilization rates in certain locations.
Certain practices within our segments may enter into engagements such as fixed-fee and time and materials with caps. Failure to effectively manage staff utilization and other aspects of alternative fee engagements may result in the costs of providing such services exceeding the fees collected by the Company. Failure to successfully complete or reach milestones with respect to contingent fee or success fee assignments may also lead to lower revenues or the costs of providing services under those types of arrangements may exceed the fees collected by the Company.
Factors that could negatively affect utilization in our segments include:
Corporate Finance — The completion of bankruptcy proceedings; the timing of the completion of other engagements; fewer and smaller restructuring (including bankruptcy) cases; a recovering or strong economy; easy credit availability; lower interest rates; fewer, smaller and less complex M&A and restructuring activity; and less capital markets activity or fewer complex transactions.
FLC — The settlement of litigation; less frequent instances of significant mismanagement, fraud, wrongdoing or other business problems that could result in fewer or less complex business engagements; fewer and less complex legal disputes; fewer class action suits; the timing of the completion of engagements; less government regulation, less government enforcement activity, and fewer regulatory investigations; and the timing of government investigations and litigation.
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Economic Consulting — Fewer, smaller and less complex M&A activity; less capital markets activity or fewer complex transactions; a reduced number of regulatory filings and less litigation, reduced or less aggressive antitrust and competition regulation or enforcement; fewer government investigations and proceedings; and the timing of client utilization of our services.
Technology — The settlement of litigation; a decline in volume and complexity of litigation proceedings and governmental investigations; a decline in volume and the timing of M&A activities and reduced or less aggressive enforcement of antitrust and competition regulations; the more rapid and successful integration of new and emerging technologies in client offerings, such as AI or machine learning, by competitors, or the availability and engagement of independent consultants, which this segment, more than our other segments, relies on for staffing e-discovery and certain other types of client engagements.
Strategic Communications — Fewer event-driven crises affecting businesses; general economic decline that may reduce certain discretionary spending by clients; a decline in capital markets activity, including M&A; and fewer public securities offerings.
Our segments may face risks of fee non-payment, clients may seek to renegotiate existing fees and contract arrangements, and may not accept billable rate or price increases, which could result in loss of engagements, fee write-offs, reduced revenues and less profitable business.
In some cases, our segments are engaged by certain clients who are or anticipate experiencing financial distress or are facing complex challenges, are engaging in litigation or regulatory or judicial proceedings, or are facing foreclosure of collateral or liquidation of assets. This may be due to general economic conditions; lingering effects of past economic slowdowns or recession; or business- or operations-specific reasons. Such clients may not have sufficient funds to continue operations or to pay for our services. We typically do not receive retainers before we begin performing services on a client’s behalf in connection with a significant number of engagements in our segments. In the cases where we have received retainers, we cannot assure the retainers will adequately cover our fees for the services we perform on behalf of these clients. With respect to bankruptcy cases, bankruptcy courts have the discretion to require us to return all, or a portion of, our fees.
We may receive requests to discount our fees or to negotiate lower rates for our services and to agree to contract terms relative to the scope of services and other terms that may limit the size of an engagement or our ability to pass-through costs. We consider these requests on a case-by-case basis. We routinely receive these types of requests and expect this to continue in the future. In addition, our clients and prospective clients may not accept rate increases that we put into effect or plan to implement in the future. Fee discounts, pressure not to increase or pressure to decrease our rates, and less advantageous contract terms could result in the loss of clients, lower revenues and operating income, higher costs and less profitable engagements. More discounts or write-offs than we expect in any period would have a negative impact on our results of operations. There is no assurance that significant client engagements will be renewed or replaced in a timely manner or at all, or that they will generate the same volume of work or revenues or be as profitable as past engagements.
Certain clients prefer fixed and other alternative fee arrangements that place revenue ceilings or other limitations on our fee structure or may shift more of our revenue-generating potential to back-end contingent and success fee arrangements. With respect to such alternative fee arrangements, we may discount our rates initially, which could mean that the cost of providing services exceeds the fees collected by the Company during all or a portion of the term of the engagement. In such cases, the Company’s failure to manage the engagement efficiently or collect the success or performance fees could expose the Company to a greater risk of loss on such engagement than other fee arrangements or may cause variations in the Company’s revenues and operating results due to the timing of achievement of the performance-based criteria, if achieved at all. A segment’s ability to service clients with these fee arrangements at a cost that does not directly correlate to time and materials may negatively impact or result in a loss of the profitability of such engagements, adversely affecting the financial results of the segment.
Our segments and practices could suffer competitive, reputational and business harm or increased liability arising from the rapid introduction, deployment, evolution and use of new technologies, including AI and machine learning.
Our services are extremely complicated and differ materially among our segment and practice offerings. As a result, the benefits and risks of adopting and implementing new and emerging technologies, such as AI and machine learning in their many forms, necessitates, in most cases, our review and analysis of such technology and its risks and benefits on a service-by-service basis. The need for complex analysis could result in significant delays adopting AI and other technologies, which could adversely impact our competitive position; ability to market services; win new engagements; provide state of the art services to clients; and attract, hire and retain members of our workforce, as compared to early adopters of such technologies. Furthermore, we may not be successful in our AI or other technology-related initiatives. The adoption of technologies, such as AI and machine learning, may require the investment of significant capital, time and resources. Such investment could require the engagement of third-parties or independent contractors and may interfere with the other duties of our management and employees. In addition, the adoption and deployment of AI, machine learning and other new and emerging technologies by
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competitors more rapidly or successfully than we do could materially adversely affect our competitive position and financial results.
New technologies, such as AI and machine learning, continue to evolve and as a result risks continue to be unknown or uncertain. There is no assurance that (i) we can successfully develop and deploy AI or other technologies in our business, (ii) such technologies will improve and enhance our services, operations or profitability, (iii) clients will accept the incorporation of such technology in our services, (iv) we can successfully market the use of these technologies to prospective clients, (vi) we can hire and retain staff with the required specialized knowledge and skills to utilize these technologies, (vi) new cybersecurity and other threats and incidents will not arise, (vii) we can identify, mitigate or recover from cybersecurity or other adverse events that occur, (viii) we can protect and maintain the privacy of our employees and confidential and proprietary information, (ix) governmental regulation will be adopted and what such requirements will be, (x) material additional monetary and time expenditures will not be required, (xi) we can pass on costs of such technologies to clients, (xii) we can integrate other technologies we use with AI, or (xiii) AI and machine learning and other new technologies will not result in significant legal and other liabilities, challenges, regulatory or operational issues, and ethical or other dilemmas. The above risks and potential effects could result in material adverse consequences to our operations, reputation, client relationships, ability to market our services, and financial results.
In addition, AI and other technologies that are open source and available for no or low cost could result in low barriers to development and utilization, and additional competition from third parties.
Our Technology segment faces certain risks, including (i) industry consolidation and a highly competitive environment, (ii) downward pricing pressure, (iii) data breach, (iv) technology changes and obsolescence, including AI and machine learning, and (v) failure to protect intellectual property (“IP”) used by the segment, which individually or together could cause the financial results and prospects of this segment and the Company to decline.
