Dorothy Baker
Partner, Director of Investigations
Dorothy leads Quinlan Partners' New York office and manages complex investigations for litigators as well as pre-transactional due diligence research for the firm's institutional investor clients.
Prior to Quinlan Partners, Dorothy worked in the headquarters of a global corporate investigative firm for seven years. She has assisted counsel through fact-gathering in a wide range of high-profile disputes and asset-recovery matters, and has conducted investigations and diligence regarding companies and individuals around the world. Dorothy is an expert in public record and social media research and has extensive experience in conducting sensitive interviews with sources and witnesses. She has overseen investigations into price-fixing, contract fraud, embezzlement of public funds, bid-rigging, and workplace sexual misconduct, among many other areas. Dorothy is ranked as a leading practitioner in the 2023 Chambers Litigation Support Guide under Business Intelligence & Investigations, USA, Nationwide. She holds a B.A. from Columbia University.
On behalf of a major manufacturing company, Dorothy led a team of investigators looking into possible collusion between an industry union and one of the client’s competitors, tracing allegedly misappropriated assets around the world, identifying undisclosed relationships among ostensibly independent parties, and informing the client’s civil litigation strategy in real time as criminal complaints were filed against certain of the parties involved.
After a jury issued a multi-million dollar verdict against a client in a civil dispute, Dorothy investigated allegations that one of the jurors had perjured themselves by failing to disclose ties to the opposing party. Through deep public record investigation and on-the-ground interviews with sensitive witnesses, the investigation confirmed that the juror had made material misrepresentations about their background and ties to the relevant industry during the jury selection process, and these findings informed the client’s successful petition to have the judgment overturned.
Through on-the-ground interviews with sensitive witnesses as part of an investigation into collusion among competitors within a regulated industry, Dorothy gathered admissions of price-fixing and a culture of cooperation among salespeople in the industry.
In tandem with counsel representing a hedge fund, Dorothy investigated allegations and related witnesses put forward by the SEC as part of a confidential inquiry into the fund’s alleged compliance failures. Findings from the investigation -- including the discovery of credibility issues in the backgrounds of government witnesses -- contributed to the fund’s defense, and the SEC ultimately declined to pursue the inquiry, which was not made public.
On behalf of a private equity client in anticipation of litigation, Dorothy conducted an investigation resulting in the corroboration of rumors that the former owner of the client’s portfolio company had business and social ties to numerous local organized crime figures.
Dorothy has conducted background reviews in connection with hundreds of potential investments on behalf of private equity clients, in dozens of cases identifying reputational, management-related, and other background issues significant enough to preclude or warrant the restructuring of deals. Dorothy’s research and/or source inquiries in these matters have surfaced undisclosed competing outside businesses; patterns of alleged sexual harassment and other workplace misconduct; misappropriation of funds from past investors; material misrepresentations of professional qualifications; financial mismanagement of prior business ventures; and personal misconduct ranging from violent assault to drug distribution, among many other issues.