Inside a Bates White Economic Consulting Case Interview

Transcript: Bates White Case Interview

Japheth: Economic consulting case interviews are just different from traditional management consulting cases. Think at firms like McKinsey or Bain.

Today, Annie Olecki, a senior consultant at Bates White, runs an actual economic consultant case interview with a volunteer from the Management Consulted community, so that you can see exactly what an econ case looks like and what a strong interview sounds like.

If it gets you interested, Bates White's summer consultant program is open for applications for rising juniors graduating between December 2027 through spring 2028, any major. Let's step in.

Introductions

Japheth: I'm gonna turn it over to Julian, who is here with us today. Julian, would love to get a quick introduction, just about Bates White, for the people on the call who are not familiar with the firm yet. And I believe you've got some internship opportunities opening up here very soon. I'd love to hear about those as well.

Julian: Yeah, thanks, Japheth. So hello everyone, thanks for being here. We're really excited to give you a taste of our case interviews here at Bates White. As Japheth said, my name's Julian Pritcher. I'm one of the recruiters here at the firm.

Before I toss it over to Annie and get the case started, I wanted to give everyone a quick rundown of who we are. So Bates White is an economic consulting firm located in Washington, DC.

As far as our clients, they're typically law firms, Fortune 500 companies, and government agencies involved in some sort of litigation. These places will hire us for our economic analysis and expert testimony. For example, the DOJ might hire us to help evaluate the effects of a big merger between two companies.

There may be other cases, especially in the antitrust realm, where one company may be suing another for anti-competitive practices, and they'll hire us to calculate damages.

A recent case, which I think is really exciting, that Bates White worked on. You may have seen this in the news. We were part of the case against Ticketmaster and Live Nation, where they ruled in favor of consumers. So, another cool, relevant case that makes the news.

As far as our consultants, they tend to work on processing and analyzing large datasets, developing models, conducting research, and preparing client deliverables. The work, as far as that goes, is heavy on the quantitative side. So if you enjoy programming, coding, and analyzing data, this would be a great spot for you.

So keep an eye on the website. As Japheth mentioned, we are opening our summer consultant position in early August. The summer consultant role is for students graduating between December 2027 and spring 2028. It's an award-winning 10-week internship, and it gives you a taste of life at Bates White. You can work alongside consultants such as Annie Olecki, who's on the call here.

Now I can toss it over to her – she can introduce herself and the case.

Annie: Yeah, absolutely. Hi everyone, my name is Annie Olecki. I'm a senior consultant in our antitrust practice. I joined Bates White after graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 2022, where I majored in economics.

In the last four years at Bates White, I've worked on a lot of different cases, from smaller, niche mergers to those large litigation cases Julian mentioned, where they culminate in an expert report or an expert testifying, across a bunch of different industries – which is one of the things that keeps things exciting over here.

So I'm excited to run through the case with you all.

Japheth: Thanks, Annie, love that. Kunal, hey, tell us a little bit about yourself as well.

Kunal: What's up? My name's Kunal. I'm a rising junior at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm studying economics and biochemistry, and I'm just really excited to get into this today. And hopefully, even if I mess up, hopefully you guys learn something. Hopefully I learn something.

Japheth: I love it. I think we're definitely going to be learning a lot today. Well, with that, I'm going to turn the session over to Annie and Kunal. I'm excited to follow along and take notes. So, Annie and Kunal, the floor is all yours.

The Case Prompt

Annie: Great, thank you. Hi Kunal, we'll go through this case just as if it were a regular case interview. And then at the end, we have a few minutes to talk about how, when, any tips, tricks, anything like that.

So this case is based on the type of work we do in our antitrust practice, but you don't need any prior knowledge of the subject matter to complete the case. Our goal is simply to get a sense of how you approach problems and think through issues. You'll need a pen and paper, and you're free to use a calculator. Be sure to take notes along the way, as we'll refer back to concepts and numbers throughout the case. Please talk through your thought process, including any calculations you're performing, so we can all follow along.

So we have been retained by a major cell phone manufacturer to investigate the impact of potential collusion between suppliers of cell phone batteries from 2019 to 2020. The manufacturer, TalkTech, alleges that batteries it purchased for its phones were price-fixed. That is, the suppliers of batteries allegedly colluded with one another to raise the price of batteries to downstream consumers such as TalkTech. This collusion constitutes price-fixing, which is illegal and can be prosecuted as a federal offense.