Our Technology segment faces significant competition from other consulting and/or software providers specializing in e-discovery and the management of electronic content. There has been considerable new development and evolution of technologies such as AI and machine learning, used to perform certain services. Rapid adoption and deployment by other companies in our industry could adversely affect our ability to offer and provide competitive services. Competitors may introduce new offerings and technologies that operate more quickly, provide better outcomes or are alternatives to our service offerings. If our competitors are more successful employing new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, our financial performance and operations, competitive position and reputation may be negatively impacted.
There continues to be consolidation of companies providing products and services similar to those offered by our Technology segment, which may provide competitors access to greater financial and other resources than those of the Company. Larger competitors may be able to react more quickly to new regulatory or legal requirements and provide similar services at lower prices, particularly with respect to hosting and e-discovery services.
The success of our Technology segment and its ability to compete depends significantly on our ability to safeguard client data. There is no assurance that we will not incur losses related to cyber incidents or malicious data breach from external or internal sources in the future.
Our Technology segment also relies on the IP rights we license from third parties. There is no assurance that (i) the software we license to provide our services will remain competitive or technologically innovative, (ii) new, innovative or improved software or products will not be developed by others that will compete more effectively with the software or products we currently license or use to service our customers, or (iii) we can enter into licenses or other agreements on economically advantageous terms to utilize new or more innovative third-party software and products to provide our services. If our Technology segment is unable to license or otherwise use competitively innovative or technologically advanced software and products to provide our services, we could be unable to retain clients, grow our business and capitalize on market opportunities, which would adversely affect our operating margins and financial results, competitive position and reputation.
We face certain risks relating to cybersecurity and the failure to protect the confidentiality of our or our client’s information against misuse or disclosure.
Maintaining the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential and trade secret information is critical to maintaining the trust of our clients, the success of our segments and the reputation of our company. In addition, our Technology segment is dependent on providing secure storage of, and access to, client information as a service. Our systems, which include those of third parties on whom we rely, may fail or not operate properly or become disabled as a result of network security failures. We are subject to and routinely face cyber-based attacks and attempts by hackers and similar unauthorized users to gain access to or corrupt our information technology systems.Such attacks, if successful, could harm our overall professional reputation, disrupt our business operations, cause us to incur unanticipated losses or expenses, and result in unauthorized disclosures of
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confidential or proprietary information. We expect to continue to face such attempts. Although we seek to prevent, detect and investigate these network security incidents and have taken steps to mitigate the likelihood of network security breaches, cyber-based attacks and other cyber events are evolving, unpredictable and increasing in sophistication, including through the use of increasingly sophisticated and evolving AI technologies, and there can be no assurance that attacks by unauthorized users will not be attempted in the future or that our security measures will be effective. If we fail to effectively protect the confidentiality of our clients’ or our own IP and proprietary information from disclosure or misuse by our employees, contractors or third parties, the financial results of the affected segment or the Company and our reputation would be adversely affected. There is no certainty that we or third parties on whom we rely, can maintain the confidentiality, prevent the misuse of our own or our clients’ information or mitigate related damages. As of December 31, 2024, we are not aware of any risks from cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected us, including our business strategy, results of operations or financial condition, or that we believe are reasonably likely to have such an effect over the long term.
We may not manage our growth effectively, and our profitability may suffer.
We experience fluctuations in growth of our different segments, practices and services, including periods of rapid or declining growth. Periods of rapid expansion may strain our management team or human resources and information systems. To manage growth successfully, we may need to add qualified managers and employees and periodically update our operating, financial and other systems, as well as our internal procedures and controls. We also must effectively motivate, train and manage a larger professional staff. If we fail to add or retain qualified managers, employees and contractors when needed, estimate costs, or otherwise manage our growth effectively, our business, financial results and financial condition may suffer.
We cannot assure that we can successfully manage growth through acquisitions and the integration of the companies and assets we acquire or that they will result in the financial, operational and other benefits that we anticipate. Some acquisitions may not be immediately accretive to earnings, and some expansion may result in significant expenditures.
In periods of declining growth, underutilized employees and contractors may result in expenses and costs being a greater percentage of revenues. In such situations, we will have to weigh the benefits of decreasing our workforce or limiting our service offerings and saving costs against the detriment that the Company could experience from losing valued professionals and their industry expertise and clients.
Risks Related to Our Operations
Our operations involve financial and business risks that differ among the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions.
Our operations involve financial and business risks that differ among the U.S. and the different foreign jurisdictions in which we operate including: (i) cultural and language differences; (ii) various levels of FTI Consulting “brand” recognition; (iii) different employment laws and rules, employment or service contracts, compensation methods, and social and cultural factors that could result in employee turnover, lower utilization rates, higher costs and cyclical fluctuations in utilization that could adversely affect financial and operating results; (iv) foreign currency disruptions and currency fluctuations between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies that could adversely affect financial and operating results; (v) differing legal and regulatory requirements and other barriers to conducting business; (vi) difficulties resolving the collection of receivables when legal proceedings are necessary; (vii) difficulties in managing our non-U.S. operations, including client relationships, in certain locations; (viii) disparate systems, policies, procedures and processes; (ix) failure to comply with the FCPA and anti-bribery laws of other jurisdictions; (x) higher operating costs; (xi) longer sales and/or collections cycles; (xii) potential restrictions or adverse tax consequences resulting from the repatriation of foreign earnings, such as trapped foreign losses and importation or withholding taxes; (xiii) different or less stable political and/or economic environments; (xiv) wars and other geopolitical conflicts; (xv) conflicts between and among the U.S. and countries in which we conduct business, including those arising from trade disputes or disruptions, the termination or suspension of treaties, or boycotts; (xvi) civil disturbances or other catastrophic events that reduce business activity; (xvii) political interference with our ability to conduct business in the applicable jurisdiction; (xviii) impact of public health crises, including varying governmental responses and requirements, client impacts and travel restrictions; (xix) failure to achieve or maintain a diverse workforce or otherwise meet evolving governmental or client-related standards and requirements pertaining to ESG-related issues; and (xx) physical risks associated with climate change, including rising temperatures, severe storms, energy disruptions, fires or wildfires, flooding and rising sea levels, among others.
If we are not able to quickly adapt to or effectively manage our operations in the geographic markets in which we conduct business, our business prospects and results of operations could be negatively impacted.
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Failure to comply with governmental, regulatory and legal requirements or with our company-wide Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Anti-Corruption Policy, Policy on Inside Information and Insider Trading, and other policies could lead to governmental or legal proceedings that could expose us to significant liabilities and damage our reputation.
We have a robust Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Anti-Corruption Policy, Policy on Inside Information and Insider Trading, and other policies and procedures that are designed to educate and establish the standards of conduct that we expect from our executive officers, outside directors, employees, and independent consultants and contractors. These policies require strict compliance with U.S. and local laws and regulations applicable to our business operations, including those laws and regulations prohibiting improper payments to government officials. In addition, as a corporation whose securities are registered under the Securities Act and publicly traded on the NYSE, our executive officers, outside directors, employees and independent contractors are required to comply with the prohibitions against insider trading of our securities. In addition, we impose certain restrictions on the trading of securities of our clients. Nonetheless, we cannot assure our stakeholders that our policies, procedures and related training programs will ensure full compliance with all applicable legal requirements. Illegal or improper conduct by our executive officers, directors, employees, independent consultants or contractors, or others who are subject to our policies and procedures could damage our reputation in the U.S. and internationally, which could adversely affect our existing client relationships or adversely affect our ability to attract and retain new clients, or lead to litigation or governmental or regulatory proceedings in the U.S. or foreign jurisdictions, which could result in civil or criminal penalties, including substantial monetary awards, fines and penalties, as well as disgorgement of profits. We are also exposed to new and changing regulations related to climate change, both in the U.S. and internationally. The fast pace of changes to regulation in this area can pose compliance challenges, and we may face risks similar to those described above.
