There are a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in, or implied by, statements in this Annual Report. Important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements we make in this Annual Report are set forth in this report, including under the heading “Risk Factors” in Part I, Item 1A of this Annual Report. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or persons acting on our behalf apply only as of the date of this Annual Report and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included herein. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances and do not intend to do so.

Unless otherwise indicated or required by the context, when we use the terms “Company,” “FTI Consulting,” “we,” “us” and “our,” we mean FTI Consulting, Inc., a Maryland corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries.

FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political and& regulatory, reputational and transactional. Individually, each of our segments and practices is staffed with experts recognized for the depth of their knowledge and a track record of making an impact. Collectively, FTI Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist clients across the business cycle, from proactive risk management to rapid response to unexpected events and dynamic environments.

We report financial results for the following five reportable segments:

We work closely with our clients to help them anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges and make the most of opportunities arising from factors such as the economy, financial and credit markets, governmental legislation and regulation, and litigation. We provide our clients with expert advice and services, such assolutions involving business transformation, transactions, turnaround, restructuring (including bankruptcy), capital formation and indebtedness, interim business management, performance improvements, forensic accountingbankruptcy, construction & environmental solutions, data & analytics, disputes, health solutions, risk and litigation matters,

We have organized our business segments across four geographic regions consisting of:Our operations span the globe encompassing locations within: (i) the North America region, which consistsAmericas, consisting of our 4851 U.S. offices located in 1923 states, and threefour offices located in Calgary, TorontoCanada and Vancouver, Canada; and oursix offices inserving Latin America located in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, the Cayman Islands and the Virgin Islands (British); (ii) Asia and the Asia Pacific, region, which consistsconsisting of 1518 offices located in Australia, China (including Hong Kong), India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore; and (iii) the Europe, Middle East and Africa (“EMEA”) region, which consists, consisting of 1935 offices located in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands,Israel, Qatar, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom (“UK”U.K.”).

We derive the majority of our revenues from providing professional services to clients in the U.S. For the year ended December 31, 2017,2020, we derived approximately 30%63% and 37% of our consolidated revenues from the work of professionals who are assigned to locations inside and outside the U.S., respectively.

The following table sets forth the percentage of consolidated revenues for the last threetwo years contributed by each of our five reportable segments.

The following table sets forth the number of offices and countries in which each segment operates, as well as the net number of revenue-generating professionals in each of our reportable segments.

In 2017,2020, our Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment operated through restructuring, business transformation and transactions practices, which offeroffered the following services:

Our Forensic and Litigation Consulting segment provides law firms, companies, government clients and other interested parties with multidisciplinary, independent dispute advisory, investigations, data analytics, forensic accounting, business intelligence and risk mitigation services, as well as interim management and performance improvement services for our health solutions practice clients. We advise our clients in response to allegations involving the propriety of accounting and financial reporting, fraud, regulatory scrutiny and anti-corruption. We assist our clients in protecting enterprise value by (i) quantifying damages and providing expert testimony in a wide range of dispute situations: claims and liabilities, government and regulatory inquiries, investigations and proceedings, litigation, IP, professional malpractice, lost profits, valuations, breach of contract, purchase price disagreements, business interruption, environmental claims, construction claims and fraud, (ii) employing forensic accounting and complex modeling to analyze financial transactions, and (iii) identifying, collecting, analyzing and preserving structured information within enterprise systems. We have the capacity to provide our full array of practice offerings across jurisdictional boundaries around the world.

Our Economic Consulting segment, including subsidiary Compass Lexecon LLC (“Compass Lexecon”), provides law firms, companies, government entities and other interested parties with analyses of complex economic issues for use in legal, regulatory and international arbitration, legal and regulatory proceedings, and strategic decision making and public policy debates in the U.S. and around the world. We deliver sophisticated economic analysis and modeling of issues arising in complex M&A transactions, antitrust litigation, commercial disputes, international arbitrations, regulatory proceedings, IP disputes and a wide range of services centered around three core offerings: antitrust & competition economics, financial litigation. We help clients analyze issues such as the economic impact of deregulation on a particular industryeconomics and the amount of damages suffered by a business as a result of a particular event. Our professionals regularly provide expert testimony on damages, rates and prices, valuations (including valuations of complex financial instruments), antitrust and competition regulation, business valuations, IP, transfer pricing and public policy.international arbitration.

In 2017,2020, our Economic Consulting segment offered the following services:

Our Technology segment offersprovides companies, law firms and government entities with a comprehensive global portfolio of e-discovery, information governance, e-discoveryprivacy and security and corporate legal operations solutions. We deliver a full spectrum of services including data collection, data processing, document review, hosting, advanced analytics software, services and consultingconsulting.

Our Strategic Communications segment designsdevelops and executes communications strategies forto help management teams, and boards of directors, to help them seize opportunities,law firms, governments and regulators manage financial, regulatorychange and reputational challenges, navigate market disruptions, articulate their brand, stakemitigate risk surrounding transformational and disruptive events, including transactions, investigations, disputes, crises, regulation and legislation. We deliver a competitive position, and preserve and grow operations. We believe our integrated offerings, which include a broad scopewide range of services deep industry expertisecentered around three core offerings: corporate reputation, financial communications and global reach, are unique and distinguish us from other strategic communications consultancies.public affairs.