TalkTech is suing the phone battery manufacturers to recover damages for the harm caused by the alleged collusion. Damages are calculated as the difference between the actual price that TalkTech paid for batteries and the but-for price, which is the price they would have paid but for the alleged price-fixing.

Before we begin, do you have any questions about the case?

Kunal: I don't think so, no.

Annie: Great. If you do, you can definitely feel free to ask me or repeat any details as we go. I'm happy to do that.

All right. So we'll start with just a few questions.

Kunal: I guess, sorry, one quick question. I just want to make sure I got everything. So the time period that we're looking at is 2019 to 2020. And our client is this phone manufacturer, TalkTech, who is alleging that the batteries that they were buying were price-fixed, and they're then going to sue battery manufacturers.

Annie: Exactly.

Kunal: Okay. Just wanted to make sure I had everything. Thank you.

Annie: Perfect.

Brainstorming: Consumer and Pricing Factors

Annie: So I'll start with a few brainstorming questions. How do consumers select which cell phones to buy? Which factors do you think they're considering?

Kunal: I think a key thing is most likely price. Obviously, price and features, and alignment with what the consumer is looking for. There obviously exist different segments of the market — a consumer looking for more of a higher-end, luxury smartphone that delivers all of these things versus someone looking for something simpler because they don't need all those advanced features but just need something they can text on. Maybe they want something that supports 5G. Whatever the consumer's needs are, I'd assume it's aligned with the segment and the pricing.

Annie: Yeah, I think those are all really great points, and we'll start by focusing on the pricing. So what do you think are some supply and demand factors that may affect the price of a cell phone?

Kunal: As we talked about at the beginning, a factor that would affect the pricing is the supply of components for the battery — the metals that go into it, the glass, whatever's needed in each of the parts. So raw material costs, and then as you go downstream, whoever's making the assemblies that go into the phone itself, as well as the plans to assemble it. For example, I know Apple ended up changing some of their plans owing to supply constraints.

Annie: Yeah, I agree with all of those. What about the demand side?

Kunal: The demand side is a little bit simpler, I'd assume, since demand would mainly be a function of how many consumers are in the total market, what percentage of them are the target segment, what segments we're operating in, what penetration we have there, and then finally, whether there are unconquered parts of the market that are realistic to target.

Annie: So what data do you think you would want to investigate TalkTech's claim? What would be helpful to you?

Kunal: We're talking about this pricing differential, right — between the price they're being charged and the but-for price?

Annie: Yeah, the price they would charge without the alleged collusion.

Kunal: Right, so I guess understanding what those prices are — I think that would be useful.

Annie: Yeah, I agree. We definitely want price data. So I want to share some that we received. Let me know when you can see my screen.

Kunal: Alrighty.The Price Data

Annie: Great. So this table provides the prices of cell phone batteries from 2017 to 2022. What trends do you observe in this table?

Kunal: Immediately, I notice that the single highest year is 2019, followed by 2020. In terms of the overall trend, it starts at about $19, goes down a little bit, spikes up quite significantly — about $3 — and then starts coming down a little. Right after 2020, it comes down $4, and then comes down another $0.50. So there's this really large hump in the 2019 to 2020 period, which is worth looking at, or interesting to me at least.

Annie: Yeah. Do you notice anything specific? Sorry — go ahead and finish.

Kunal: Coming back to it — another thing that came to mind in terms of demand: let's say we have this supplier, this battery manufacturer, charging us a large inflated price. Is there a substitute available? What's that price? What's the quality of that? Yeah, I think that's about it.

Annie: Do you notice anything about the years when there was no alleged conduct — so the years that weren't 2019 and 2020?

Kunal: The trend is generally going down, with an average step of about 50 cents per year.

Annie: Yep, I agree with that. So based on that trend, what should prices have been in 2019 and 2020, and how much did TalkTech potentially overpay for batteries in those years? I believe it's called the but-for price.

Kunal: That should be $18 in 2019 and $17.50 in 2020, which brings us linearly down to $17, which we have in 2021. Given that we see the 50-cent decrease in the but-for price, I'd say the overcharge is $3.50.

Annie: Yep, seems right to me.

Calculating the Overcharge

Annie: Awesome. So let's switch to this table now. This contains the number of batteries purchased by TalkTech from 2017 to 2022. Can you calculate the total amount TalkTech was overcharged?

Kunal: Sure. So we can just take the demand from 2019 and 2020, which is 162 million, multiplied by $3.50. I'll use a calculator for this, if that's allowed. 162 times 3.5 is 567 — and this is in millions, so $567 million.

Annie: Great. Is that a total across the two years?