Governmental focus on data privacy and security has increased, and could continue to increase, our costs of operations.
In reaction to publicized incidents in which electronically stored personal and other information has been lost, accessed or stolen, or transmitted by or to third parties without permission, U.S. and non-U.S. governmental authorities have proposed or adopted or are considering proposing or adopting data security and/or data privacy statutes or regulations, including the California Consumer Privacy Act as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, and the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union. Continued governmental focus and regulation of data security and privacy may lead to additional legislative and regulatory actions, which could increase the complexity of doing business in the U.S. or the applicable jurisdiction. The increased emphasis on information security and the requirements to comply with applicable U.S. and foreign data security and privacy laws and regulations has increased, and is expected to continue to increase, our related costs of doing business and could negatively impact our financial results.
Changes to corporate income tax rates, legislation, rules and regulations and tax treaties in countries in which we operate may negatively impact our effective tax rate and financial results and increase our cash tax payment obligations.
Changes to corporate income tax laws and rules and regulations and tax treaties in jurisdictions where we pay taxes that increase rates, eliminate or reduce deductions or affect the utility or value of deferred tax assets or liabilities could negatively affect our reported financial results and increase our cash tax payment obligations.
We may be required to recognize goodwill impairment charges, which could materially affect our financial results.
We assess our goodwill and related intangible assets as required by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the U.S. to determine whether they are impaired and, if they are, to record appropriate impairment charges. Factors we consider include significant underperformance relative to expected historical or projected future operating results and significant negative industry or economic trends. We have previously recorded impairment charges to the carrying value of goodwill of certain segments and it is possible that we may be required to record significant impairment charges in the future. Such charges have had and could have a material adverse impact on our results of operations.
We are exposed to certain physical and regulatory risks related to climate change, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Due to the global nature of our business, we are exposed to a variety of physical risks related to climate change, including extreme temperatures, severe storms, energy disruptions, fires or wildfires, floods and rising sea levels, among others, all of which are beyond our control. There is increased regulation as well as focus from governmental organizations, and our investors, clients and employees, as well as other stakeholders and the media (including social media), on environmental- and sustainability-related issues. Governments and regulators around the world are increasingly enacting laws and regulations regarding climate change. In October 2023, California enacted legislation addressing the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, climate-related risks, environmental claims, and the use or sale of voluntary carbon offsets. In January 2023, the EU enacted the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which will require sustainability reporting across a broad range of topics for both EU and non-EU companies. Numerous countries have also begun proposing climate-reporting frameworks
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aligned with the International Sustainability Standards Board standards. The threats from environmental events could adversely impact our ability to maintain business continuity, and could impair access to our leased office space in affected geographies and the integrity of our information technology systems. Further, compliance with the disparate climate-related frameworks, including requirements related to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change by federal, state, local and foreign legislatures and governmental agencies could cause us to incur operational and other costs to comply, and penalties if we fail to do so.
Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from governmental organizations, investors, clients and our colleagues with respect to our social-related practices and those of our clients may impose additional costs on us or expose us to new or additional risks, including reputational harm.
Differing (and often conflicting) perceptions, attitudes or legal pronouncements regarding the consideration of social-related characteristics based on race, gender, sexual orientation and other attributes are complicating our ability to attract and maintain an inclusive workforce and comply with disparate U.S. federal and state and foreign legislative and court decisions. Some U.S. states, recent U.S. court decisions, the federal government and third-party activists are restricting or otherwise attempting to influence how we make and manage recruiting, hiring and other employment decisions. This contrasts with regulations being adopted by certain foreign jurisdictions in which we operate, the demands of many of our investors and other stakeholders, as well as third-party proxy and other advisory firms who provide information to investors on corporate governance and related matters, who encourage or demand heightened consideration of diversity-related factors, including the reporting of characteristics of our employee populations, as well as reporting of our recruitment, hiring and other employment processes. Consequently, our employment processes, human capital management, risk management and reporting functions have become more complicated. Any failure to comply with U.S. federal and state and international laws and regulations or court decisions, or to meet the evolving expectations of our investors, other stakeholders and interested parties, and the media (including social media), could result in legal or regulatory proceedings against us, increased adverse public scrutiny, client dissatisfaction, reputational harm, employee disenfranchisement, increased employee turnover and other challenges in retaining, recruiting and hiring employees, which may give rise to damages or penalties, and materially adversely affect our business, financial results and stock performance.
Our business depends on our ability to use and access information systems, and modernize or replace such systems from time to time, and failure to effectively maintain such systems or modernize or replace systems could materially adversely affect our business and operations and harm our reputation.
We depend on multiple information systems, including our enterprise resource planning system, for operating our business and internal controls. We utilize commercially available third-party technology solutions, which in many cases are customized to our business needs. Our information systems may be compromised by power outages, computer and telecommunications failures, computer viruses, security breaches, hackers, catastrophic events, human error and other events, many of which are beyond our control, and are subject to obsolescence and technological changes. Delays in implementing our information systems, upgrading such systems or failure of such systems to work properly or if any of them should become unavailable, could require us to expend substantial time, effort and costs to adjust our processes, implement changes or corrections, or repair or replace such systems, to carry out our operations, including preparation of our financial statements and to maintain the effectiveness of our internal controls. Failure, delays or compromise of any such information system or material functions, could harm our reputation or our clients, and expose us to claims that could adversely affect our business and results.
The compromise of confidential or proprietary information could damage our reputation, harm our businesses and adversely impact our financial results.
The Company’s own confidential and proprietary information and that of our clients or vendors could be compromised, whether intentionally or unintentionally, by our employees, consultants, contractors or vendors. In addition, physical risks associated with climate change, including energy disruptions, flooding, fires or wildfires, and other events, may adversely impact the integrity of our information technology systems. Any significant compromise of the security of our information technology systems leading to theft or misuse of our own or our clients’ proprietary or confidential information, or the public disclosure or use of such information by others, could result in losses, damages or penalties, third-party claims, reputational harm and the loss of clients and other adverse business consequences, which could negatively impact our financial results or financial condition.
Furthermore, the use or misuse of social media by employees or others could reflect negatively on us or our clients and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The available legal remedies for the use or misuse of social media may not adequately compensate us for the damages caused by such use or misuse and consequences arising from such actions.
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Risks Related to Our People
Our failure to recruit and retain qualified professionals and manage headcount needs and utilization could negatively affect our financial results and our ability to staff client engagements, maintain relationships with clients and drive future growth.