In 2017,2020, our Strategic Communications segment offered the following services:

We employ professionals across our segments and practices who are qualified to provide both our core services plus a range of specialized consulting services and solutions that address the strategic, reputational, operational, financial, regulatory, legal and other needs of specific industries. The major industry groups that we service include:

Factors that drive demand for our business offerings include:

We build client relationships based on the quality of our services, our reputationbrand and the reputation of our professionals. We provide diverse complementary services to meet our clients’ needs around the world. We emphasize client service and satisfaction. We aim to build strong brand recognition. The following are key elements of our business strategy:

As of December 31, 2017,2020, we had written employment arrangementsagreements with substantially all of our 452615 Senior Managing Directors and equivalent personnel (collectively, “SMD”). These arrangements generally provide for fixed salary and participation ineligibility for incentive payment programs (which, in some cases, may be based on financial measures such as EBITDA)EBITDA or relative total shareholder return), salary continuation benefits, accrued bonuses and other benefits beyond the termination date if an SMD leaves our employment for specified reasons prior to the expiration date of theirthe employment agreement. The length and amount of payments to be paid by us following the termination or resignation of an SMD may vary, depending on whether the personemployee resigned with or without “good reason” or was terminated by us with or without “cause,” retired or did not renew, died or became “disabled,” or was terminated as a result of a “change in control” (all such terms as defined in such SMD’s employment agreement). All of our written employment arrangementsagreements with SMDs requirean SMD requires some notice period be given by us or the partiesSMD prior to termination of employment and include covenants providing for restrictions on the SMDsSMD competing against, and soliciting employees from, the Company for a specified period of time following the end of the SMDsSMD's employment.

Our SMDs, consultants and other employees, consultants and professionals may receive incentive, retention or sign-on payments, on a case-by-case basis, through unsecured general recourse forgivable loans, equity awards or other payments (collectively, “Retention Awards”). We believe that providing these multi-year Retention Awards greatly enhances our ability to attract and retain our key professionals.  

Some or all of the principal amount and accrued interest of the loans we make will be forgiven by us upon the passage of time, or their repayment will be funded by us through additional cash bonus compensation, provided that the recipient is an employee or consultant on the forgiveness date. In addition, upon certain termination events, accrued interest and the outstanding principal balance may be forgiven, including upon death, disability and, in some cases, retirement or termination by the Company without cause or the recipient with good reason, or the recipient may be required to repay the unpaid accrued interest and outstanding principal balance upon certain other termination events such as voluntary resignation, as provided in the applicable promissory note. The value of the forgivable loans we have made, in the aggregate, as well as on an individual basis, havehas been, and we anticipate will continue to be, significant. Our executive officers and outside directors are not eligible to receive loans, and no loans have been made to them.

Our executive officers, other members of senior management and outside directors, as well as employees and independent service providers, have received and will continue to receive equity awards, which may include stock optionoptions and share-based awards (including awards in the form of restricted stock, performance-based restricted stock units, deferred restricted stock units, and cash-settled stock appreciation rights and units), on a case-by-case basis, to the extent that shares are available under our stockholder-approved equity compensation plans. The value of such equity and cash-based awards, in the aggregate, as well as on an individual basis, has been and is expected to continue to be significant.

During the year ended December 31, 2017,2020, no single client accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated revenues. Norevenues and no reportable segment had a single client that accounted for more than 10% of its respective total revenues for the year ended December 31, 2017.segment revenues. In some cases, we may have engagements through law firms that represent a larger percentage of our consolidated revenues or the revenues of a segment; however, in these situations, each law firm engages us on behalf of multiple clients.

We compete with different companies or businesses of companies depending on the particular nature of a proposed engagement and the requested types of service(s) or the location of the client or delivery of the service(s) or product(s). Our businesses are highly competitive. Our competitors include large organizations, such as the global accounting firms and large management and financial consulting companies, that offer a broad range of consulting services; investment banking firms; ITinformation technology ("IT") consulting and software companies that offer niche services that are the same or similar to services or products offered by one or more of our segments;segments and small firms and independent contractors that provide one or more specialized services.

We compete primarily on the basis of the breadth of our services, the quality of our work, the prominence of our professionals, our geographic reach, our reputation and performance record, our specific industry expertise, our ability to staff multiple significant engagements across disciplines and industries in multiple locations, and our strong client relationships. Our Technology segment, particularly with respect to hosting and e-discovery services, and to a lesser extent our other segments, may also compete on price, although the critical nature of the services provided by our Corporate Finance, & Restructuring, Forensic and Litigation Consulting,FLC and Economic Consulting segments typically makes price a secondary consideration with respect to those segments.consideration. Since our businesses depend in a large part on professional relationships, there are low barriers of entry for professionals, including our professionals, electing to work independently, start their own firms or change employers.

Our Corporate Finance & Restructuring segment primarily competes with specialty boutiques and publicly traded companies providing restructuring, bankruptcy orand M&A services and, to a lesser extent, large investment banks and global accounting firms.

Our Forensic and Litigation ConsultingFLC segment primarily competes with other large consulting companies and global accounting firms with service offerings similar to ours.

Our Economic Consulting segment primarily competes with individually recognized economists, specialty boutiques and large consulting companies with service offerings similar to ours.

Our Strategic Communications segment competes with large public relations firms, as well as boutique M&A, crisis communications and public affairs firms.

