CRA International (Charles River Associates) is an economic, financial, and management consulting firm founded in 1965 and headquartered in Boston. CRA advises corporations, law firms, and government agencies on complex economic and financial problems. The firm's dominant business is litigation and regulatory consulting — providing economic analysis, expert reports, and expert testimony in high-stakes legal and regulatory proceedings such as antitrust reviews, patent infringement disputes, securities litigation, and labor matters. Law firms are the primary gateway to this work, bringing CRA in on behalf of corporate clients who need credentialed economic experts. CRA's largest and highest-profile practice is Antitrust & Competition Economics, advising on merger clearances before regulators including the FTC, DOJ, and European Commission. CRA's second business line is management consulting, covering strategy, pricing, energy, and life sciences advisory. CRA bills clients primarily on a time-and-materials basis, with revenue driven by consultant hours billed and hourly billing rates. Utilization — the share of consultant time that is billable — is the key operational metric, and CRA runs utilization in the mid-to-high seventies percent range. Consultant compensation is the primary cost, with a meaningful variable component tied to performance. CRA grows organically by hiring lateral senior consultants and expanding within high-performing practices. On capital allocation, CRA targets returning roughly half of adjusted operating cash flows to shareholders via dividends and buybacks.