We deliver sophisticated professional services to our clients. Our success and future growth is dependent, in large part, on our ability to keep our supply of skills and human resources in balance with client demand around the world. To attract and retain clients, we need to demonstrate professional acumen and build trust and strong relationships. Our professionals have highly specialized skills. They also develop strong bonds with the clients they serve, which is a critical element in obtaining and maintaining client engagements. Our continued success depends upon our ability to attract and retain professionals who have expertise, a good reputation and client relationships critical to maintaining and developing our business. We face intense competition in recruiting and retaining highly qualified professionals to drive our organic growth and support expansion of our services and geographic footprint. We incur significant expenses, time and resources to train, integrate and develop our professionals. We experience attrition of highly qualified professionals in the normal course of our business. We cannot assure that we will be able to attract or retain any particular qualified professionals or replace those that choose to leave us, or maintain or expand our business. If we are unable to successfully integrate, motivate, retain or replace qualified professionals, our ability to continue to secure or perform work may suffer. Competition and third-party recruiting efforts targeting professionals with expertise relevant to our business have accelerated and have caused our costs of retaining and hiring qualified professionals to increase. That is a trend that we see continuing and that has contributed and in the future is likely to continue to contribute to increased costs of operations and, in some cases, lower operating margins. In addition, the departure of one professional may lead to the departure of other professionals who have worked together here and desire to continue to work together elsewhere.
Despite fixed terms or renewal provisions, we face retention issues during and at the end of the terms of those agreements and large compensation expenses to secure extensions. There is no assurance we will enter into new or extend existing employment agreements with professionals subject to written employment agreements. We monitor contract expirations carefully to commence dialogues with professionals regarding their employment in advance of the actual contract expiration dates. Our goal is to renew employment agreements when advisable and to stagger the expirations of the agreements if possible. Because of the concentration of contract expirations in certain years, we may experience high turnover or other adverse consequences, such as higher costs, loss of clients and engagements or difficulty in staffing engagements, if we are unable to renegotiate employment agreements or the costs of retaining qualified professionals become too high. The implementation of new compensation arrangements may result in the concentration of potential turnover in future years.
Our people are our primary assets and account for the majority of our expenses. During periods of reduced demand for our services, or in response to unfavorable changes in market or industry conditions, we may seek to align our cost structure more closely with our revenues and increase our utilization rates by reducing headcount and eliminating or consolidating underused locations in affected reportable segments or practices. Following such actions, in response to subsequent increases in demand for our services, including as a result of favorable changes in market or industry conditions, we may need to hire, train and integrate additional qualified and skilled personnel and may be unable to do so to meet our needs or our clients’ demands on a timely basis. If we are unable to manage staffing levels on a timely basis in light of changing opportunities or conditions, our ability to accept or service business opportunities and client engagements, take advantage of positive market and industry developments, and realize future growth could be negatively affected, which could negatively impact our revenues and profitability. In addition, while increased utilization resulting from headcount reductions may enhance our profitability in the near term, it could negatively affect our business over the longer term by limiting the time our professionals have to seek out and cultivate new client relationships and win new projects.
We incur substantial costs to hire and retain our professionals, and we expect these costs to continue and to grow.
We may pay hiring or retention bonuses to secure the services of professionals and maintain incentive compensation programs for their benefit. Payments have taken the form of unsecured general recourse forgivable loans, stock options, restricted stock, cash-based stock appreciation rights and other equity- and cash-based awards, and cash payments to attract and retain our professional employees. We may provide forgivable or other types of loans under our incentive compensation programs, or to new hires and professionals who join us in connection with acquisitions, as well as to select current employees and other professionals on a case-by-case basis. The aggregate amount of loans to professionals is significant. We expect to continue issuing unsecured general recourse forgivable loans.
In addition, our Economic Consulting segment has contracts with select economists or professionals that provide for compensation equal to a percentage of such individual’s annual collected client fees plus a percentage of the annual fees generated by junior professionals working on engagements managed by such professionals, which results in compensation expenses for that segment being a higher percentage of segment revenues and Adjusted Segment EBITDA than the
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compensation paid by other segments. We expect that these arrangements will continue, and the Company has and will continue to enter into similar arrangements with other economists and professionals hired by the Company.
In some cases, however, we have been, and in the future expect that we will continue to be, unsuccessful in reaching agreement on compensation or other key employment terms with certain highly qualified professionals who then choose to leave the Company. Such professionals will often pursue other business and professional opportunities and may compete with the Company for clients and/or employees. These situations have increased, and we expect that they will continue into the future to increase, our costs to retain other professionals at the Company and impact our ability to retain existing clients and win new engagements.
We rely heavily on our executive officers and the heads of our segments and industry and regional leaders for the success of our business, the loss of whom may negatively impact our business and operations.
We rely heavily on our executive officers and our segment, industry and regional leaders to manage our operations. Given the highly specialized nature of our services and the scale of our operations, our executive officers and the heads of our segments and industry and regional leaders must have a thorough understanding of our service offerings, as well as the skills and experience necessary to manage a large organization in diverse geographic locations. We are unable to predict with certainty the impact that leadership transitions and the loss of certain employees in leadership roles may have on our business operations, prospects, financial results, client relationships, or employee retention or morale. If one or more of our leaders leave and cannot be replaced with a suitable candidate quickly, we could experience difficulty in securing and successfully completing engagements and managing our operations, which could harm our business, prospects and financial results.
Professionals may leave our Company to form or join competitors or clients, and the loss of such professionals may negatively impact our business and operations.
Our professionals typically have close relationships with the clients they serve, based on their expertise and bonds of personal trust and confidence. Therefore, the barriers to our professionals pursuing independent business opportunities or joining our competitors or clients are low. Although our clients generally contract for services with us as a company, and not with an individual, in the event that a professional leaves, such clients may decide that they prefer to continue working with a specific professional rather than with our Company. This has occurred in the past, and we expect that it will continue to occur from time to time in the future.
We may not have, or may choose not to pursue, legal recourse against professionals that leave our Company to join competitors or clients.
While our written employment agreements with our Senior Managing Directors and equivalent employees may include non-competition and non-solicitation clauses, such clauses may offer us only limited or no protections and may be unenforceable in one or more jurisdictions. Further, in certain jurisdictions, non-competition clauses have been abolished or banned. These restrictions on our ability to adopt or enforce non-competition and non-solicitation clauses may increase turnover and compensation costs to hire and retain professionals, and may adversely impact our ability to hire, maintain and increase headcount, and our ability to service and keep our clients and secure engagements.
When inclusion of a non-competition clause is appropriate, we have generally drafted the restrictions to seek to comply with applicable state law, including “reasonableness” standards regarding scope and duration. However, changes in state laws and rules and new court decisions can raise questions about the enforceability of contractual restrictions that, when originally agreed, appeared to be enforceable. In the case of employees outside the U.S., we draft non-competition provisions in an effort to comply with applicable foreign law. In the event an employee departs and acts in a way that we believe violates an applicable non-competition or non-solicitation agreement, we will consider any available legal remedies we may have against such person on a case-by-case basis. We may decide that preserving cooperation and a professional relationship with a former employee or client, or other concerns, outweigh the potential benefits of litigation or other options to seek legal or equitable remedies. We may also decide that the likelihood of success does not justify the costs of pursuing a claim. Accordingly, there may be times we may decide not to pursue legal action, even if it is available. If we do decide to pursue legal action, we will incur additional costs as a result of such action.
Our failure to achieve and maintain an inclusive workforce may impair our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, win and maintain clients, or attract investment, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial results, as well as reputational harm.
As a global company, our talent and retention initiatives are designed to create an inclusive workforce. We believe that a workforce that reflects the myriad identities of our clients and vendors with whom we do business, our stakeholders and the populations of the regions in which we have operations results in best in class advice to our clients, improves the quality of our
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services, promotes employee satisfaction and retention, and increases the overall value of our business. We promote inclusion through education, training and development opportunities. Failure to maintain an inclusive workforce may adversely affect our business.