Some service providers are larger than we are and, on certain engagements, may have an advantage over us with respect to one or more competitive factors. Specialty boutiques or smaller local or regional firms, while not offering the range of services we provide, may compete with us on the basis of geographic proximity, specialty services or pricing advantages.

Different factors outside of our control could affect demand for a segment’s practices and our services. These include:

We are not able to predict the positive or negative effects that future events or changes to the U.S. or global economies will have on our business or the business of any particular segment. Fluctuations, changes and disruptions in financial, credit, M&A and other markets, political instability and general business factors could impact various segments’ operations and could affect such operations differently. Changes to factors described above, as well as other events, including by way of example, contractions of regional economies, or the economy of a particular country, trade restrictions, monetary systems, banking, real estate and retail or other industries; debt or credit difficulties or defaults by businesses or countries; new, repeals of or changes to laws and regulations, including changes to the bankruptcy and competition laws of the U.S. or other countries; tort reform; banking reform; a decline in the implementation or adoption of new laws ofor regulation, or in government enforcement, litigation or monetary damages or remedies that are sought; or political instability may have adverse effects on one or more of our segments or service, practice or industry offerings.

We experience fluctuations in our revenues and cost structure and the resulting operating income and cash flows and expect that this will continue to occur in the future. We experience fluctuations in our annual and quarterly financial results, including revenues, operating income and earnings per share, for reasons that includeinclude: (i) the types and complexity, number, size, timing and duration of client engagements; (ii) the timing of revenue recognition under U.S. GAAP;revenues; (iii) the utilization of revenue-generating professionals, including the ability to adjust staffing levels up or down to accommodate the business and prospects of the applicable segment and practice;; (iv) the time it takes before a new hire becomes profitable; (v) the geographic locations of our clients or the locations where services are rendered; (vi) billing rates and fee arrangements, including  the opportunity and ability to successfully reach milestones, and complete engagements and collect success fees and other outcome-contingent or performance-based fees; (vii) the length of billing and collection cycles and changes in amounts that may become uncollectible; (viii) changes in the frequency and complexity of government regulatory and enforcement activities; (ix) business and asset

The results of different segments and practices may be affected differently by the above factors. Certain of our practices, particularly our restructuring practice, tend to experience their highest demand during periods when market and/or industry conditions are less favorable for many businesses.  For example, in periods of limited credit availability, reduced M&A activity and/or declining business and/or consumer spending, while not always the case, there may be increased restructuring opportunities that will cause our restructuring practice to experience high demand. On the other hand, those same factors may cause a number of our other segments and practices, such as our antitrust and competition practice in Economic Consulting, and our transaction advisory services practice in Corporate Finance & Restructuring to experience reduced demand. The positive effects of certain events or factors on certain segments and practices may not be sufficient to overcome the negative effects of those same events or factors on other parts of our business. In addition, our mix of practice offerings adds complexity to the task of predicting revenues and results of operations and managing our staffing levels and expenditures across changing business cycles and economic environments.

Our results are subject to seasonal and similar factors, such as during the fourth quarter when our professionals and our clients typically take vacations. We may also experience fluctuations in our operating income and related cash flows because of increases in employee compensation, including changes to our incentive compensation structure and the timing of incentive payments, which we generally pay during the first quarter of each year, or hiring or retention payments, which are paid throughout the year. Also, the timing of investments or acquisitions and the cost of integrating them may cause fluctuations in our financial results, including operating income and cash flows. This volatility makes it difficult to forecast our future results with precision and to assess accurately whether increases or decreases in any one or more quarters are likely to cause annual results to exceed or fall short of previously issued guidance. While we assess our annual guidance at the end of each quarter and update such guidance when we think it is appropriate, unanticipated future volatility can cause actual results to vary significantly from our guidance, even where that guidance reflects a range of possible results and has been updated to take account of partial-year results.

Our failure to manage the utilization of our professionals who bill on an hourly basis, or maintain or increase the hourly rates we charge our clients for our services, could result in adverse consequences, such as non- or lower-revenue-generating professionals, increased employee turnover, fixed compensation expenses in periods of declining revenues, the inability to appropriately staff engagements (including adding or reducing staff during periods of increased or decreased demand for our services), or special charges associated with reductions in staff or operations. Reductions in workforce or increases of billable rates will not necessarily lead to savings. In such events, our financial results may decline or be adversely impacted. A number of factors affect the utilization of our professionals. Some of these factors we cannot predict with certainty, including general economic and financial market conditions; the complexity, number, type, size and timing of client engagements; the level of demand for our services; appropriate professional staffing levels, in light of changing client demands and market conditions; utilization of professionals across segments and geographic regions; competitioncompetition; and acquisitions. In addition, our global expansion into or within locations where we are not well-known or where demand for our services is not well-developed could also contribute to low or lower utilization rates in certain locations.

Segments may enter into engagements which involve non-time and material arrangements, such as fixed feesfixed-fee and time and materials with caps. Failure to effectively manage professional hours and other aspects of alternative fee engagements may result in the costs of providing such services exceeding the fees collected by the Company. Failure to successfully complete or reach milestones with respect to contingent fee or success fee assignments may also lead to lower revenues or the costs of providing services under those types of arrangements may exceed the fees collected by the Company.

