Duff & Phelps Expands Disputes Expert Advisory Services With Acquisition of Blackrock Expert Services Group

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Duff & Phelps, the world’s premier provider of governance, risk and transparency solutions, today announced the acquisition of Blackrock Expert Services Group, a London-headquartered disputes and expert advisory specialist firm of construction, technology, accounting and financial services professionals.

Blackrock Expert Services Group will join Duff & Phelps’ Disputes Consulting practice. Giles Derry, CEO of Blackrock Expert Services Group, will join the Disputes Consulting leadership team, reporting to Carl Jenkins, Global Head of Governance, Risk, Investigations and Disputes at Duff & Phelps. David Barry, Founder of Blackrock Expert Services Group, will remain with the firm as a senior advisor to help drive strategic and geographic expansion of the business.

Blackrock Expert Services Group is the premier provider of delay and quantum expertise globally and has worked on some of the world’s most high-profile construction and infrastructure engineering projects. This, along with the company’s technology and forensic accounting capabilities, will strengthen Duff & Phelps and Kroll’s disputes offerings globally, especially in the increasingly complex construction and infrastructure sector.

Derry commented, “Duff & Phelps is the ideal strategic partner to help us realize our global growth plans as we look to build out our services and geographic reach. Organizations are facing growing complexity and regulation that requires global expert advisory services. We will also help the Duff & Phelps team strengthen their disputes capabilities in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We see many areas of opportunity for collaboration, leveraging Kroll’s cyber risk, investigations and compliance expertise, and Duff & Phelps’ M&A, debt advisory and valuation services, to bring new capabilities to our clients. Duff & Phelps shares our core values of professionalism, quality, independence and integrity to provide best-in-class solutions to clients facing complex challenges, risk and uncertainty in their businesses, and we are excited to be part of the team.”

“Blackrock Expert Services Group’s market leading complex expert advisory services are highly complementary to Duff & Phelps’ existing services, and their construction dispute and advisory capabilities allow us to bolster our offering to our clients around the world,” added Jacob Silverman, President of Duff & Phelps. “I’m looking forward to working with Giles and everyone at Blackrock Expert Services Group to grow our collective business.”

With the acquisition of Blackrock Expert Services Group, Duff & Phelps now has nearly 300 disputes professionals worldwide.

About Duff & Phelps

Duff & Phelps is the world’s premier provider of governance, risk and transparency solutions. We work with clients across diverse sectors in the areas of valuation, corporate finance, disputes and investigations, cyber security, claims administration and regulatory compliance. With Kroll, the leading global provider of risk solutions, and Prime Clerk, the leader in complex business services and claims administration, our firm has nearly 4,000 professionals in 25 countries around the world. For more information, visit www.duffandphelps.com.