Risks Related to Our Client Relationships
Damage to our reputation could result in material adverse consequences to our business and adversely impact our client engagements and financial results.
Damage to our reputation or the reputations of key members of our workforce could materially and adversely affect our business and operations in many possible ways, including among, other things: (i) difficulty retaining clients or securing client referrals or new clients; (ii) adverse publicity and public comments; (iii) activist social media and other campaigns targeting our or our clients’ businesses and activities; (iv) increased employee turnover or difficulty recruiting and hiring staff; and (v) public scrutiny. Given the frequently high-profile nature of the matters we work on, any factor that diminishes our reputation or the reputation of any of our professionals could put us at a competitive disadvantage and adversely affect our business, prospects and financial results.
If we are unable to accept or continue client engagements due to real or perceived relationship issues, our revenues, growth, client engagements and prospects may be negatively affected.
From time to time we decide that we cannot or should not accept an engagement from an existing or prospective client or represent multiple clients in connection with the same or competitive engagements. In addition, upon occasion, we decide that we should or must resign from a client engagement. Such decisions may negatively impact our revenues, growth and financial results. While we follow internal practices to assess real and potential issues in the relationships between and among our clients, engagements, segments, practices and professionals, such concerns cannot always be avoided. For example, we generally will not represent parties adverse to each other in the same matter. Under U.S. federal bankruptcy rules, we generally may not represent both a debtor and its creditors in the same proceeding, and we are required to notify the U.S. Trustee of real or potential conflicts. Even if we begin a bankruptcy-related engagement, the U.S. Trustee could find that we no longer meet the disinterestedness standard because of real or potential changes in our status as a disinterested party and order us to resign, which could result in disgorgement of fees. Future acquisitions may require us to resign from a client engagement because of relationship issues that are not currently identifiable. In addition, businesses that we acquire or employees who join us may not be free to accept engagements they could have accepted prior to our acquisition or hire because of relationship issues.
Claims involving our services or adverse publicity could harm our overall professional reputation and our ability to compete and attract business or hire or retain qualified professionals.
Our engagements involve matters that may result in a severe impact on a client’s business, cause the client a substantial monetary loss or prevent the client from pursuing business opportunities. Our ability to attract new clients and generate new and repeat engagements or hire professionals depends upon our ability to maintain a high degree of client satisfaction, as well as our reputation among industry professionals. As a result, any claims against us involving the quality of our services may be more damaging than similar claims against businesses in other industries.
From time to time, we may accept clients or perform engagements that may be viewed as controversial or that generate adverse publicity relating to our involvement or the services that we provide, including work we do for clients in high emissions industries. Such controversial engagements or negative reactions may adversely affect our reputation or the reputations of our employees and other professionals who provide services, or may otherwise harm our ability to attract or retain clients, employees and other professionals, all of which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations, business or prospects.
We may incur significant costs and may lose engagements as a result of claims by our clients regarding our services.
Many of our engagements involve complex analysis and the exercise of professional judgment, including litigation and governmental investigatory matters where we act as experts. Therefore, we are subject to the risk of professional and other liabilities. Although we believe we maintain an appropriate amount of insurance, it is limited. Damages and/or expenses resulting from any successful claim against us, for indemnity or otherwise, in excess of the amount of insurance coverage will be borne directly by us and could harm our profitability and financial resources. Any claim by a client or third-party against us could expose us to reputational issues that adversely affect our ability to attract new or maintain existing engagements or clients or qualified professionals or other employees, consultants or contractors.
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Our clients may terminate our engagements with little or no notice and without penalty, which may result in unexpected declines in our utilization and revenues.
Our engagements center on transactions, disputes, litigation and other event-driven occurrences that require independent analysis or expert services. Transactions may be postponed or canceled, litigation may be settled or dismissed, and disputes may be resolved, in each case with little or no prior notice to us. If we cannot manage our work in process, our professionals may be underutilized until we can reassign them or obtain new engagements, which can adversely affect financial results.
The engagement letters that we typically enter into with clients do not obligate them to continue to use our services. Typically, our engagement letters permit clients to terminate our services at any time without penalty. In addition, our business involves large client engagements that we staff with a substantial number of professionals. At any time, one or more client engagements may represent a significant portion of a segment’s revenues. If we are unable to replace clients or revenues as engagements end or if clients unexpectedly cancel engagements with us or curtail the scope of our engagements and we are unable to replace the revenues from those engagements, eliminate the costs associated with those engagements or find other engagements to utilize our professionals, the financial results of the Company could be adversely affected.
We may not have, or may choose not to pursue, legal remedies against clients that terminate their engagements.
The engagement letters that we typically have with clients do not obligate them to continue to use our services and permit them to terminate the engagement without penalty at any time. Even if the termination of an ongoing engagement by a client could constitute a breach of the client’s engagement agreement, we may decide that preserving the overall client relationship is more important than seeking damages for the breach and, for that or other reasons, decide not to pursue any legal remedies against a client, even though such remedies may be available to us. We make the determination whether to pursue any legal actions against a client on a case-by-case basis.
Risks Related to Competition
If we fail to compete effectively, we may miss business opportunities or lose existing clients, and our revenues and profitability may decline.
The market for some of our consulting services is highly competitive. We do not compete against the same companies across all of our segments, practices, services, industries or geographic regions. Instead, we compete with different companies or businesses of companies depending on the particular nature of a proposed engagement and the types of requested service(s) and the location of the client or delivery of the service(s). Our operations are highly competitive.
Our competitors include large organizations, such as the global accounting firms and the large management and financial consulting companies that offer a broad range of consulting services; investment banking firms; IT consulting and software companies, which offer niche services that are the same or similar to services or products offered by one or more of our segments; and small firms and independent contractors that focus on specialized services. Some of our competitors have significantly more financial resources, a larger national or international presence, larger professional staffs and greater brand recognition than we do. Some have lower overhead and other costs and can compete through lower cost-service offerings.
Since our business depends in large part on professional relationships, our business has low barriers to entry for professionals electing to start their own firms or work independently. In addition, it is relatively easy for professionals to change employers.
If we cannot compete effectively or if the costs of competing, including the costs of hiring and retaining professionals, become too expensive, our revenue growth and financial results could be negatively affected and may differ materially from our expectations.
Our competitors may adopt and deploy new technologies, such as AI and machine learning, more rapidly or successfully than we do, which may materially adversely affect our competitive position, operations and financial results.
We may face competition from parties who sell us their businesses and from professionals who cease working for us.