Factors that could negatively affect utilization in our segments include:

In some cases, our segments are engaged by certain clients who are experiencing or anticipate experiencing financial distress or are facing complex challenges.challenges, are engaged in litigation or regulatory or judicial proceedings, or are facing foreclosure of collateral or liquidation of assets. This may be true in light of general economic conditions; lingering effects of past economic slowdowns or recession; or business- or operations-specific reasons. Such clients may not have sufficient funds to continue operations or to pay for our services. We typically do not receive retainers before we begin performing services on a client’s behalf in connection with a significant number of engagements in our segments. In the cases where we have received retainers, we cannot assure the retainers will adequately cover our fees for the services we perform on behalf of these clients. With respect to bankruptcy cases, bankruptcy courts have the discretion to require us to return all, or a portion of, our fees.

We may receive requests to discount our fees or to negotiate lower rates for our services and to agree to contract terms relative to the scope of services and other terms that may limit the size of an engagement or our ability to pass throughpass-through costs. We consider these requests on a case-by-case basis. We routinely receive these types of requests and expect this to continue in the future. In addition, our clients and prospective clients may not accept rate increases that we put into effect or plan to implement in the future. Fee discounts, pressure not to increase or evenpressure to decrease our rates, and less advantageous contract terms could result in the loss of clients, lower revenues and operating income, higher costs and less profitable engagements. More discounts or write-offs than we expect in any period would have a negative impact on our results of operations. There is no assurance that significant client engagements will be renewed or replaced in a timely manner or at all, or that they will generate the same volume of work or revenues or be as profitable as past engagements.

Certain of our clients prefer fixed and other alternative fee arrangements that place revenue ceilings or other limitations on our fee structure or may shift more of our revenue-generating potential to back-end contingent and success fee arrangements. With respect to such alternative fee arrangements, we may discount our rates initially, which could mean that the cost of providing services exceeds the fees collected by the Company during all or a portion of the term of the engagement. In such cases, the Company’s failure to manage the engagement efficiently or collect the success or performance fees could expose the Company to a greater risk of loss on such engagement than other fee arrangements or may cause variations in the Company’s revenues and operating results due to the timing of achievement of the performance-based criteria, if achieved at all. A segment’s ability to service clients with these fee arrangements at a cost that does not directly correlate to time and materials may negatively impact or result in a loss of the profitability of such engagements, adversely affecting the financial results of the segment.

We experience fluctuations in growth of our different segments, practices orand services, including periods of rapid or declining growth. Periods of rapid expansion may strain our management team or human resources and information systems. To manage growth successfully, we may need to add qualified managers and employees and periodically update our operating, financial and other systems, as well as our internal procedures and controls. We also must effectively motivate, train and manage a larger professional staff. If we fail to add or retain qualified managers, employees and contractors when needed, estimate costs, or otherwise manage our growth effectively, our business, financial results and financial condition may suffer.

We cannot assure that we can successfully manage growth through acquisitions and the integration of the companies and assets we acquire or that they will result in the financial, operational and other benefits that we anticipate. Some acquisitions may not be immediately accretive to earnings, and some expansion may result in significant expenditures.

In periods of declining growth, underutilized employees and contractors may result in expenses and costs being a greater percentage of revenues. In such situations, we will have to weigh the benefits of decreasing our workforce or limiting our service offerings and saving costs against the detriment that the Company could experience from losing valued professionals and their industry expertise and clients.

Our international operations involve financial and business risks that differ from or are in addition to those faced by our U.S. operations, including:

If we are not able to quickly adapt to or effectively manage our operations in geographic markets outside the U.S., our business prospects and results of operations could be negatively impacted.

We have a robust Code of Ethics and Business Conduct, Anti-Corruption Policy, Policy on Inside Information and Insider Trading, and other policies and procedures that are designed to educate and establish the standards of conduct that we expect from our executive officers, outside directors, employees, and independent consultants and contractors. These policies require strict compliance with U.S. and local laws and regulations applicable to our business operations, including those laws and regulations prohibiting improper payments to government officials. In addition, as a corporation whose securities are registered under the Securities Act and publicly traded on the NYSE, our executive officers, outside directors, employees and independent contractors are required to comply with the prohibitions against insider trading of our securities. In addition, we impose certain restrictions on the trading of securities of our clients. Nonetheless, we cannot assure youour stakeholders that our policies, procedures and related training programs will ensure full compliance with all applicable legal requirements. Illegal or improper conduct by our executive officers, directors, employees, independent consultants or contractors, or others who are subject to our policies and procedures could damage our reputation in the U.S. and internationally, which could adversely affect our existing client relationships or adversely affect our ability to attract and retain new clients, or lead to litigation or governmental or regulatory proceedings in the U.S. or foreign jurisdictions, which could result in civil or criminal penalties, including substantial monetary awards, fines and penalties, as well as disgorgement of profits.

We assess our goodwill, trade names and other intangible assets as well as our otherand long-lived assets as and when required by GAAPGenerally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States to determine whether they are impaired and, if they are, to record appropriate impairment charges. Factors we consider include significant underperformance relative to expected historical or projected future operating results and significant negative industry or economic trends. We have previously recorded impairment charges to the carrying value of goodwill of certain of our segments and it is possible that we may be required to record significant impairment charges in the future. Such charges have had and could have ana material adverse impact on our results of operations.