Kunal: Yep, across the two years.

Annie: Awesome. And I could do it year by year too, if you'd like.

Kunal: Oh, that's okay.

Annie: So we're assuming these prices follow a linear trend. What do you think are some limitations of that assumption?

Kunal: One limitation of assuming a linear trend is that it's possible advances in technology or economies of scale allow the battery to be provided for cheaper. There's also competitive pressures — if you were selling your battery for $17.50 and a new entrant comes into the market selling theirs for $15, you'd have to come down to meet that. So it's possible the linear assumption is somewhat flawed. Given the fact that connecting those two points did produce a reasonable linearization, though, I think it's a reasonable assumption to make.

Annie: Yeah. There can be other market factors that weren't necessarily captured here.

The Lithium Curveball

Annie: So we recently learned that a series of natural disasters in 2019 and 2020 affected the production of lithium, which is a key raw material input to cell phone batteries. How might this affect your damages calculation?

Kunal: So there was an issue with lithium that would affect 2019 and 2020?

Annie: Yep.

Kunal: If we were able to figure out what the supplier's profit per battery was, and see if that deviated over the course of 2019 and 2020 — understanding that the supply cost of raw goods might have gone up, but if it went up $1 and they're overcharging us $3.50, there's still $2.50 unaccounted for. But if that's in line with the supply increase, and the raw goods really did go up $3.50, that would obviously change our perspective here.Recalculating Profit Per Battery

Annie: Yeah, definitely. Along those lines, this table shows the total cost of manufacturing a battery, and costs in 2019 and 2020 are higher due to the natural disasters. Can you calculate the annual per-battery profit of battery manufacturers in each year?

Kunal: Looking at 2019, they're charging us $21.50, and it costs them $10.50, so they're getting a total profit of $11 per battery. They sold 80 million batteries that year, which is $880 million of profit in 2019.

Annie: Just to interrupt quickly — can you do it for all years, and let's focus on just per battery right now?

Kunal: Okay, just per battery. So the profit is $9.50 in 2017. $9.50 again in 2018. $11 in 2019, which does support our claim. Consistent — $11 in 2020. And that's — okay. That's again $9.50. So that does support the conclusion that it's not the $3.50 we thought, but — wait, let me just confirm that. One second.

Okay, that makes sense — $9.50. They're overcharging us about $1.50 over the span of those two years per battery, because their profit per battery in every other year except 2019 and 2020 is $9.50, and in those two years it's $11 — a $1.50 differential per battery.

Annie: Yeah, I definitely agree. It seems like there still might have been price-fixing in those years, but possibly to a lesser extent.

Recalculating Damages

Annie: So can you calculate what the total damages would be with this table, as opposed to the last one?

Kunal: Right. Considering we're alleging the price-fixing was at the rate of $1.50 per battery over the span of those two years, and the total demand over those two years was 162 million — 162 times 1.5 is $243 million. So $243 million over the span of those two years.

Annie: Okay, can you walk me through how you calculated that?

Kunal: Right. We're assuming the damages to us per battery are $1.50, because that's how much wasn't explained by the increase in cost of batteries. And therefore — correct me if I'm wrong — 80 million in 2019 and 82 million in 2020, which is 162 million in total. And 162 million times $1.50 is $243 million.

Annie: Yep, I agree with that.

Comparing the Two Estimates

Annie: So how does that compare to our initial damages estimate?

Kunal: It's off by a factor of about $324 million, because we can just take the differential of 3.5 and 1.5 — which is 2 — and multiply that by 162 to get 324. And if we check that, it does come back out to the $567 million we looked at initially. So everything lines up. We initially alleged $567 million, and we're coming out at $243 million now, which is a $324 million differential.

Annie: Yeah, and which one do you think is the more reliable estimate?

Kunal: I think, given that some variation in the price of the battery can realistically be explained by the increased cost — which is a known, global issue that they faced — it's not unreasonable for them to pass that on to the consumer, or to us, in this case. But I do think going with the $1.50-per-battery estimate is a lot more realistic, reasonable, and defensible. So I'd advocate for the $243 million damages number.

Annie: Great. That wraps up our calculation, so we can do a couple other questions.Implications for Consumers

Annie: We're going to think about the implications of price-fixing in the market. How do you think customers are ultimately impacted by the elevated price of TalkTech phones?

Kunal: This is honestly kind of simple econ, right? It really depends on the demand elasticity. If we're, say, the Apple of the flip-phone world, where customers are still going to buy our phone regardless of whether we set the price at $1,000 or $1,500 — the demand is inelastic — we'd most likely be able to pass most of that higher price onto consumers, or all of it, if it were truly perfectly inelastic. Customers would inevitably be harmed by this price-fixing behavior.