In connection with our acquisitions, we generally obtain non-solicitation agreements from the professionals we hire, as well as non-competition agreements from senior managers and professionals. The agreements prohibit such individuals from competing with us during the term of their employment and for a fixed period afterward and from seeking to solicit our employees or clients. In some cases, but not all, we may obtain non-competition or non-solicitation agreements from parties who sell us their businesses or assets. The duration of post-employment non-competition and non-solicitation agreements typically ranges from six to 12 months. Non-competition agreements with the sellers of businesses or assets that we acquire typically continue longer than 12 months. Certain activities may be carved out of, or otherwise may not be prohibited by, these
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arrangements. We cannot assure that one or more of the parties from whom we acquire a business or assets, or who do not join us or leave our employment, will not compete with us or solicit our employees or clients in the future. States and foreign jurisdictions may interpret restrictions on competition narrowly and in favor of employees or sellers. Therefore, certain restrictions on competition or solicitation may be unenforceable. In addition, we may not pursue legal remedies if we determine that preserving cooperation and a professional relationship with a former employee or his or her clients, or other concerns, outweighs the benefits of any possible legal recourse or the likelihood of success does not justify the costs of pursuing a legal remedy. Such persons, because they have worked for our Company or a business that we acquire, may be able to compete more effectively with us, or be more successful in soliciting our employees and clients, than unaffiliated third parties.
Risks Related to Acquisitions
We may have difficulty integrating acquisitions or convincing clients to allow assignment of their engagements to us, which can increase costs of, and reduce the benefits we receive from, acquisitions.
The process of managing and integrating acquisitions into our existing operations may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and may require significant financial, operational and managerial resources that would otherwise be available for the operation, development and organic expansion of our existing operations. To the extent that we misjudge our ability to effectively manage and integrate acquisitions, we may have difficulty achieving our operating, strategic and financial objectives.
Acquisitions also may involve a number of special financial, business and operational risks, such as: (i) difficulties in integrating diverse corporate cultures and management styles; (ii) disparate policies and practices; (iii) client relationship issues; (iv) decreased utilization during the integration process; (v) loss of key existing or acquired personnel; (vi) increased costs to improve or coordinate managerial, operational, financial and administrative systems; (vii) dilutive issuances of equity securities, including convertible debt securities, to finance acquisitions; (viii) the assumption of legal liabilities; (ix) future earn-out payments or other price adjustments; (x) potential future write-offs relating to the impairment of goodwill or other acquired intangible assets or the revaluation of assets; (xi) difficulty or inability to collect receivables; and (xii) undisclosed liabilities.
In addition to the integration challenges mentioned above, our acquisitions of non-U.S. companies offer distinct integration challenges relating to foreign laws and governmental regulations, including tax and employee benefit laws, and other factors relating to operating in countries other than the U.S., which we have addressed above in the discussion regarding the difficulties we may face operating globally.
Asset transactions may require us to seek client consents to the assignment of their engagements to us or a subsidiary. All clients may not consent to assignments. In certain cases, such as government contracts and bankruptcy engagements, the consent of clients cannot be solicited until after the acquisition has closed. Further, such engagements may be subject to security clearance requirements or bidding provisions with which we might not be able to comply. There is no assurance that clients of the acquired entity or local, state, federal or foreign governments will agree to novate or assign their contracts to us.
The Company may also hire groups of selected professionals from another company. In such event, there may be restrictions on the ability of the professionals who join the Company to compete and work on client engagements. In addition, the Company may enter into arrangements with the former employers of those professionals regarding limitations on their work until any time restrictions pass. In such circumstances, there is no assurance that the Company will enter into mutually agreeable arrangements with any former employer, and the utilization of such professionals may be limited, and our financial results could be negatively affected until their restrictions end. The Company could also face litigation risks from group hires. Risks relating to claims or litigation relating to breach of applicable restrictive covenants by such new hires may result in the Company being subject to monetary damages, which could be significant, and could delay or restrict the ability of such new hires to provide services as employees of the Company.
We may have different systems of governance and management from a company we acquire or its parent, which could cause professionals who join us from an acquired company to leave us.
Our governance and management policies and practices will not mirror the policies and practices of an acquired company or its parent. In some cases, different management practices and policies may lead to workplace dissatisfaction on the part of professionals who join our Company. Some professionals may choose not to join our Company or leave after joining us. Existing professionals may leave us as well. The loss of key professionals may harm our business and financial results and cause us not to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition.
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Risks Related to Our Indebtedness
Our leverage could adversely affect our financial condition or operating flexibility if the Company fails to comply with operating covenants under applicable debt instruments.
Our senior secured bank revolving credit facility (“Credit Facility”), or our other indebtedness outstanding from time to time, contains or may contain operating covenants that may, subject to exceptions, limit our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to, among other things: (i) create, incur or assume certain liens; (ii) make certain restricted payments, investments and loans; (iii) create, incur or assume additional indebtedness or guarantees; (iv) create restrictions on the payment of dividends or other distributions to us from our restricted subsidiaries; (v) engage in M&A transactions, consolidations, sale-leasebacks, joint ventures, and asset and security sales and dispositions; (vi) pay dividends or redeem or repurchase our capital stock; (vii) alter the business that we and our subsidiaries conduct; (viii) engage in certain transactions with affiliates; (ix) modify the terms of certain indebtedness; (x) prepay, redeem or purchase certain indebtedness; and (xi) make material changes to accounting and reporting practices.
In addition, the Credit Facility includes a financial covenant that requires us not to exceed a maximum consolidated total net leverage ratio (the ratio of funded debt (less unrestricted cash up to $300.0 million) to Consolidated EBITDA, as defined in the Credit Facility).
Operating results below a certain level or other adverse factors, including a significant increase in interest rates, could result in us being unable to comply with certain covenants. If we violate any applicable covenants and are unable to obtain waivers, our agreements governing our indebtedness or other applicable agreement could be declared in default and could be accelerated, which could permit, in the case of secured debt, the lenders to foreclose on our assets securing the debt thereunder. If the indebtedness is accelerated, we may not be able to repay our debt or borrow sufficient funds to refinance it. Even if we are able to obtain new financing, it may not be on commercially reasonable terms or on terms that are acceptable to us. If our debt is in default for any reason, our cash flows, financial results or financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, complying with these covenants may cause us to take actions that are not favorable to holders of our outstanding indebtedness and may make it more difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy and compete against companies that are not subject to such restrictions.
We and our subsidiaries may incur significant additional indebtedness.
We and our subsidiaries may incur substantial additional indebtedness, including additional secured indebtedness, in the future. The terms of the agreements governing our Credit Facility and other indebtedness limit, but do not prohibit, us from incurring additional indebtedness.
Our ability to incur additional indebtedness may have the effect of reducing the funds available to pay amounts due with respect to our indebtedness. If we incur new indebtedness or other liabilities, the related risks that we and our subsidiaries may face could intensify.
We may be unable to generate sufficient cash to service our indebtedness, and we may be forced to take actions to satisfy our payment obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our indebtedness depends on our future performance, including the performance of our subsidiaries, which will be affected by financial, business and economic conditions, competition and other factors. We will not be able to control many of these factors, such as the general economy, economic conditions in the industries in which we operate and competitive pressures. Our cash flows may not be sufficient to allow us to pay principal and interest on our indebtedness and to meet our other obligations. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to sell assets, seek additional capital, or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. In addition, the terms of existing or future debt agreements, including our Credit Facility, may restrict us from pursuing any of these alternatives.
In the event that we need to refinance all or a portion of our outstanding indebtedness before maturity or as it matures, we may not be able to obtain terms as favorable as the terms of our existing indebtedness or refinance our existing indebtedness at all. If interest rates or other factors existing at the time of refinancing result in higher interest rates upon refinancing, we will incur higher interest expense. Furthermore, if any rating agency changes our credit rating or outlook, our debt and equity securities could be negatively affected, which could adversely affect our financial condition and financial results.
