Most candidates walk into Bates White carrying a McKinsey-style issue tree and leave five minutes of brainstorming unused. The interviewer is not grading whether you can invent four buckets labeled customers, competitors, company, and costs. They are listening for whether you can name the economic question a lawyer would hire an economist to answer, keep market movement separate from alleged harm, and defend the arithmetic as if it might show up in an exhibit.
That is the thesis. Treat the Bates White case as a short expert-report draft spoken aloud, not a truncated strategy case. After this piece you should know the official format the firm publishes, how I score the three segments from the interviewer's chair, how to run a but-for damages calculation with units that survive a sanity check, and what to practice in one evening.
What Bates White is hiring for
Bates White describes itself as a Washington, DC boutique founded in 1999 that supplies economic, financial, and econometric analysis to law firms, companies, and government agencies, including expert testimony. Its public expertise map centers on five practices: antitrust and competition, energy, finance, healthcare and life sciences, and mass torts (expertise overview).
That mix matters for prep. The work product is often evidence for a merger review, a damages estimate, or a competition claim—not a recommendation deck about whether a client should enter a new market. If your instinct on every prompt is "should we do X?", you will sound polished and slightly off-topic.
CoachNed is not affiliated with Bates White. Verify timing and round structure in your recruiter email; the firm publishes the baseline, not every campus variant.
The format Bates White actually publishes
For bachelor's and master's recruiting, Bates White's careers pages describe two rounds: a virtual first round with traditional questions plus a case, then a second round (virtual or in DC) with behavioral interviews and another case (bachelor's and master's opportunities).
On the case itself, the firm's case interview tips page is unusually concrete. Cases run 25–40 minutes and break into three parts: brainstorming, calculations, and conceptual discussion. Sample prompts on that page include bundled medical products, a merger between ice cream chains, and a cartel overcharge on digital music players. Those prompts are the curriculum. Prepare for them, not for a generic profit-tree case with the word "antitrust" taped on top.
| Segment | Rough share of the 25–40 min (Ned's estimate) | What the sheet rewards | How candidates leak points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brainstorming | 8–12 min | Restating the question, clarifying data needs, listing competing explanations | Jumping to a framework before naming the economic question |
| Calculations | 10–15 min | Setup before arithmetic, units, stated assumptions, zero-checks | Silent math, misplaced millions, formula never spoken |
| Conceptual discussion | 5–10 min | Second-order effects, who bears harm, what would change the answer | Stopping at the number as if the case ended |
Use the table as a rehearsal timer. If your practice runs are all brainstorming, you are training the wrong muscle for Bates White.
A scoring heuristic from the interviewer's side
When I listen to economic consulting cases, I keep a simple 0–2 mark per trait. Two means I would trust you on a junior workstream tomorrow. Zero means I am already drafting the reject note in my head.
| Trait | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Question framing | Restates the prompt verbatim | Names a business decision | Names the legal-economic question (damages, competitive effect, pass-through) |
| Alternative explanations | Only one story (usually "they colluded") | Two stories, weakly linked to data | Explicit list of supply, demand, cost, and conduct explanations |
| Math hygiene | Answers appear without setup | Setup present, one unit or rounding error | Formula, units, assumption, and sanity check spoken |
| Conceptual close | Recites the number | Mentions "elasticity" as jargon | Ties the result to who is harmed and what would reverse the conclusion |
In a typical first-round slate of eight, I expect two or three candidates to clear a 6 out of 8 on that grid. The rest lose on framing or silent math, not on failing to know a textbook model.
Ned's rule. Before you brainstorm, restate the economic question in one sentence a partner could put in an email to counsel. If you cannot say what a court, agency, or opposing expert would need from the analysis, you are solving a different case than the one on the table.
Worked example: HelioCell battery overcharge
Invented company, invented numbers—use it as a drill, not as anyone's real matter.
Prompt. Three suppliers of lithium cells used in e-bike batteries allegedly coordinated prices. HelioCell, a mid-size pack manufacturer, bought 2.4 million cells over the alleged period at an average actual price of $42 per cell. A cost-based but-for benchmark (using pre-period margins and observed cost indexes) puts the competitive price at $36. During the same window, cobalt costs rose by an amount that would justify a $2 legitimate increase. Downstream e-bike OEMs faced relatively inelastic demand for packs. Estimate damages notions the interviewer might ask for, and say what you still need.
Step 1 — Name the question. We are estimating a possible overcharge and how much of that overcharge HelioCell absorbed versus passed through, after stripping out a legitimate cost shock. Parallel price moves alone are not proof of collusion; the FTC's price-fixing guidance stresses that unlawful price fixing requires an agreement among competitors, not merely matching a rival's price independently.