However, if demand were really elastic, we'd suffer if we tried to pass on our prices — we couldn't really do it. So customers might not be affected directly, but I think there's a more interesting downstream effect to look at. If everyone is facing these higher prices — I don't know exactly what the market looks like for cell phone batteries, but if the market itself shifts up in price broadly, everyone will be harmed. But if it's only our supplier that's price-fixing and the rest of the market isn't, that would change things. So that'd be something worth looking at.

Annie: Yeah, I definitely agree with all of that.

Case Wrap-Up and Feedback

Annie: That's the end of the case. You did a great job. It was quick — you flew through it.

Yeah, I think — I don't know, Japheth, if you're there — if you want me to go straight into feedback, or take a break?

Japheth: Yeah, go for it, Annie.

Annie: Okay, cool. Like I said, I don't have a lot — I think you did an amazing job. It can be a little tricky, especially when the figures and charts are shared instead of on paper in front of you, like they would be in an in-person interview. This is also a little bit abbreviated, so there can be times where you have to remember details — like that there were 80 million total — and that's something that can often trip people up when they don't have all the information in front of them anymore. You really have to write it down, or, if you're in person, go back to the page you need. You did a great job of that.

Another thing I see people trip up on is when we ask a few compound questions — it'll be, "What is it per battery, and what's the total?" — and candidates can get nervous or just focus on the first one and totally forget the second. I think you did a good job answering both, but that's probably the most common thing I see during interviews.

And a lot of times people ask for a few minutes to do some math or collect their thoughts, and that's definitely fine to do. I wouldn't recommend doing it on every question, but it's a great tool to use when you really need to think something through.

Another thing I thought you did a great job of was answering the conceptual questions from multiple different perspectives, which is definitely something we're looking for. Often there are a lot of different possible answers, and I know all of them, but there's usually one I need you to say before we move on — like at the beginning, I needed you to say "price." I'm not going to move on until you say price. But if you just say "price" and I ask, "What else?" — it's good to talk through as many things that come to mind while also keeping it brief, which is a tricky balance. You did a good job of that.

We don't want to spend too much time on the background questions, so it's good to say, "I think my best two or three answers are..." and then move on.

Kunal: Gotcha.

Q&A with Annie

Annie: Did you have any questions for me, following the case?

Kunal: I think that was everything, I guess.

Japheth: What do we think?

Kunal: I do agree. I saw this one thing pop up in the chat — obviously these are simplified assumptions and stuff, and I'm not sure — I don't want to waste too much time, but in a more formalized interview setting, would there be more complex assumptions or math to do, or is this generally pretty representative of the interviews with you guys, and also the work you'll actually be doing?

Annie: Yeah, it is much simpler than the work we'd actually be doing. But in terms of the interview, it's similar — there might be more. The math will never be difficult; you could always do it in your head.

Julian: I mean, I agree — if you have a calculator, you should just use it, because I've seen people mess up one number and get flustered. Just use the calculator, but it's never going to be difficult. It's mostly just, do you know to multiply these two numbers to get the total — that kind of situation. Like confectionary stuff, yeah.

Annie: And the assumptions have to be simple, because we don't want to debate whether it's a fair assumption that the price is linear. If there's something specific we're looking for, we'll ask — the question would be, "Is this a fair assumption?" and it's probably not. But I think you can feel free to say anything, as long as you don't get too bogged down in it.

Kunal: Got it. Yeah. Amazing.

Black Belt and the Q&A Setup

Japheth: Okay, well, hey — short and sweet. I love it. Kunal, obviously great work coming on and doing this in front of 100-plus people live — big feat that you're up to the challenge.

Kunal: Thanks, Annie, that was really interesting. Obviously a little bit different from your quote-unquote traditional management consulting case interview, but it was interesting to just see the differences.

Japheth: No one's got time to run through 100 cases and hope they're ready by the end. Black Belt exists to help solve that. In Black Belt, you work one-on-one with a former MBB interviewer. You work through a personalized plan addressing your specific gap areas. And at the end, you know you're ready for the toughest interviews on the planet. If you need to get ready for cases fast, Black Belt is free. Learn more through the link in the description, and start coaching as soon as tomorrow.

