CRA International,Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to Charles River Associates' second quarter 2024 conference call. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. The company's earnings release and prepared remarks from CRA's chief financial officer are posted on the investor relations section of CRA's website at CRAI.com. With us today are CRA's president and chief executive officer, Paul Malley, Chief Financial Officer Dan Mahoney, and Chief Corporate Development Officer Chad Holmes. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Mahoney for opening remarks. Dan, please go ahead.

Thank you, Rob, and good morning, everyone. Please note that the statements made during this conference call, including guidance on future revenue and non-GAAP EBITDA margin, and any other statements concerning the future business, operating results, or financial condition of CRA including those statements using the terms expect, outlook, or similar terms, are forward-looking statements as defined in Section 21 of the Exchange Act. Information contained in these forward-looking statements is based on management's current expectations and is inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements due to many important factors, including the level of demand for our services as a result of changes in general and industry-specific economic conditions. Additional information regarding these factors is included in today's release and in CRA's periodic reports, including our most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed at the SEC. CRA undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date of this call. Additionally, we will refer to some non-GAAP financial measures and certain measures presented on a constant currency basis on this call. Everyone is encouraged to refer to today's release and related CFO remarks for reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to their GAAP comparable measures and descriptions of the calculation of EBITDA and measures presented on a constant currency basis. I will now turn it over to Paul for his report. Paul?

Thanks, Dan, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. CRA continued its run of strong performance into the second quarter of fiscal 2024. Revenue increased by 5.9% year over year to $171.4 million. When combined with the first quarter, this represents the highest first half revenue in the company's history. During this period of growth, we have continued to manage the business effectively. Consultant headcount remained relatively flat, compared to the second quarter of 2023, producing quarterly utilization of 74%. This solid utilization supported year-over-year growth and profitability as non-GAAP net income, earnings per diluted share, and EBITDA increased by 26.4%, 28.9%, and 18.5%, respectively. Broad-based contributions drove this strong quarterly performance, with five practices growing year over year. And I trust in competition economics, financial economics, intellectual property, labor and employment, and life sciences. Both lines of business contributed to the quarter's revenue growth as legal and regulatory increased 7.2% year over year and management consulting expanded 2.9% relative to the second quarter of fiscal 2023. For the company as a whole, we continue to replenish our sales pipeline. Our project lead flow increased in the second quarter by 11% year over year. CRA conversion rates remain strong and consistent with historical norms as new project originations grew by 18% relative to the second quarter of 2023. Even excluding projects that transitioned to CRA As part of the recent expansion of our intellectual property practice, new project originations still grew by 10% year-over-year. This performance outpaced the broader legal market, which saw total case filings increase by 7% year-over-year and total court judgments increase by 3%. I would now like to spend a few minutes highlighting some of the projects delivered during the second quarter. Our antitrust and competition economics practice has been actively involved in a variety of high profile litigation and regulatory matters. These cases range across industries, including technology, health insurance, hospitals, consumer goods, and home furnishings. Our team has successfully supported clients on intricate competition matters, helping them respond to a range of antitrust and damages claims. The practice also continued to assist clients involved in merger transactions. For example, during the second quarter, CRA experts supported the acquisition of Vietris's European over-the-counter business by Cooper Consumer Health. The CRA team prepared analyses assessing the horizontal overlaps and the closeness of competition of the parties' products across hundreds of markets. With the exception of two products, the European Commission found that the overlaps did not result in any competition concerns. In addition, vertical and conglomerate concerns were also analyzed by the CRA team, with the Commission concluding these did not result in any competition concerns. During the second quarter, CRA's financial economics practice assisted numerous banks by providing statistical analysis of underwriting and pricing with respect to consumer products, including mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards. Additionally, the practice supplied analysis of the geographic distribution of mortgage applications and originations for several lenders dating back to 2016. These analyses were in response to investigations by the Department of Justice and federal financial regulators, including the CFPB. Separately, the practice continued assisting clients by analyzing the imposition of overdraft fees and related remediation efforts. Finally, CRA experts continued supporting multiple banks in litigation matters alleging discrimination of protected classes in the context of mortgage lending and FHA false claims actions. CRA's intellectual property practice advised on multiple high-stakes litigation, arbitration, and valuation matters covering a broad range of industries, including automotive, consumer electronics, e-commerce, energy, industrial products, life sciences, semiconductors, and software. For example, CRA is retained on behalf of the plaintiffs in a high-profile Biologic Price Competition and Innovation Act patent litigation matter involving a treatment for age-related macular degeneration. Through written and oral testimony, CRA was asked to assess whether the branded manufacturer would suffer irreparable harm should the accused biosimilar manufacturers launch before the final resolution of the patent litigation. The district court agreed with CRA's findings. that there would be irreparable harm and granted injunctions preventing biosimilars from entering the market. In early May, as previously announced, the intellectual property practice welcomed the addition of a 20-person team led by Chris Bakewell and Julia Rowe. The practice now has a significant footprint in Texas, which is the most active venue for patent litigation in the U.S. Integration of the two legacy teams is tracking to plan, with cross-staffing of client projects and joint marketing efforts well underway. For example, the IP practice is undertaking a cross-practice initiative with our forensic and energy practices to develop and participate in a new conference focused on trade secrets and cybersecurity. The conference is planned for the fourth quarter in Houston. Also during the second quarter, CRA's labor and employment practice continue to provide expert analyses for clients facing a multitude of employment-related litigation issues, including claims of employment discrimination and underpayment due to job misclassifications and off-the-clock allegations. The practice regularly supports clients during the early litigation stages by assisting with court-ordered data collection. Experts across the practice also have been actively assisting clients prepare data and responses to audit requests made by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. CRA's life sciences practice continues to support strategies regarding the evolution of healthcare by working with a leading pharmaceutical company to build business cases for investing in a series of beyond the pill solutions with an emerging therapy in neuroimmunology space. Regarding the practice's expert witness work, we continue to support a large pharmacy benefit manager and a tax dispute with the U.S. government regarding the role of claims adjudication in the generation of revenues and profits. We also continue our work in both the U.S. and Canada regarding allegations of price fixing in generic pharmaceuticals. I'm grateful to all my colleagues for their hard work during the second quarter as we helped our clients address their most important challenges. To recap, through the first two quarters of fiscal 2024 on a constant currency basis relative to fiscal 2023, CRA generated total revenue of $342.2 million and non-GAAP EBITDA of $44.5 million. achieving a margin of 13%. While pleased with the strong performance of the business, we took proactive steps during the quarter to further optimize our service portfolio by reconfiguring the consulting team in targeted areas of the company, which affected about half a dozen practices. As we have discussed over the past year, we have seen high retention rates within our consulting staff that have led to persistent pockets of overcapacity. Normal operations and natural attrition rates help to bring our delivery resources into better alignment with the demand for our services, but excess capacity remained in select practices. Following the conclusion of the optimization actions during the second quarter, we feel well-positioned to continue the pursuit of profitable growth in the quarters ahead. Turning to our financial guidance, reflecting the strong start of the year, we are increasing our revenue and profit guidance for full year fiscal 2024 on a constant currency basis relative to fiscal 2023. We expect revenue in the range of $670 million to $685 million and non-GAAP EBITDA margin in the range of 12.2% to 13.0%. This new guidance compares with prior revenue range of $645 to $675 million and prior non-GAAP EBITDA margin range of 10.8 to 11.5%. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chad and then Dan for a few additional comments. Chad?