Step 2 — Overcharge per unit. Gross gap: $42 − $36 = $6. Legitimate cost adjustment: $2. Net overcharge candidate: $6 − $2 = $4 per cell.
Step 3 — Gross damages before pass-through. 2.4 million × $4 = $9.6 million.
Step 4 — Pass-through sketch. Suppose, with the interviewer's blessing, you assume 60% of the net overcharge was passed to OEMs (inelastic demand supports a high pass-through story). Then: Passed through: 0.60 × $9.6M = $5.76M. Absorbed by HelioCell: 0.40 × $9.6M = $3.84M.
Step 5 — Conceptual close. Tell the interviewer what would move the number: a better but-for from a yardstick market, evidence that capacity was tight for non-conspiratorial reasons, or proof that HelioCell lost volume rather than only margin. Say what you would ask for next—transaction-level prices, cost invoices, and competitor capacity utilization—before you treat $3.84M as a verdict.
Reproduce the arithmetic without looking. If you cannot, your calculation segment will feel like hope with a calculator.
Where Bates White prep diverges from MBB prep
MBB cases often reward speed to a recommendation. Bates White cases reward speed to a defensible setup. Three practical differences:
- Structure comes from the economics of the allegation or transaction, not from a memorized industry framework. For a merger prompt, start with overlapping products, diversion, and pricing pressure. For a cartel prompt, start with but-for price, confounding cost shocks, and pass-through.
- Assumptions are exhibits. State them before you use them. Vague "assume growth of 5%" is weaker than "assume cobalt justifies a $2 cost increase because the interviewer gave a cost index rising 8% on a $25 cobalt-related cost base."
- The close is about sensitivity, not a slide titled Next Steps. What would reverse the sign of the effect? That question is how economic consultants stay useful when counsel pushes back.
None of this requires you to recite industrial-organization theory. It requires you to sound like someone who has thought about evidence.
A one-evening practice plan
Block 90 minutes. No more.
- Read the firm's tips page once and write the three segments on a blank sheet. Time yourself to 30 minutes on a merger-style prompt you invent (two regional ice cream chains, overlapping SKUs, a proposed price increase after the deal).
- Run the HelioCell math cold until the $9.6M and $3.84M appear without hesitation. Then change one input (volume to 1.8 million, pass-through to 40%) and recompute aloud.
- Spend 20 minutes on spoken structure with a CoachNed drill. Economic cases still need crisp MECE lists of drivers; they just need different drivers.
When you want a live first rep with scores, use /start (three typed turns, no account required). For a full voice case with a seven-score debrief, use /interview. Everything on CoachNed is open for seven days with no card; then $120 for a recruiting season or $49 a month. Pair firm-specific logic with general structure and synthesis drills so the conceptual segment does not collapse into a shrug.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a Bates White case interview?
Bates White states that its case interviews last 25–40 minutes and include brainstorming, calculations, and conceptual discussion. Plan your practice runs inside that window rather than the 45–60 minutes common at some strategy firms.
Does Bates White use interviewer-led or candidate-led cases?
The firm's public tips describe an interviewer presenting a scenario, then moving you through brainstorming, provided numbers, and a broader discussion. Treat it as interviewer-guided: ask clarifying questions, but do not wait to be invited to think out loud.
What topics show up in Bates White cases?
Official sample themes include product bundling, merger pricing effects, and cartel overcharges. Expect supply-and-demand reasoning, simple damages or impact math, and a close that asks what else could explain the result.
Do I need a PhD or advanced econometrics for the bachelor's or master's case?
For the consultant and summer paths described on the firm's careers pages, the published case advice emphasizes clear reasoning, careful setup, and conceptual discussion—not estimating a regression on the spot. PhD recruiting is a different process and is outside this guide.
How should I prepare the behavioral portion?
Expect traditional and behavioral questions alongside the case in both rounds. Prepare concise stories about using data under ambiguity, changing your mind when evidence shifted, and explaining a technical result to a nontechnical audience. The case will not rescue a flat "why economic consulting" answer.
Sources
- Our firm | Bates White Economic Consulting — boutique DC positioning, 1999 founding, client types. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Bates White Expertise — five practice areas and specialty list. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Bachelor's & master's opportunities | Bates White — two-round interview structure. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Case interview tips | Bates White — 25–40 minute format, three segments, sample prompts. Checked 2026-09-24.
- Price Fixing | Federal Trade Commission — agreement vs. independent price matching; enforcement context. Checked 2026-09-24.