We deliver sophisticated professional services to our clients. Our success is dependent, in large part, on our ability to keep our supply of skills and human resources in balance with client demand around the world. To attract and retain clients, we need to demonstrate professional acumen and build trust and strong relationships. Our professionals have highly specialized skills. They also develop strong bonds with the clients they serve. Our continued success depends upon our ability to attract and retain professionals who have expertise, reputationsa good reputation and client relationships critical to maintaining and developing our business. We face intense competition in recruiting and retaining highly qualified professionals to drive our organic growth and support expansion of our services and geographic footprint. We cannot assure that we will be able to attract or retain qualified professionals to maintain or expand our business. If we are unable to successfully integrate, motivate and retain qualified professionals, our ability to continue to secure work in may suffer. Moreover, competition has caused our costs of retaining and hiring qualified professionals to increase, a trend whichthat could continue and could adversely affect our operating margins and financial results.

Despite fixed terms or renewal provisions, we could face retention issues during and at the end of the terms of those agreements and large compensation expenses to secure extensions. There is no assurance we will enter into new or extend existing employment agreements with our professionals. We monitor contract expirations carefully to commence dialogues with professionals regarding their employment in advance of the actual contract expiration dates. Our goal is to renew employment agreements when advisable and to stagger the expirations of the agreements if possible. Because of the concentration of contract expirations in certain years, we may experience high turnover or other adverse consequences, such as higher costs, loss of clients and engagements or difficulty in staffing engagements, if we are unable to renegotiate employment arrangementsagreements or the costs of retaining qualified professionals becomesbecome too high. The implementation of new compensation arrangements may result in the concentration of potential turnover in future years.

We may pay hiring or retention bonuses to secure the services of professionals. Those payments have taken the formsform of unsecured general recourse forgivable loans, stock option,options, restricted stock, cash-based stock appreciation rights and other equity- and cash-based awards, and cash payments to attract and retain our professional employees. We make forgivable loans to KSIP participants and may provide forgivable or other types of loans to new hires and professionals who join us in connection with acquisitions, as well as to select current employees and other professionals on a case-by-case basis. The

We also provide significant additional payments under the KSIP and annual recurring equity or cash awards under the Senior Managing Director Incentive Compensation Programs, Key Senior Managing Director Incentive PlansICP, the Executive Committee incentive compensation arrangements and other compensation programs, including awards in the form of restricted stock and other stock- or cash-based awards or, alternatively, cash if we do not have adequate equity securities available under stockholder-approved equity plans.

In addition, our Economic Consulting segment has contracts with select economists or professionals whothat provide for compensation equal to a percentage of such individual’s annual collected client fees plus a percentage of the annual fees generated by junior professionals working on engagements managed by such professionals, which results in compensation

We rely heavily on our executive officers and the heads of our operating segments, regionssegment, industry and industriesregional leaders to manage our operations. Given the highly specialized nature of our services and the scale of our operations, our executive officers and the heads of our operating segments and industry and regional leaders must have a thorough understanding of our service offerings, as well as the skills and experience necessary to manage a large organization in diverse geographic locations. We are unable to predict with certainty the impact that leadership transitions may have on our business operations, prospects, financial results, client relationships, or employee retention or morale.

Our professionals typically have close relationships with the clients they serve, based on their expertise and bonds of personal trust and confidence. Therefore, the barriers to our professionals pursuing independent business opportunities or joining our competitors should be considered low. Although our clients generally contract for services with us as a Company,company, and not with an individual professional, in the event that a professional leaves, such clients may decide that they prefer to continue working with a specific professional rather than with our Company. Substantially all of our written employment arrangementsagreements with our senior managing directorsSenior Managing Directors and equivalent employees include non-competition and non-solicitation covenants. These restrictions have generally been drafted to comply with state “reasonableness” standards. However, states generally interpret restrictions on competition narrowly and in favor of employees. Therefore, a state may hold certain restrictions on competition to be unenforceable. In the case of employees outside the U.S., we draft non-competition provisions in an effort to comply with applicable foreign law. In the event an employee departs and acts in a way that we believe violates his or her non-competition or non-solicitation agreement, we will consider any legal remedies we may have against such person on a case-by-case basis. We may decide that preserving cooperation and a professional relationship with a former employee or client, or other concerns, outweighs the benefits of any possible legal recourse. We may also decide that the likelihood of success does not justify the costs of pursuing a legal remedy. Therefore, there may be times we may decide not to pursue legal action, even if it is available to us.

Our inability to accept engagements from existing or prospective clients, represent multiple clients in connection with the same or competitive engagements, or any requirement that we resign from a client engagement may negatively impact our revenues, growth and financial results. While we follow internal practices to assess real and potential issues in the relationships between and among our clients, engagements, segments, practices and professionals, such concerns cannot always be avoided. For example, we generally will not represent parties adverse to each other in the same matter. Under U.S. federal bankruptcy rules, we generally may not represent both a debtor and its creditors in the same proceeding, and we are required to notify the U.S. Trustee of real or potential conflicts. Even if we begin a bankruptcy-related engagement, the U.S. Trustee could find that we no longer meet the disinterestedness standard because of real or potential changes in our status as a disinterested party and order us to resign, which could result in disgorgement of fees. Acquisitions may require us to resign from a client engagement because of relationship issues that are not currently identifiable. In addition, businesses that we acquire or employees who join us may not be free to accept engagements they could have accepted prior to our acquisition or hire because of relationship issues.

