Charles River Associates NASDAQ: CRAI President, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Paul Maleh said the consulting firm’s growth outlook remains supported by demand across its legal, regulatory and management consulting businesses, including opportunities tied to artificial intelligence, energy infrastructure, life sciences and cybersecurity.
Speaking at the Noble Capital Markets Virtual Equity Conference, Maleh said CRA operates 20 offices across eight countries and derives about 80% of its revenue from legal and regulatory services, with management consulting accounting for the remaining 20%.
The company’s antitrust and competition economics practice represents roughly 45% of total revenue, Maleh said. Antitrust and competition economics, forensic services and life sciences together account for about 75% of CRA revenue.
Client relationships and talent retention
Maleh said CRA worked with 88 of the Fortune 100 companies during the past two years and with 98 of the top 100 law firms. The company does not operate as a subscription-based consultancy or under annuity contracts, he said, characterizing the client relationships as recurring engagements involving complex decisions and legal matters.
Law firms frequently retain CRA on behalf of corporate clients, Maleh said, in part to preserve confidentiality and limit disruption to clients’ day-to-day operations. He cited merger reviews, intellectual-property disputes, valuation matters and alleged market manipulation as examples of engagements where the firm may be retained.
Maleh also highlighted employee retention, saying voluntary turnover among the company’s top revenue generators was below 5% over the past five years. He said the measure covered a group of about 60 people who appeared in the company’s annual top-30 revenue-generator lists during that period.
Growth and capital allocation
CRA’s revenue has generally grown at an annual rate of 8% to 10% over the past 10 to 15 years, according to Maleh. He said revenue increased 12% in the first two quarters of 2026, rose 9% in fiscal 2025 and increased 48% over the preceding five years.
Maleh said the company’s growth has been funded entirely through operations and has been split approximately 65% organic and 35% inorganic over the medium to long term. CRA uses forgivable loans as a principal form of purchase consideration when recruiting individuals or groups from competitors, he said.
He noted that the amortization of those forgivable loans is a non-cash item that runs through the income statement but is not included in EBITDA depreciation and amortization. Maleh said investors should account for that treatment when assessing the cash impact of the company’s talent acquisitions.
CRA aims to return at least 50% of adjusted cash flow from operations to shareholders, Maleh said. About three-quarters of that capital return has been used for share repurchases and one-quarter for cash dividends. Over the past five years, the company repurchased $184 million of stock at an average price of $110 per share, he said.
The company’s dividend has grown at about a 15% rate since its introduction roughly a decade ago, according to Maleh. He said CRA’s annual capital expenditures are generally about $4 million to $5 million, primarily for leasehold investments and computers.
AI seen as demand and productivity driver
Maleh described AI as both a demand amplifier and productivity enhancer for CRA. He said the technology can help consultants move through preliminary work more quickly and focus on higher-value analysis, particularly in the company’s legal and regulatory assignments.
“We have not seen a reduction in hours to date,” Maleh said, adding that faster completion of early-stage work can create more time for scenario analysis and scrutiny of opposing arguments in high-stakes litigation matters.
He said AI-related investment is contributing to accelerated growth in CRA’s energy practice as data-center development creates decisions for utilities and technology companies around capacity, site selection and rate negotiations. In life sciences, Maleh said AI could support the development and commercialization of drugs, while CRA assists pharmaceutical clients with pricing and rollout strategies.
CRA’s forensic services practice has also experienced significant growth in cyber incident response work, Maleh said. While AI may improve efficiency for clients and consultants, he said it can also make cyberattacks easier for bad actors, increasing demand for incident-response services.
Outlook for staffing and pricing
Maleh said CRA expects to operate with consultant utilization in the high-70% range, which he said balances service quality with growth capacity. Net headcount has been largely flat in recent years as the company shifted capacity from slower-growing areas to faster-growing practices, but he said medium- to long-term headcount growth should be in the mid-single digits.
Looking ahead, Maleh said the company is seeing inbound new-business opportunities growing at a rate that significantly exceeds current revenue growth. He also said price increases implemented in 2026 have held and are expected to remain durable into 2027.
About Charles River Associates (NASDAQ:CRAI)
Charles River Associates NASDAQ: CRAI, operating under the name CRA, is a global consulting firm that provides economic, financial, and strategic analysis to corporations, law firms, government agencies, and other organizations. The company supports clients involved in complex business decisions, litigation, regulatory matters, and corporate transactions.
CRA's services include antitrust and competition economics, intellectual property and commercial disputes, financial and securities analysis, forensic accounting, investigations, corporate strategy, and regulatory consulting.
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