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Our Credit Facility is guaranteed by substantially all of our wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries and will be required to be guaranteed by future wholly-owned domestic subsidiaries, including those that join us in connection with acquisitions.
Substantially all of our wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries guarantee our obligations under our Credit Facility, and substantially all of their assets are pledged as collateral under the Credit Facility. Future wholly-owned U.S. subsidiaries, subject to certain exclusions, will be required to provide similar guarantees and asset pledges under the Credit Facility. If we default on any guaranteed indebtedness, our U.S. subsidiaries that are guarantors could be required to make payments under their guarantees, and the lenders under our Credit Facility could foreclose on certain of our U.S. subsidiaries’ assets to satisfy unpaid obligations, which could materially adversely affect our business and financial results.
Our variable rate indebtedness will subject us to interest rate risk, which could cause our annual debt service obligations to increase significantly.
Borrowings under our Credit Facility will be at variable rates of interest, including for U.S. Dollar borrowings at the Secured Overnight Financing Rate and, for borrowings in British Pound, the Sterling Overnight Index Average, which expose us to interest rate risk. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our cash flows could be adversely affected. An increase in debt service obligations under our variable rate indebtedness could affect our ability to make payments required under the terms of the agreements governing our indebtedness or our other indebtedness outstanding from time to time.
ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
None.
ITEM 1C. CYBERSECURITY
Risk Management and Strategy
We operate our segments and their practices through FTI Consulting and its subsidiaries in 34 countries with different business, client, and geographic cybersecurity risk profiles. We aim to proactively identify and assess our vulnerability to cybersecurity threats and actual cybersecurity incidents on an ongoing basis at both the enterprise level, as well as at a more operational level, differentiating unique risks related to our segments, practices, clients, employees, and the locations in which business is conducted. Our Information Technology Group (“ITG”) helps monitor and analyze cybersecurity incidents and risks and our progress mitigating and resolving such threats. This information is regularly discussed with our outside directors and executive management.
Approach and Integration
Cybersecurity risk is integrated and managed as part of our broader enterprise risk management program under the direction of our Vice President – Chief Risk and Compliance Officer – who works closely with our Chief Information Officer and others, including the Head of our Cybersecurity & Privacy division to help identify, review, assess and address cybersecurity and other security risks. Our Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Chief Information Officer and the Head of our Cybersecurity & Privacy division are members of the Company’s cybersecurity response team (the “Cyber Response Team”). The Cyber Response Team’s responsibilities include maintaining a Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan, which sets out a path for how cyber threats and incidents are identified and escalated up to and including the Board of Directors and other leadership, when appropriate. Direct threats are escalated promptly to the appropriate team, following a path that considers both the nature of the threat, the level of risk, and the degree to which it has been substantiated. Indirect threats, such as third-party incidents, are escalated through the ITG to the appropriate corporate functions, as the situation warrants.
Third-Party Engagement and Oversight
Where appropriate, we engage reputable third-party vendors to provide cybersecurity-related services, including security monitoring, risk evaluations, penetration testing, audit, and incident response services, which are aligned with internationally accepted frameworks. Our vendors are selected based on specific due diligence activities, such as evaluations of controls, policies, and processes of such vendors for protecting data, and resolving incidents, as well as entering into written contracts with such vendors that include terms addressing data security, privacy, and incident response expectations, responsibilities and liabilities, and termination rights of the parties. We routinely monitor vendor performance, review compliance with contract terms, and address concerns.
Further, our Vendor Code of Conduct addresses our expectations with respect to data security. When our Procurement group processes a vendor relationship involving information systems, various groups will review the vendor and its systems for
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potential data security-related issues and risks associated with using the tools, technology, data processing and other services of such vendor. Our contracts include terms that help address the safeguarding of our data.
Incident Response Plan and Training
In the event of the detection of a potentially significant cybersecurity incident or threat, an escalation of cybersecurity threat, or changes with respect to a current incident, the Company has processes in place to notify relevant employees who assist in the response, as well as third-party vendors. Our ITG and management, in consultation with the Company’s third-party legal counsel and accountants, will assess materiality, informed by ongoing discussions about what criteria would constitute potential materiality considerations. The Audit Committee and necessary directors will be informed of all material events.
To educate our management, employees, and consultants, and help mitigate the risk of human failure in exposing our Information Technology systems to cybersecurity threats from bad actors; management, employees, and consultants are required to complete on-line cybersecurity training annually. We also provide regular reminders to employees regarding suspicious emails or other communications and conduct periodic phishing simulations and remedial spot testing and training to reinforce recognition and response techniques.
In 2024, we conducted two tabletop exercises, simulating cybersecurity events and appropriate responses, with the senior leadership team of FTI including an executive officer and an outside director. We intend to continue to conduct such simulation training with this group on a periodic basis. Other directors and officers of the Company have been and will continue to be given the opportunity to participate in such training. In addition, our outside directors are encouraged to attend continuing education relating to cybersecurity.
Materiality of Risks
We are subject to and routinely face cyber-based attacks and attempts by hackers and similar unauthorized users seeking to gain access to or corrupt our information technology systems. Since the beginning of the last fiscal year, we have not identified risks from known cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, that have materially affected us, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition, or that we believe are reasonably likely to have such an effect over the long term. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to successfully mitigate the negative impacts of cybersecurity threats in the future. Accordingly, we continue to prioritize our cybersecurity risk management despite the lack of identified material impacts to date.
Governance
Management and Board of Directors’ Role
The Audit Committee meets regularly with management to help manage and assess risk exposures and potential damages related to information security, cybersecurity, and data protection and the steps management has taken to help identify, monitor, and control such exposures, as well as associated mitigation and remediation action, and actions to continue our operations. Information distributed to and discussed with the Audit Committee includes data on cybersecurity incidents and risks, company-wide enterprise risks, training programs, risk assessments, internal controls, security software, incident response plans, and forward-looking information security and business continuity strategies.The Audit Committee reports directly to the Board of Directors on a quarterly basis.
Expertise of Management
Our Chief Information Officer, who has led our ITG since 1999, holds degrees in Cybersecurity Management and Policy and Information Management and is certified in various information security applications. The Head of our Cybersecurity and Privacy division has been with FTI since 2007 and has extensive experience in the cybersecurity field. The members of Cybersecurity & Privacy division have experience and education in cybersecurity, risk management, data assurance, and compliance. Among them they hold various certifications in information systems security and privacy. The practices and activities of our cybersecurity and information technology teams align with internationally accepted management frameworks.
Furthermore, we offer cybersecurity consulting as a service to clients. Our client-facing cybersecurity and information security experts periodically advise our cybersecurity and information technology teams regarding best practices. In addition, from time-to-time, they address our executives, directors, and other segment or regional leaders regarding complex issues faced by other companies that arise from data-security-related challenges. Among other things, they discuss new and evolving types and levels of threats and attacks, hacking and ransomware, foreign actors, risks driven by new and evolving technologies, including artificial intelligence, potential damages, and liability, and technological and other solutions potentially available to mitigate such risks, as well as other company responses. The existence of this team within FTI aids in our ability to have current incident and threat intelligence that we can use to bolster our own security posture and defenses. Our cybersecurity practice also
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provides us with supplemental incident response investigation services in partnership with independent, external consultants, as needed and as appropriate.
For additional information on the risks we face related to cyber and information security threats, please see the related risk factor in Item 1A. Risk Factors.
ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Our executive offices located in Washington, D.C., consist of 100,511 square feet under a lease expiring April 2028. Our principal corporate office located in Bowie, Maryland, consists of 30,835 square feet under a lease expiring April 2028. We also lease offices to support our operations in 30 other cities across the U.S., including New York, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and we lease office space to support our international locations in 33 countries and territories — the UK, Ireland, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Australia, Malaysia, China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, India, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands (British). We believe our existing leased facilities are adequate to meet our current requirements and that suitable space will be available as needed.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
From time to time in the ordinary course of business, we are subject to claims, asserted or unasserted, or named as a party to lawsuits or investigations. Litigation, in general, and IP and securities litigation, in particular, can be expensive and disruptive to normal business operations. Moreover, the results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with any certainty, and in the case of more complex legal proceedings, such as IP and securities litigation, the results are difficult to predict at all. We evaluate litigation claims and legal proceedings to assess the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes and to estimate, if possible, the amount of potential losses. Based on these assessments and estimates, we establish reserves and/or disclose the relevant litigation claims or legal proceedings, as appropriate. These assessments and estimates are based on the information available to management at the time and involve a significant amount of management judgment. Actual outcomes or losses may differ materially from those anticipated at the time. We currently are not aware of any asserted or unasserted legal proceedings or claims that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of our operations.
ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES
Not applicable.
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PART II
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES
Common Stock
Our common stock currently trades on the New York Stock Exchange (the “NYSE”) under the symbol FCN. As of January 31, 2025, the number of holders of record of our common stock was 297, which does not include a substantially greater number of beneficial holders whose shares are held by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.
Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans
The following table includes the number of shares of common stock of the Company authorized or to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights awarded under our employee equity compensation plans as of December 31, 2024:
(a) (b) (c)
Plan Category (in thousands, except per share data)
(1)Includes up to 60,063 shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of fully vested stock options granted under our 2009 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan (as Amended and Restated Effective as of June 3, 2015).
(2)Includes 644,842 shares of common stock available for issuance under our 2017 Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plan, all of which are available for stock-based awards.
Sales of Unregistered Securities
None.
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Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers
The following table provides information with respect to purchases we made of our common stock during the fourth quarter of 2024:
(in thousands, except per share data)
(1)On June 2, 2016, our Board of Directors authorized a stock repurchase program (the “Repurchase Program”), which was most recently increased by $400.0 million to an aggregate authorization of $1.3 billion on December 1, 2022. No time limit has been established for the completion of the Repurchase Program, and the Repurchase Program may be suspended, discontinued or replaced by the Board of Directors at any time without prior notice. During the quarter ended December 31, 2024, we repurchased an aggregate of 51,717 shares of our common stock under the Repurchase Program at an average price of $197.53 per share for a total cost of approximately $10.2 million.
(2)Includes 4,460 shares of common stock withheld to cover payroll tax withholdings related to the lapse of restrictions on restricted stock.
(3)Includes 3,464 shares of common stock withheld to cover payroll tax withholdings related to the lapse of restrictions on restricted stock.
(4)Includes 3,710 shares of common stock withheld to cover payroll tax withholdings related to the lapse of restrictions on restricted stock.
(5)During the month ended November 30, 2024, we repurchased and retired 41,417 shares of common stock, at an average price per share of $197.29, for an aggregate cost of $8.2 million.
(6)During the month ended December 31, 2024, we repurchased and retired 10,300 shares of common stock, at an average price per share of $198.50, for an aggregate cost of $2.0 million.
ITEM 6. RESERVED
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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The following is a discussion and analysis of our consolidated financial condition, results of operations and liquidity and capital resources for each of the two years in the period ended December 31, 2024 and significant factors that could affect our prospective financial condition and results of operations. This discussion should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the “Annual Report”). For a similar discussion and analysis of our results for the year ended December 31, 2023 compared to our results for the year ended December 31, 2022, refer to Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the United States (“U.S.”) Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 22, 2024. Historical results and any discussion of prospective results may not indicate our future performance.
Business Overview
FTI Consulting, Inc., including its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively, the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “FTI Consulting”) is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. Individually, each of our segments and practices is staffed with experts recognized for the depth of their knowledge and a track record of making an impact. Collectively, FTI Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist clients across the business cycle, from proactive risk management to rapid response to unexpected events and dynamic environments.
We report financial results for the following five reportable segments:
Our Corporate Finance & Restructuring (“Corporate Finance”) segment focuses on the strategic, operational, financial, transactional and capital needs of our clients around the world. Our clients include companies, boards of directors, investors, private equity sponsors, lenders, and other financing sources and creditor groups, as well as other parties-in-interest and governments. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Transactions, Transformation & Strategy and Turnaround & Restructuring.
Our Forensic and Litigation Consulting (“FLC”) segment provides law firms, companies, boards of directors, government entities, private equity firms and other interested parties with a multidisciplinary and independent range of services across risk & investigations and disputes, supported by our data & analytics technology-enabled solutions, with a focus on highly regulated industries. Our services are centered around five core offerings: Construction, Projects & Assets and Environmental Solutions, Data & Analytics, Disputes, Healthcare Risk Management & Advisory and Risk and Investigations.
Our Economic Consulting segment, including subsidiary Compass Lexecon LLC, provides law firms, companies, government entities and other interested parties with analyses of complex economic issues for use in international arbitration, legal and regulatory proceedings and strategic decision making and public policy debates around the world. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Antitrust & Competition Economics, Financial Economics and International Arbitration.
Our Technology segment provides companies, law firms, private equity firms and government entities with a comprehensive global portfolio of digital insights and risk management consulting and data services. Our professionals help organizations better address risk as the growing volume and variety of enterprise and emerging data intersects with legal, regulatory and compliance needs. We deliver a wide range of expert and analytics-powered solutions driven by investigations, litigation, antitrust and competition, M&A, restructuring and compliance and risk through three core offerings: Corporate Legal Department Consulting, E-discovery and Analytics Services and Expertise, and Information Governance, Privacy & Security Services.
Our Strategic Communications segment develops and executes communications strategies to help management teams, boards of directors, law firms, governments and regulators manage change and mitigate risk surrounding transformational and disruptive events, including transactions, investigations, disputes, crises, regulation and legislation. We deliver a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: Corporate Reputation, Financial Communications and Public Affairs.
We derive substantially all of our revenues from providing professional services to both U.S. and international clients. Most of our services are rendered under time and expense contract arrangements, which require the client to pay us based on the number of hours worked at contractually agreed-upon rates. Under this arrangement, we typically bill our clients for reimbursable expenses, including those relating to travel, out-of-pocket expenses, outside consultants and other outside service costs. Certain contracts are rendered under fixed-fee arrangements, which require the client to pay a fixed-fee in exchange for a predetermined set of professional services. Fixed-fee arrangements may require certain clients to pay us a recurring retainer.
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Our contract arrangements may also contain success fees or performance-based arrangements in which our fees are based on the attainment of contractually defined objectives with our client. This type of success fee may supplement a time and expense or fixed-fee arrangement. Success fees and other contractual terms may cause variations in our revenues and operating results due to the timing of when achieving the performance-based criteria becomes probable. Seasonal factors, such as the timing of our employees’ and clients’ vacations and holidays, may impact the timing of our revenues across our segments.