Our engagements involve matters that may result in a severe impact on a client’s business, cause the client a substantial monetary loss or prevent the client from pursuing business opportunities. Our ability to attract new clients and generate new and repeat engagements or hire professionals depends upon our ability to maintain a high degree of client satisfaction, as well as our reputation among industry professionals. As a result, any claims against us involving the quality of our services may be more damaging than similar claims against businesses in other industries.

Many of our engagements involve complex analysis and the exercise of professional judgment, including litigation and governmental investigatory matters where we act as experts. Therefore, we are subject to the risk of professional and other liabilities. Although we believe we maintain an appropriate amount of insurance, it is limited. Damages and/or expenses resulting from any successful claim against us, for indemnity or otherwise, in excess of the amount of insurance coverage will be borne directly by us and could harm our profitability and financial resources. Any claim by a client or third party against us could expose us to reputational issues that adversely affect our ability to attract new or maintain existing engagements or clients or qualified professionals or other employees, consultants or contractors.

Our engagements center on transactions, disputes, litigation and other event-driven occurrences that require independent analysis or expert services. Transactions may be postponed or canceled, litigation may be settled or dismissed, and disputes may be resolved, in each case with little or no prior notice to us. If we cannot manage our work in process, our professionals may be underutilized until we can reassign them or obtain new engagements, which can adversely affect financial results.

The engagement letters that we typically enter into with clients do not obligate them to continue to use our services. Typically, our engagement letters permit clients to terminate our services at any time without penalties. In addition, our business involves large client engagements that we staff with a substantial number of professionals. At any time, one or more client engagements may represent a significant portion of a segment’s revenues. If we are unable to replace clients or revenues as engagements end or if clients unexpectedly cancel engagements with us or curtail the scope of our engagements and we are unable to replace the revenues from those engagements, eliminate the costs associated with those engagements or find other engagements to utilize our professionals, the financial results of the Company could be adversely affected.

The engagement letters that we typically have with clients do not obligate them to continue to use our services and permit them to terminate the engagement without penalty at any time. Even if the termination of an ongoing engagement by a client could constitute a breach of the client’s engagement agreement, we may decide that preserving the overall client relationship is more important than seeking damages for the breach and, for that or other reasons, decide not to pursue any legal remedies against a client, even though such remedies may be available to us. We make the determination whether to pursue any legal actions against a client on a case-by-case basis.

Our reputation for providing secure information storage and maintaining the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential and trade secret information is critical to the success of our businesses, especially our Technology segment, which hosts client information as a service. We routinely face cyber-based attacks and attempts by hackers and similar unauthorized users to gain access to or corrupt our information technology systems, which so far, to our knowledge, have been unsuccessful. Such attacks could harm our overall professional reputation and disrupt our business operations, cause us to incur unanticipated losses or expenses, and result in unauthorized disclosures of confidential or proprietary information. We expect to continue to face such attempts. Although we seek to prevent, detect and investigate these network security incidents and have taken steps to mitigate the likelihood of network security breaches, there can be no assurance that attacks by unauthorized users will not be attempted in the future or that our security measures will be effective.

The market for some of our consulting services is highly competitive. We do not compete against the same companies across all of our segments, practices, services, industries or geographic regions. Instead, we compete with different companies

Our competitors include large organizations, such as the global accounting firms and the large management and financial consulting companies that offer a broad range of consulting services; investment banking firms; IT consulting and software companies, which offer niche services that are the same or similar to services or products offered by one or more of our segments; and small firms and independent contractors that focus on specialized services. Some of our competitors have significantly more financial resources, a larger national or international presence, larger professional staffs and greater brand recognition than we do. Some have lower overhead and other costs and can compete through lower cost-service offerings.

Since our business depends in large part on professional relationships, our business has low barriers ofto entry for professionals electing to start their own firms or work independently. In addition, it is relatively easy for professionals to change employers.

If we cannot compete effectively or if the costs of competing, including the costs of hiring and retaining professionals, become too expensive, our revenue growth and financial results could be negatively affected and may differ materially from our expectations.

In connection with our acquisitions, we generally obtain non-solicitation agreements from the professionals we hire, as well as non-competition agreements from senior managers and professionals. The agreements prohibit such individuals from competing with us during the term of their employment and for a fixed period afterwards and from seeking to solicit our employees or clients. In some cases, but not all, we may obtain non-competition or non-solicitation agreements from parties who sell us their businesses or assets. The duration of post-employment non-competition and non-solicitation agreements typically ranges from six to 12 months. Non-competition agreements with the sellers of businesses or assets that we acquire typically continue longer than 12 months. Certain activities may be carved out of, or otherwise may not be prohibited by, these arrangements. We cannot assure that one or more of the parties from whom we acquire a business or assets, or who do not join us or leave our employment, will not compete with us or solicit our employees or clients in the future. States and foreign jurisdictions may interpret restrictions on competition narrowly and in favor of employees or sellers. Therefore, certain restrictions on competition or solicitation may be unenforceable. In addition, we may not pursue legal remedies if we determine that preserving cooperation and a professional relationship with a former employee or his or her clients, or other concerns, outweighs the benefits of any possible legal recourse or the likelihood of success does not justify the costs of pursuing a legal remedy. Such persons, because they have worked for our Company or a businessesbusiness that we acquire, may be able to compete more effectively with us, or be more successful in soliciting our employees and clients, than unaffiliated third parties.

