James O’Brien, CPA, CFF Partner, Forensic, Litigation & Valuation Services Leader

James O’Brien is a Partner in Forensics, Litigation and Valuation Services at Grassi. He provides a variety of forensic and financial consulting and accounting related services to attorneys, insurance companies, governmental agencies, and public and private corporations. The matters he routinely addresses involve disputes within construction, insurance, healthcare, technology, commercial and real estate companies.

Prior to joining Grassi, Jim spent approximately 28 years with international and regional public accounting firms and two years with a specialty-consulting firm. He concentrates his practice in providing expert witness services, litigation consulting and forensic investigations.  Jim focuses his practice on helping clients reconstruct financial activity to document— and determine whether fraudulent and/or inappropriate financial transactions have occurred.

Jim routinely testifies in court supporting the trier of fact by determining the quantum of damages.  His forensic investigations encompass analysis of financial statements, tax returns, general ledgers, and other original books of entry.  Jim also routinely analyzes contracts and agreements in dispute, which requires the estimation of damages and lost profits related to the dispute.  The matters generally involve a breach of contract claim, intellectual property and/or other contractual issues.

Jim is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA). He is certified in Financial Forensics (CFF) by the AICPA and teaches forensic accounting as an adjunct professor at Temple University. Jim earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from York College of Pennsylvania.
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