Meet the Expert
Dr. Cornew is a consultant and expert witness in medical marijuana licensing cases involving numerical and other mathematical issues, and in cases involving securities and investments.
His background involves investment consulting, and he has received both a Bachelor of Science degree and a Doctor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also served on the teaching and research staff. Dr. Cornew has published papers comparing trading advisors using various numerical methods, a problem not unlike selecting applicants to receive medical marijuana licenses.
Dr. Cornew co-founded a Boston-based fund management company and has consulted with banks, the New York Stock Exchange, Options Clearing Corporation, and other major clients.
His litigation work has included consulting in the preparation for court cases and hearings, often for customers who have lost significant sums. He served as a member of the board of arbitrators of the National Association of Securities Dealers (now FINRA), the New York Stock Exchange, the American Arbitration Association, and the National Futures Association.
What this expertise means in a license rejection
The same quantitative skill set used to evaluate trading advisors and complex financial products is applied to medical marijuana licensing contests: how scores are constructed, how they are combined, and whether rankings fairly reflect the contest rules. This allows Dr. Cornew to translate technical numerical issues into clear, actionable points that counsel can use in negotiations, hearings, and trial.
For applicants, law firms, and investors, this means an opportunity to have the scoring framework itself examined with the same rigor regulators apply to financial markets — and to understand, early, whether the record supports a serious challenge or suggests resources are better deployed elsewhere.