The process of managing and integrating acquisitions into our existing operations may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and may require significant financial, operational and managerial resources that would otherwise be available for the operation, development and organic expansion of our existing operations. To the extent that we misjudge our ability to properly manage and integrate acquisitions, we may have difficulty achieving our operating, strategic and financial objectives.

Acquisitions also may involve a number of special financial, business and operational risks, such as:

In addition to the integration challenges mentioned above, our acquisitions of non-U.S. companies offer distinct integration challenges relating to foreign laws and governmental regulations, including tax and employee benefit laws, and other factors relating to operating in countries other than the U.S., which we have addressed above in the discussion regarding the difficulties we may face operating globally.

Asset transactions may require us to seek client consents to the assignment of their engagements to us or a subsidiary. All clients may not consent to assignments. In certain cases, such as government contracts and bankruptcy engagements, the

The Company may also hire groups of selected professionals from another company. In such event, there may be restrictions on the ability of the professionals who join the Company to compete and work on client engagements. In addition, the Company may enter into arrangements with the former employers of those professionals regarding limitations on their work until any time restrictions pass. In such circumstances, there is no assurance that the Company will enter into mutually agreeable arrangements with any former employer, and the utilization of such professionals may be limited, and our financial results could be negatively affected until their restrictions end. The Company could also face litigation risks from group hires.

Our governance and management policies and practices will not mirror the policies and practices of an acquired company or its parent. In some cases, different management practices and policies may lead to workplace dissatisfaction on the part of professionals who join our Company. Some professionals may choose not to join our Company or leave after joining us. Existing professionals may leave us as well. The loss of key professionals may harm our business and financial results and cause us not to realize the anticipated benefits of the acquisition.

Our level ofsenior secured bank revolving credit facility (the "Credit Facility"), or our other indebtedness could have important consequences on our future operations. Our Credit Facility and the indenture governing the 6% Senior Notes due 2022 (“2022 Notes”) include negativeoutstanding from time to time, contains or may contain operating covenants that may, subject to exceptions, limit our ability and the ability of our subsidiaries to, among other things:

Operating results below a certain level or other adverse factors, including a significant increase in interest rates, could result in us being unable to comply with certain covenants. If we violate theseany applicable covenants and are unable to obtain waivers, our agreements governing our indebtedness under the indenture, the Credit Facility or other applicable agreement could be declared in default and could be accelerated, which could permit, in the case of secured debt, the lenders to foreclose on our assets securing the debt thereunder. If the indebtedness is accelerated, we may not be able to repay our debt or borrow sufficient funds to refinance it. Even if we are able to obtain new financing, it may not be on commercially reasonable terms or on terms that are acceptable to us. If our debt is in default for any reason, our cash flows, financial results or financial condition could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, complying with these covenants may cause us to take actions that are not favorable to holders of the 2022 Notesour outstanding indebtedness and may make it more difficult for us to successfully execute our business strategy and compete against companies that are not subject to such restrictions.

We and our subsidiaries may be able to incur substantial additional indebtedness, including additional secured indebtedness, in the future. The terms of the indenture, dated as of August 20, 2018, between us and U.S. Bank National Association, as trustee (the "Indenture") governing the 20222.0% Convertible Senior Notes anddue 2023 (the “2023 Convertible Notes”) do not restrict us from incurring additional debt, securing existing or future debt, recapitalizing our debt or taking a number of other actions that are not limited by the terms of the Indenture. The terms of the agreements governing our Credit Facility and other indebtedness limit, but do not prohibit, us from incurring additional indebtedness and do not prevent us from incurring other liabilities that do not constitute indebtedness. In addition, the indenture that governs the 2022 Notes allows our domestic subsidiaries that guarantee the 2022 Notes and the Credit Facility to guarantee additional indebtedness from time to time. The indenture for the 2022 Notes also permits us to incur certain other additional secured debt, which would be effectively senior to the 2022 Notes.

Our ability to incur additional indebtedness may have the effect of reducing the amountsfunds available to pay amounts due with respect to our indebtedness. If we incur new indebtedness or other liabilities, the related risks that we and our subsidiaries nowmay face could intensify.

Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our indebtedness depends on our future performance, including the performance of our subsidiaries, which will be affected by financial, business and economic conditions, competition and other factors. We will not be able to control many of these factors, such as the general economy, economic conditions in the industries in which we operate and competitive pressures. Our cash flow may not be sufficient to allow us to pay principal and interest on our indebtedness and to meet our other obligations. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to sell assets, seek additional capital, or restructure or refinance our indebtedness. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to meet our scheduled debt service obligations. In addition, the terms of existing or future debt agreements, including our Credit Facility, and the indenture that governs the 2022 Notes, may restrict us from pursuing any of these alternatives.

In the event that we need to refinance all or a portion of our outstanding indebtedness before maturity or as it matures, we may not be able to obtain terms as favorable as the terms of our existing indebtedness or refinance our existing indebtedness at all. If interest rates or other factors existing at the time of refinancing result in higher interest rates upon refinancing, we will incur higher interest expense. Furthermore, if any rating agency changes our credit rating or outlook, our debt and equity securities could be negatively affected, which could adversely affect our financial condition and financial results.

