Professionals
Every engagement is directed by a principal, who performs the analysis and signs the report. Detailed curricula vitae, including complete testimony history, are available on request.
David Witherspoon, MBA, CVA
David Witherspoon is the founder and Managing Member of the firm. He has worked in finance and consulting for more than twenty-five years, and specializes in complex matters involving litigation, financial reporting, business transactions, value consulting, and data analytics.
He is regularly retained as a testifying expert and has been deposed and has testified as an expert witness in state and federal matters, in Maryland and in other states.
Before founding the firm in 2022, he was a Director at KatzAbosch Advisory Services and Managing Member of WJW Valuation Group, and held positions at RSM US LLP, Naden Lean, Navigant Consulting and FTI Consulting. He began his career as a cross-functional project manager at GE Financial Assurance, and served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves from 1998 to 2006 as a sergeant in artillery.
He is a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, where he studied mathematics, and of the Kogod School of Business at American University, where he earned an MBA in corporate finance and corporate strategy. He is a Certified Valuation Analyst, and has completed continuing education in distressed business valuation, insolvency and restructuring advisory, exit planning, and business valuation theory, including USPAP and ethics.
He has taught and presented regularly, including for MICPEL before its programs moved to the MSBA, and for the Loyola and Kogod MBA programs, the M&A Symposium, the Exit Planning Exchange, and NACVA at both chapter and annual meetings, on subjects from valuing early-stage and software-as-a-service companies to calculating economic damages. His article on valuing an early-stage company in marital dissolution was published in Family Lawyer Magazine.
He works from the Towson office.
David W. Carr, CPA, CMA, CFE, ABV, CFF
David Carr is a Principal of the firm. He provides business valuation, forensic accounting and consulting services in matters involving bankruptcy, fraud, economic damages, divorce and partnership disputes, and prepares valuations outside litigation for estate and gift tax filings, employee stock ownership plans, and M&A consulting.
A substantial part of his practice is insolvency work, where he has acted as financial advisor to operating debtors, prepared bankruptcy schedules, statements of financial affairs, cash budgets, plan exhibits and monthly operating reports, and performed the reconstructive accounting those filings depend on.
He joined the firm in 2022. He spent the earlier part of his career at KatzAbosch and in independent practice, and has a background in public accounting, having performed financial statement audits and prepared business and individual tax returns. He holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Salisbury University.
He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in Maryland, a Certified Management Accountant (CMA) through the Institute of Management Accountants, a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) through the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, and Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) and Certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is a member of the AICPA, the Institute of Management Accountants, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the American Society of Appraisers, the American Bankruptcy Institute, and the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors.
He has testified as an expert witness. He works from the Salisbury office.
Michael A. Saelens Jr., CFE
Michael Saelens is a Senior Consultant and joined the firm in 2023. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner, and his work concentrates on fraud investigation and transaction-level data analysis across the firm’s forensic accounting, valuation and damages engagements.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Salisbury University, where he also completed the Upper-Division Certificate in Fraud and Forensic Accounting, with coursework in fraud examination, advanced fraud examination, financial statement fraud, forensic data analytics and white collar crime. He studied accounting at the University of Mississippi before transferring to Salisbury.
Before joining the firm he served as an intern investigator with the Worcester County State’s Attorney’s Office in Snow Hill, Maryland, on financial crime matters involving embezzlement, financial exploitation of vulnerable adults, wire and mail fraud, e-commerce fraud, conversion of stolen funds, cryptocurrency, tax evasion, money laundering and shell companies. That work included analyzing bank records to quantify losses, drafting reports of investigation and memoranda of interview, preparing subpoenas and statements of probable cause, and presenting findings to the State’s Attorney as the basis for charging decisions. He has also prepared returns for individuals, estates and trusts.
He works remotely from the Eastern Shore.
Experience as an expert witness
The firm’s principals have been deposed and have testified as expert witnesses in state and federal courts, in Maryland and in other states. Subject matter has included business valuation in marital and shareholder disputes, economic damages and lost profits, personal and enterprise goodwill, self-employment income and income available for support, solvency and avoidance analysis, and financial advisory work in Chapter 11.
Complete testimony history for any professional, including venues, dates and matters, is available on request.