We're going to take up some questions and answers as we can, but I'd love to invite Katie over — for those of you looking to break into consulting, if you're looking for a little bit of support, Katie would love to quickly walk you through how we can help, and then we'll take questions. So start thinking about questions, put them in the chat, and we'll answer as many as we can. Katie, off to you.

Katie: Thanks, Japheth. And wow, what a great case. My hat's off to you, Kunal and Annie — fantastic interviewer.

So if anyone was following along, this was the bar for a real case. I'm ex-BCG, and I'm also a Black Belt alum. I'm a little jealous of the chance to use a calculator, because in traditional management consulting interviews, you have to do everything by hand. But that said, the intellectual rigor is incredible regardless.

So if you're interested in economic consulting, or any type of consulting, Black Belt is here to give you that structured path — to give you real feedback and the accountability you need to make sure you're as ready as possible for interviews. This was a great example of someone who — Kunal, I have no doubt you've been practicing before this event.

So if you're thinking about how to level up and be competitive, our Black Belt program is a comparatively minor investment to increase your chances of landing a consulting role, with annual salaries starting at around $100,000, ranging up to $200,000 — and even for the internships.

The DIY case — we see this many times. The DIY path feels like you're making a cost-saving decision, but actually you're increasing your uncertainty about your interview readiness because you don't have an expert to help you validate. And this can potentially lead to re-recruiting or pursuing alternative roles.

Now, we do help with economic consulting just as much as traditional management consulting recruitment. So we have coaches ready to help you.

Julian: Standing by.

Japheth: Thanks, Katie. Yeah, we've got some econ consulting cases in our case library that's part of Black Belt, so we're ready and would love to support you.

Audience Q&A

Japheth: Great, well, hey — we're going to take some questions. Annie, here's an interesting one for you. I'll just pop it up on the stream. In a case, or in the actual real-world Bates White case, how do you get the data — for example, for the battery costs in a case like this?

Annie: Yeah, it can be a few different things. Most of the cases we're working on are legal cases, so both sides will be subpoenaed, they'll have discovery, so they'll be required to produce data like that. It doesn't always encompass everything we'd want, but it definitely has basic stuff — finance information, costs, things like that, and sometimes customer or sales data.

And then if there's anything more industry-wide, less specific to the parties, we often use public sources — like Capital IQ, SNL Kagan, things like that — to get general industry information and data. But between the parties' own data, and then often third-party data that also gets subpoenaed, it's not often that there's something we really need that we don't have.

Japheth: You're just getting data from everywhere all at once.

Annie: And the legal aspect of it makes for an interesting twist relative to traditional consulting.

Japheth: Love it. Thanks, Annie, that's helpful.

There's one from Max: "This case has basic assumptions on price. How do consultants model price and demand in real cases where the relationship is a lot more complex, and what tools do they utilize?" Annie, take that however you feel best.

Annie: Yeah, I think case interviews are always going to have these basic assumptions — like Kunal and I were talking about. In a real case, it's just so case-specific. I'm not totally sure what you mean by tools — whether you mean technical tools, or what we use to base the assumption. So often we talk to the parties, we talk to the client, and get a lot of information on the industry so we have that context to see what it's like. And then, like I mentioned before, industry data is really helpful — there are often publications that come out quarterly or monthly with pricing information you can see over time. That's how the team, and the expert or partner on the case, build assumptions that can stand up in court.

Japheth: Wonderful, makes sense.

I think Julian answered this one already: how many rounds of interviews are done for the summer consultant role?

Julian: I believe two rounds.

Japheth: Is there anything else you want to share about that interview process — is it two rounds, two interviews each, how does that work at Bates White?

Julian: Yeah, so the first round can generally be done virtually, and it's a little bit shorter. We'll evaluate from there, and then the second round can also be done virtually, but that one's usually a much longer interview, and we can have candidates come on-site for that. So it's a typical two-round process, and then we make decisions from there.

Japheth: Love it. Speaking of the office — I know Bates White right now is kind of a one-office firm based in DC. Talk to people a little bit — maybe one or two interesting, unique things you love about the office. Do you have anything for Japheth on that? I'm trying to make your pitch for DC for folks throughout the area.

Julian: I might be a little biased because I grew up right outside of Washington, DC. It's a great place to learn and grow. I'd wonder what Annie has to say about this — I don't think you're from the area, are you?

Annie: I'm not from the area, and I love DC, but I think I have more to say about the office, so I'll take that one.

I think something that's really special about having one office is that we're truly all in the same place, and we take that for granted a lot. We have a hybrid work model, so I work from home twice a week, but the other days we're in the office — we have our own offices, but we also have team rooms, so I'm in the same room as my team every day. I think that's where you learn the most — when I first started, it was incredible to be sitting in a room full of people who knew everything I was supposed to be doing, and I could ask questions so much more easily, with a lot less troubleshooting on my own. That made me feel more comfortable quickly, but also helped me learn really fast.

And socially, it's also great. One of the things that's super special about the summer consultant program — and also just starting as a consultant after graduation — is that you have a cohort you become really close with, and a lot of that happens at work, and then through activities Bates White plans. When I moved to DC, I was excited but didn't really know anyone, and my coworkers became my very good friends because of all the Bates White–sponsored events — we had a Bates White kickball team, different clubs, things like that. It almost felt like college again, right after, because it's really important here that everyone gets along and has fun, both at the office and after.

Julian: I can piggyback on a little of what Annie said, and also speak as someone who's come from bigger companies — Bates White is mid-sized, only about 360 people. I've worked at companies around 1,500 to 1,600 employees, and you can really feel, when you come here, the tight-knit culture, and how there are much shorter lines to talking to your sponsor, your manager, that person's sponsor, and directors, principals, and partners on the consulting side that you're rubbing shoulders with, working alongside every day. So it's a great way to get close to individuals and learn from them, and that really creates a great culture.

Japheth: I love it — you're making me want to move to DC. All the fun events around the office are something I consistently see across my LinkedIn feed, and it looks like a lot of fun. Look forward to visiting one of these days.

All right, back to the thing we're doing here today. Annie, based on Kunal's performance, do you think he'd have made it to the final round?

Annie: Yeah, so the case interviewer doesn't totally get to decide. There's a feedback form that everyone in the interview fills out, and then HR — or, that might be a Julian question — everyone meets together and goes over everyone's feedback for the day, and sort of determines if there's a second round, if you're going to set up another interview, or how that works. I think it depends a lot on — I don't get to see everyone, so it wouldn't make sense for the interviewer to decide alone. Whereas the recruiting team meets and has everyone's feedback, so I don't get to sign off on that myself.

Julian: Yeah, it's certainly a group decision.

Japheth: Thanks, Annie. I think Annie did sum it up — Kunal did great on the case, but yeah, it is a group decision, there are some other factors, but it was an excellent case overall.

I love that. Awesome. Great question from Albert: when a case alleges something like price-fixing, should we treat that as fact, or work through the case and maybe conclude the allegation isn't supported by the evidence?

Annie: I'm assuming this is in the context of a case interview, not on the job?

Japheth: Yeah.

Annie: I think in a case interview — we talked a little about the difference between a traditional management consulting interview and an econ consulting interview — we're never trying to trick you in these interviews. So when I asked Kunal which one was better, or which one made more sense, I wasn't looking for some crazy third answer. I was just looking for whichever one made the most sense. I won't say never — that would never happen — but I've never seen a case where, at the end, it's a surprise, where it turns out the opposite is true, and you're being tricked. And if it were the case that there was no price-fixing, that would be obvious — it wouldn't require you to come up with some third answer.

Japheth: Makes a lot of sense. Amazing.

Okay, there's a lot of good questions here — let me see if I can choose some. Do interns get to choose the type of project they work on during the summer?

Annie: Yeah, so we have five different primary practice areas, and all summer consultants are placed into one of them. I think it's a combination of background and experience, and also just need. You'll usually work on a case, because summer consultants work on real cases while they're here, in whatever practice area you're assigned. So you don't necessarily get to pick — I think at the end of the summer you can discuss your experiences and preferences, and then it's a similar process if you come back as a full-time consultant.

As a full-time consultant, you're also in a practice area, and that's where most of your cases will be, but there can be busy seasons — say in the finance practice — where they'll pull in people from the life sciences practice, and across all different practices. I'm in antitrust, I've only worked antitrust cases, but I've worked with people from every practice area on my cases. So it doesn't necessarily mean you're locked in. And if you find you really enjoy a different practice, you can switch once you're a full-time consultant. I think for summer consultants, it's usually a little too fast to switch, but as a full-time consultant, if you find you really like mass torts, you can work with everyone to make that switch.

Julian: Just another note on that — this goes back to a question I saw in the chat — we're looking for generalists. All majors are welcome to apply to the summer consultant position. As I said at the top, we're looking for folks who like qualitative work, coding, and data analysis — things like that — and if this sounds interesting to you, I'd really encourage you to apply. But we are looking for generalists, so you'll be put in a practice area as a summer consultant, but we're looking to hone the same skills across everyone in every practice area. I don't want to say it doesn't matter — of course the work might be a little different, since the mergers, the antitrust cases, might be different — but we're looking to hone the same skills.

Japheth: Makes a lot of sense. And I think one of the key insights is that interns do real work, right? They're actually contributing to a case — it's not just a mock case or some internal project.

Great question from Marco — it's kind of a two-parter. What qualities stand out about top interviewees at Bates White, and for somebody hoping to break into economic consulting, do you have one piece of advice for them?

Annie: I think during interviews, what stands out most in a candidate is when they're genuinely interested — and I think that interest can definitely show through in a case interview. Usually there are also more behavioral-style questions alongside the case interview, which of course makes it easier to show that directly, but there are different ways to show it — like knowing about Bates White, knowing about econ consulting in general, maybe mentioning something you saw on the Bates White website or LinkedIn that shows you spent a few minutes looking into it. And I think when you're genuinely interested, it's pretty obvious, and that's always the biggest thing — because there can be candidates who answer the case questions pretty easily but then don't really have a good answer when we ask why economic consulting, or why Bates White.

And I'm not doing a great job of giving Kunal my advice, because I don't remember the second part of the question.

Kunal: Was it advice?

Annie: One piece of advice — give me your best piece of advice for somebody looking to break in.

Julian: Yeah, I think the summer consultant program is the perfect place. It's really — I was not a summer consultant at Bates White myself, but I've enjoyed participating in it since I've worked here. I think it's really an amazing opportunity to figure out what's going on. I didn't know a lot about economic consulting before I started here, but I was able to learn a ton — talking to former summer consultants and full-time employees. So I think just apply for the summer consultant program, reach out to people — I think people here are really open to talking about Bates White, econ consulting, and their experience.

Annie: Yeah, and just show your interest. One tip I can think of — and I mentioned this a little earlier — is that a little bit of research goes a long way in understanding what Bates White does, and how economic consulting is different from management or strategy consulting. Including those anecdotes — things you found on our website or LinkedIn page — in a cover letter, and highlighting things about your qualitative skill set in your resume, can really make you stand out.

Japheth: Helpful. By the way, for both of you, Julian and Annie — be thinking about this question, I'll ask you in a bit: one of your favorite things about working at Bates White. You've got about nine minutes to think about it.

So, Annie — R or Python, which is more popular at Bates White?

Annie: Definitely R. We use mostly Stata and R — I don't think I've ever heard of a case that uses Python.

Julian: I haven't either.

Annie: I think it's great if you know it — if not, we'll teach it to you. So it's great to have some technical background — I think knowing any coding language is a great base for learning another one. Every summer consultant and full-time consultant takes Stata training and R training — sort of little courses when they start. And even if you know Stata, or if you're the best at R, everyone still takes them, because you learn Bates White–specific conventions — how we like to write our scripts, our folder structures, things like that. So — going on a tangent a bit there — the question was R or Python, and the answer is R, but don't worry if you don't know it, because we'll teach it to you.

Japheth: Great. Annie highlighted something really nice about Bates White too — just how we like to develop consultants internally. The summer consultant program is a huge learning opportunity for 10 weeks, and then entry-level consultants are part of our CDP, our consultant development program, where you keep learning those skills. So it's a great opportunity to learn and grow within Bates White — it's not an up-or-out kind of place.

Julian: Love that.

Japheth: Allie's got a question here — Allie, correct me if I'm wrong, I think I saw a message earlier that you're also a Mount Holyoke alum, which is awesome. Allie's asking what drew you to economic consulting versus traditional management consulting. We've got a few similar questions along those lines, so we'll start there.

Annie: Yeah, I think economic consulting can be a little more focused on data and economic concepts, which makes sense, as opposed to management consulting. So I definitely use a lot more of what I learned in my econ classes in college than, say, most of my friends who work in management consulting. And I guess management consulting is — I was going to say sort of widespread — but working on these extremely niche cases, we're sort of doing similar things across each case, but a little differently each time. But I think the technical and econ concepts are more pronounced in economic consulting than in traditional management consulting.

I don't know if you have more to say on that, Julian.

Julian: No, I think you've got it.

I was going to ask a follow-up question — how does somebody know that they're not a fit for economic consulting? Because I think that's an answer that's as important to know as "do I want to do economic consulting."

Annie: Yeah, I think it's probably the same way you find out you do want to do it. If you think the case interviews — and we have a few others too on our website, samples — are really interesting — like, of course this is a six-row table, and we're going to do it with millions of rows — but it's going to be similar, thinking about the problem, thinking about what econ concepts might apply, and what analysis you could do to solve them and calculate damages or something like that. But yeah, I think if it sounds interesting to you, then you try it.

Japheth: Love that.

What sorts of previous experience does Bates White look for in applicants? Julian, you shared about highlighting specific types of experience on your resume — I know somebody Class of 2028 isn't going to have a lifetime of experience to point to, but is there a specific background, skill set, or characteristic you tend to gravitate toward?

Julian: I'd toss this one to Annie — I imagine you've reviewed more of these undergraduate resumes than I have at this point.

Annie: Yeah, I think that's true — everyone applying to the summer consultant program is mostly the same age, and it's true you just don't have a lot of time to build a ton of experience, so I wouldn't let that make you nervous. I think highlighting — when I'm comparing a cover letter to a resume — if someone's highlighting the most relevant experience in their cover letter, I definitely notice that. So I might see, "Oh, you had an internship, but your cover letter was all about your school project where you used data to write a research paper and solve a problem for your econ class," and I think, if you were applying for a finance internship, you'd probably have highlighted the internship instead — but you know what we do, and you know this experience is a better fit. I think I look for something like that.

If you have any technical abilities, that's always great — it's not a make-or-break, we'll figure it out and you'll learn data skills quickly, but if you already know it, that's great. And I don't think any less of a school paper or research project than an internship or a job.

Japheth: Thanks, Annie.

Will case interviews typically focus on the practice area the potential intern is being recruited for, or how does that work in terms of what types of cases candidates should expect?

Julian: The case can be focused on any of our practice areas — life sciences, mass torts, antitrust. You're not interviewing for a specific practice in the summer consultant program, so it won't be tailored to that — it can be across any industry. Sometimes that can make people nervous if the case is about some random topic they've never heard of, but similar to this one — you don't need any prior knowledge of cell phone batteries. Just like a life sciences case might be based on a medication we probably made up — that's okay, you don't need to know that to answer the question.

Japheth: There's a great question from Nathan in the chat — I'll let Julian and Annie answer this one, or the one I asked earlier. Nathan's question is: what's something about Bates White, or working at Bates White, that surprised you, or that you didn't expect before starting the job? Backup question if you don't want to answer that one: what's your favorite part or favorite moment of working at Bates White? Annie, do you want to kick us off?

Annie: Sure. I think it's probably the same answer for me as what surprises me and what I enjoy most — which is what I briefly mentioned earlier — just that every case is so different. Cases can vary in length, but generally mine have been three to nine months. So every three to nine months, I'm working on a completely different industry, which is really fun and helps things not get boring. Even though you might be applying a similar economic concept, or doing similar coding — although honestly there's not even that much overlap there — it's a completely different industry you get to learn about, which is so cool. I have all this random knowledge about random industries.

I worked on a really small merger about conveyor belt pieces — like a piece that goes into a conveyor belt — and people would say, "Oh, that doesn't matter," and I'd think, "Oh, it does matter, there are a lot of downstream impacts to this." And then there are more fun ones — I'm working on a music royalties case right now, which is totally different from anything I've worked on before. So it's really difficult to get bored around here, and that surprised me, and it's also my favorite part.

Japheth: No boring days — I love that. Julian?

Julian: I wanted to highlight something that also surprised me — it kind of echoes what I mentioned earlier, which is just the camaraderie and the teamwork. Coming from previous companies around 1,500 to 1,600 people, you can feel a little siloed — you're doing your work, your manager's happy, that's great. But here, you can really feel the camaraderie. There's a lot of collaboration, because it's a ton of work to put together these client deliverables and get everyone rolling in the same direction. I think you can really feel that if you were to start here — especially with our summer consultant opportunities, you really do feel like a consultant. You're brought in on cases, you're in important meetings, and you're learning Stata and R, just like a consultant would. So great camaraderie, great culture here at Bates White, and that was probably the most surprising thing to me — and also, like Annie, probably my favorite thing.

Japheth: Love those answers, both. Thank you so much.

Outro

Japheth: The strongest case interview answer is the one you're willing to revise once new information changes the picture — which is exactly what Kunal did today. That's the instinct Bates White is looking for.

The firm's summer consultant program is now accepting applications for rising juniors graduating December 2027 through spring 2028, any major. And if this episode was helpful in showing you what economic consulting cases are like, do me a quick favor and hit subscribe wherever you're listening or watching. It helps the next Kunal find their way here.

Thanks for tuning in — catch you on the next episode soon.