Substantially all of our U.S. subsidiaries guarantee our obligations under our 2022 Notes and Credit Facility, and substantially all of their assets are pledged as collateral for the Credit Facility. Future U.S. subsidiaries will be required to provide similar guarantees and, in the case ofunder the Credit Facility, similar security.Facility. If we default on any guaranteed indebtedness, our U.S. subsidiaries could be required to make payments under their guarantees, and our senior secured creditors could foreclose on our U.S. subsidiaries’ assets to satisfy unpaid obligations, which would materially adversely affect our business and financial results.

Borrowings under our Credit Facility will be at variable rates of interest, which expose us to interest rate risk. If interest rates increase, our debt service obligations on the variable rate indebtedness would increase even though the amount borrowed remained the same, and our cash flow could be adversely affected. An increase in debt service obligations under our variable rate indebtedness could affect our ability to make payments required under the terms of the Credit Facility, 2022 Notesagreements governing our indebtedness or our other indebtedness outstanding from time to time.

None.

In June 2017, ourOur executive offices moved to a new locationlocated in Washington, D.C., which consistsconsist of 93,507100,511 square feet under a lease expiring April 2028. In May 2017, ourOur principal corporate facilities moved its location tooffice located in Bowie, Maryland, which consists of 30,835 square feet under a lease expiring April 2028. In October 2020, we entered into a material lease agreement, amending and restating the lease agreement entered into during August 2020, for our new principal office space in New York, New York for an initial fixed term of 15 years, subject to two renewal options of five years each. We also lease offices to support our operations in 3536 other cities across the U.S., including New York, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles and San Francisco, and we lease office space to support our international locations in 27 countries — the United Kingdom,U.K., Ireland, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Israel, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, China (including Hong Kong), Japan, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, India, Qatar, the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands. We believe our existing leased facilities are adequate to meet our current requirements and that suitable space will be available as needed.

From time to time in the ordinary course of business, we are subject to claims, asserted or unasserted, or named as a party to lawsuits or investigations. Litigation, in general, and IP and securities litigation, in particular, can be expensive and disruptive to normal business operations. Moreover, the results of legal proceedings cannot be predicted with any certainty, and in the case of more complex legal proceedings, such as IP and securities litigation, the results are difficult to predict at all. We evaluate litigation claims and legal proceedings to assess the likelihood of unfavorable outcomes and to estimate, if possible, the amount of potential losses. Based on these assessments and estimates, we establish reserves and/or disclose the relevant litigation claims or legal proceedings, as appropriate. These assessments and estimates are based on the information available to management at the time and involve a significant amount of management judgment. Actual outcomes or losses may differ materially from those anticipated at the time. We currently are not aware of any asserted or unasserted legal proceedings or claims that we believe would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition or results of our operations.

The following is a discussion and analysis of our consolidated financial condition, results of operations and liquidity and capital resources for each of the threetwo years in the period ended December 31, 20172020 and significant factors that could affect our prospective financial condition and results of operations. This discussion should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and notes included in Part II, Item 8, “Financial Statements and Supplementary Data” of this Annual Report. For a similar discussion and analysis of our results for the year ended December 31, 2019 compared with our results for the year ended December 31, 2018, refer to Part II, Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” of our Annual Report for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the United States ("U.S.") Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 25, 2020. Historical results and any discussion of prospective results may not indicate our future performance.

FTI Consulting is a global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political and& regulatory, reputational and transactional. Individually, each of our segments and practices is staffed with experts recognized for the depth of their knowledge and a track record of making an impact. Collectively, FTI Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist clients across the business cycle, from proactive risk management to rapid response to unexpected events and dynamic environments.  

We report financial results for the following five reportable segments:

We derive substantially all of our revenues from providing professional services to both United States ("U.S.") and global clients. Most of our services are rendered under time-and-expensetime and expense arrangements that obligate the client to pay us a fee for the hours that we incur at agreed-upon rates. Under this arrangement, we typically bill our clients for reimbursable expenses, which may include the cost of producing our work product and other direct expenses that we incur on behalf of the client, such as travel costs. We also render services for which certain clients may be required to pay us a fixed-fee or recurring retainer. These arrangements are generally cancelable at any time. Some of our engagements contain performance-based arrangements in which we earn a contingent or success fee when and if certain predefined outcomes occur. This type of success fee may supplement a time-and-expensetime and expense or fixed-fee arrangement. Success fee revenues may cause variations in our revenues and operating results due to the

Our financial results are primarily driven by:

We define acquisition growth as revenues of acquired companies in the first 12 months following the effective date of an acquisition. Our definition of organic growth is the change in revenues, excluding the impact of all such acquisitions.

When significant, we identify the estimated impact of foreign currency translation (“FX”) driven by our businesses with functional currencies other than the U.S. dollar (“USD”),. The estimated impact of FX on the period-to-period performance results. The estimated impact of FXresults is calculated as the difference between the prior period results multiplied by the average foreign currencyFX exchange rates to USD in the current period and the prior period results, multiplied by the average foreign currencyFX exchange rates to USD in the prior period.

In the accompanying analysis of financial information, we sometimes use information derived from consolidated and segment financial information that may not be presented in our financial statements or prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United StatesU.S. ("GAAP"). Certain of these financial measures are considered “notnot in conformity with GAAP ("non-GAAP financial measures”) under the SEC rules. Specifically, we have referred to the following non-GAAP financial measures: