<SUBMISSION>
<ACCESSION-NUMBER>0001193125-05-033597
<TYPE>8-K
<PUBLIC-DOCUMENT-COUNT>2
<PERIOD>20050216
<ITEMS>2.02
<ITEMS>7.01
<FILING-DATE>20050222
<DATE-OF-FILING-DATE-CHANGE>20050222
<FILER>
<COMPANY-DATA>
<CONFORMED-NAME>Huron Consulting Group Inc.
<CIK>0001289848
<ASSIGNED-SIC>8742
<IRS-NUMBER>010666114
<STATE-OF-INCORPORATION>DE
<FISCAL-YEAR-END>1231
</COMPANY-DATA>
<FILING-VALUES>
<FORM-TYPE>8-K
<ACT>34
<FILE-NUMBER>000-50976
<FILM-NUMBER>05629177
</FILING-VALUES>
<BUSINESS-ADDRESS>
<STREET1>550 WEST VAN BUREN STREET
<CITY>CHICAGO
<STATE>IL
<ZIP>60607
<PHONE>(312) 583-8700
</BUSINESS-ADDRESS>
<MAIL-ADDRESS>
<STREET1>550 WEST VAN BUREN STREET
<CITY>CHICAGO
<STATE>IL
<ZIP>60607
</MAIL-ADDRESS>
</FILER>
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>8-K
<SEQUENCE>1
<FILENAME>d8k.htm
<DESCRIPTION>FORM 8-K
<TEXT>
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>Form 8-K</TITLE>
</HEAD>
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<HR SIZE="3" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000" ALIGN="left"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="5"><B>UNITED STATES </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="5"><B>SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="3"><B>Washington, D.C. 20549 </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR WIDTH="17%" SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="5"><B>FORM 8-K </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR WIDTH="17%"
SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="3"><B>CURRENT REPORT </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="3"><B>Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>February 16, 2005 </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR
WIDTH="17%" SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="6"><B>H<SMALL>URON</SMALL>
C<SMALL>ONSULTING</SMALL> G<SMALL>ROUP</SMALL> I<SMALL>NC</SMALL>. </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR WIDTH="17%" SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<TABLE CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" ALIGN="center">

<TR>
<TD WIDTH="34%"></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1%"></TD>
<TD WIDTH="32%"></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1%"></TD>
<TD WIDTH="32%"></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Delaware</B></FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>000-50976</B></FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>01-0666114</B></FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(State or other jurisdiction</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1px" ALIGN="center"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>of incorporation)</B></FONT></P></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(Commission File Number)</B></FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="top" ALIGN="center"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(IRS Employer</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="1"><B>Identification Number)</B></FONT></P></TD></TR>
</TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>550 West Van Buren
Street </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Chicago, Illinois </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2"><B>60607 </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(Address of principal executive offices) </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"
ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(Zip Code) </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2"><B>(312) 583-8700 </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>(Registrant&#146;s telephone number, including area code) </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR WIDTH="17%" SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions: </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<TABLE STYLE="BORDER-COLLAPSE:COLLAPSE" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="4%" VALIGN="top" ALIGN="left"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT><FONT FACE="WINGDINGS" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">&#168;</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425) </FONT></TD></TR></TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<TABLE STYLE="BORDER-COLLAPSE:COLLAPSE" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="4%" VALIGN="top" ALIGN="left"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT><FONT FACE="WINGDINGS" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">&#168;</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12) </FONT></TD></TR></TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<TABLE STYLE="BORDER-COLLAPSE:COLLAPSE" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="4%" VALIGN="top" ALIGN="left"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT><FONT FACE="WINGDINGS" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">&#168;</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b)) </FONT></TD></TR></TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<TABLE STYLE="BORDER-COLLAPSE:COLLAPSE" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="100%">
<TR>
<TD WIDTH="4%" VALIGN="top" ALIGN="left"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT><FONT FACE="WINGDINGS" SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000">&#168;</FONT><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"></FONT></TD>
<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)) </FONT></TD></TR></TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P><HR SIZE="3" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000" ALIGN="left">

<p Style='page-break-before:always'>
<HR  SIZE="3" COLOR="#999999" WIDTH="100%" ALIGN="CENTER">

 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Item 2.02. Results of Operations and Financial Condition. </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px; text-indent:4%"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">On February 16, 2005, Huron Consulting Group Inc. held a webcast relating to
its financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2004. The full text of the transcript of the webcast is furnished as Exhibit 99.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated in this report as if fully set forth
herein. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure. </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px; text-indent:4%"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B></B>The information set forth under Item 2.02 of this report is
incorporated herein by reference.<B></B> </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 1 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>SIGNATURE </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px; text-indent:4%"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
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<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Huron Consulting Group Inc.</FONT></P><HR SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">(Registrant)</FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD HEIGHT="16"></TD>
<TD HEIGHT="16" COLSPAN="2"></TD>
<TD HEIGHT="16" COLSPAN="2"></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Date: February 22, 2005</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">/s/ Gary L. Burge</FONT></P><HR SIZE="1" NOSHADE COLOR="#000000"></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Gary L. Burge</FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Vice President,</FONT></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer</FONT></TD></TR>
</TABLE> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 2 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>EXHIBIT INDEX </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
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<TD></TD>
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<TD WIDTH="95%"></TD></TR>
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<TD VALIGN="bottom"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>Exhibit</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>Number</B></FONT></P><HR WIDTH="42"
SIZE="1" NOSHADE ALIGN="left" COLOR="#000000"></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="1"><B>Description</B></FONT></P><HR WIDTH="61" SIZE="1" NOSHADE ALIGN="left" COLOR="#000000"></TD></TR>
<TR>
<TD VALIGN="top"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">99.1</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></TD>
<TD VALIGN="bottom"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Transcript of February 16, 2005 webcast of Huron Consulting Group Inc.</FONT></TD></TR>
</TABLE>
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</DOCUMENT>
<DOCUMENT>
<TYPE>EX-99.1
<SEQUENCE>2
<FILENAME>dex991.htm
<DESCRIPTION>TRANSCRIPT OF FEBRUARY 16, 2005 WEBCAST OF HURON CONSULTING GROUP INC
<TEXT>
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>Transcript of February 16, 2005 webcast of Huron Consulting Group Inc</TITLE>
</HEAD>
 <BODY BGCOLOR="WHITE">

 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="right"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>EXHIBIT 99.1 </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>HURN &#150; Q4 2004 HURON CONSULTING GROUP INC </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"
ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>EVENT DATE/TIME: FEB. 16. 2005 / 11:00 AM
ET </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>CORPORATE PARTICIPANTS </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Mary
Sawall </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Huron Consulting Group - VP, Human Resources </I></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Huron Consulting Group - COO </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>CONFERENCE CALL PARTICIPANTS </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Matt Litfin </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>William Blair - Analyst </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt
Sakakeeny </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst </I></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Andrew Fones </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>UBS - Analyst </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><I>Founders Asset Management &#150; Analyst </I></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2"><B>PRESENTATION </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Huron Consulting Group Webcast to
discuss results for the quarter and year ended December 31st, 2004. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">(OPERATOR
INSTRUCTIONS) </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And now I&#146;d like to turn the call over to Gary Holdren,
chairman and chief executive officer of Huron Consulting Group. Mr. Holdren, please go ahead. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today&#146;s Webcast to discuss Huron Consulting Group&#146;s fourth quarter and full year results. We&#146;re
delighted to have the opportunity to discuss our results with you today. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">Before we begin, I would like to point all of you to the disclosure at the end of our news release about any forward-looking statements that may be made or discussed on this call. Please review that information, along with our filing with
the SEC, for disclosure of factors that may impact subjects discussed in this morning&#146;s Webcast. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Joining me in Chicago today are George Massaro, Huron&#146;s chief operating officer, Gary Burge, who&#146;s our birthday boy today, he&#146;s 51, he&#146;s our chief financial officer, and Mary Sawall, Huron&#146;s
vice president of human resources. Gary Burge is going to provide an overview of how we did financially during the fourth quarter and full year plus &#146;05 guidance. Then we&#146;ll take your questions and George and Mary will help answer any
questions you may have. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">First I&#146;d like to take a few minutes to discuss
some topics that may be on your minds. Huron performed very well on the fourth quarter, capping off a very solid 2004. My comments will address how we are positioning Huron for exceptional performance in the future. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">As those of you who have followed Huron since the IPO know, our growth objectives are based
on a handful of solid strategies. The first of these is our strategy to build a balanced portfolio of service offerings and capabilities. We do this so that we can focus our people and our resources on opportunities as they evolve due to changing
market conditions. I think we proved this strategy in 2004, as we were able to move our people across various service offerings and different projects. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 1 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We have rapidly expanded our operational consulting practice into areas with high growth potential, like the healthcare
and higher education verticals and the general counsel market. This strategy also allows us to control our growth in cyclical businesses such as corporate &#151; such as our corporate advisory practice. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">From a very tangible standpoint, this balanced portfolio strategy is what enabled us to
generate a utilization rate of nearly 78% in the fourth quarter and will also give us the platform to pursue business in high growth areas in 2005. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">For 2005, in addition to healthcare, where we serve both provider and payor vertical, and higher education, we see significant growth opportunities in the disputes
investigation practice, including both forensic and financial accounting, strategic sourcing, and our legal business consulting, where we serve the general counsel market. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">In higher education, we have a unique market position among the 100 leading research universities. We are also expanding to large
non-research universities and the for-profit higher education vertical. The consulting opportunities are around research dollars, the efficiency of information technology spending, and the reduction of non-salary cost. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">In healthcare, both the provider and payor verticals provide us with significant market
opportunities. In the provider space, we are working with revenue cycle and supply chain issues, as well as using corporate advisory resources with troubled hospitals. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">In the payor &#151; the payor practice has growth serving many of the major Blues with coordination of benefits and changes in Medicare and
Medicaid provisions. Additionally, the whole area of average wholesale pricing in the pharmaceutical industry was good for Huron in 2004 and holds great potential for us in the future. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Our disputes and investigations practice is our biggest service offering and it has the greatest stability through active changing market
conditions because of the broad range and experience and our financial and accounting skill. Our investigations practice is currently active and consistently winning new assignments in both competitive and sole source situations with law firms and
general counsel. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">To that point, our offering to the general counsel market is
perhaps our largest growth opportunity and is a key customer channel for Huron. The general counsel in today&#146;s world is responsible for all legal compliance, to production and retention of all documents of the company and the management of all
legal matters of the company, including dispute resolution. You can see why the general counsel market is a key focus of Huron&#146;s relationship efforts. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Also in disputes investigation, because of our recognized position in transfer pricing, we are currently representing clients in the 2 largest tax disputes in the history
of the U.S. Treasury. In the current wave of telco and utility merger activity, we have resources that will work with companies regarding various regulatory and ratemaking issues. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Another area of great opportunity for Huron is our strategic sourcing practice, which continues to be a growing service offering across
several industry sectors, including higher education, healthcare, law firms and financial institutions. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">A second leg of our balanced portfolio strategy is to move our business model toward an even split between financial and operational consulting to better manage the change in market conditions and our revenue growth.
The indicators are headed in the right direction on this front and we are making good progress. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">By the end of February 2005 our workforce will be 54% financial consulting and 46% operational consulting. By the end of 2005, we&#146;d expect this to be a 50/50 split between the 2 segments. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">A third strategy you heard us discuss is to gear our business model to generate a long-term
organic growth of 15% revenue and net income growth of 20%. We expect two-thirds, or 10%, of the revenue growth to come from headcount increases and the other third, or 5%, to come from rate increases. We have made progress on both fronts.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We put a rate increase in effective January 1st to meet the revenue side of
the equation and by the end of February we will have increased our headcount by 7% since year-end. We continue to look to add managing directors to our businesses. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We are currently looking to add managing directors in disputes and investigations, higher education, healthcare of both the provider and
payor service offerings, as well as sourcing and legal business consulting. The key is finding MDs who fit our culture and have long-standing proven relationships and skills that meet the market needs. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We continue to hire junior people. We will also have more than 50 new consultants joining us
from college campuses later this summer. We remain comfortable with our ability to hit our net income goals and I will discuss one component, SG&amp;A, in a couple of minutes. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Another key strategy that works in tandem with the first 3 is moving our staffing ratio to leverage it 10 to 1, 10 professionals to each
managing director. Overall, we approached an 8 to 1 ratio at the end of 2004 and we expect continued improvement in 2005. As many of you know, the reason for this strategy is simple, a higher ratio generates higher gross margin. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 2 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">The final part of our growth story is to keep our best people and to continually recruit and retain top talent. This is
one of, if not my top priority for 2005. I am personally spending a significant amount of my time with our people at all locations and all levels. Making our people know that we care about them is a critical step in retention. In addition, I have
formed a CEO Advisory Council comprised of 21 of our most exceptional performers with whom I will work and communicate on a daily basis to work on all Huron issues, including retention. My point, we are very serious about keeping our best people and
attracting the top talent in the marketplace. We are very proud of the progress we have made on all of our critical issues and proud of how we did in 2004. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I want to take a moment to discuss what I consider to be the most critical driver of Huron&#146;s business, and that&#146;s relationships. During Q4, we continued to
invest heavily in this important aspect of our business. It is what forms the foundation of our business. Relationships create client assignments and they expand existing ones into new areas. They allow us to pursue new sectors of growth, they bring
us the best people. Relationships also make Huron a place where people want to work because they know we&#146;ll build a career based on growth, diversity of assignments and continuous learning. Investing in relationships is, in many ways,
Huron&#146;s equivalent of research and development expenditures. Investing in new relationships, such as the very successful General Counsel and Corporate Advisory summits we kicked off last fall is what generates new relationships. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">When you look at our SG&amp;A expense last quarter, you will see the impact of increased
expense aimed at creating and cultivating relationships. We will continue to invest heavily in R&amp;D as we build the Huron brand and we are not even 3 years old yet. And we had 36 different clients spend more than $1 million in 2004 with Huron. A
young company like Huron cannot do that without relationships. Our reasoning is simple; cultivating long-term relationships creates opportunities. Hiring, retaining and incenting managers who have broad and deep relationships in their respective
areas of expertise create business opportunities. And more importantly, it creates long-term growth and long-term benefit for our clients, our investors and for all of us. As managers, we are the collective owners of more than 20% of Huron&#146;s
equity, so we are keenly aware of the need to focus on these benefits. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Our
outlook for 2005 is a good one. The clients we get &#151; the client calls we get daily from the marketplace are very robust and we are very excited about the road ahead of us. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Gary Burge is now going to spend a few minutes on the numbers and outlook and then we&#146;ll answer any questions you have. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B>
</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thanks, Gary. As Gary said, we are very pleased with our solid fourth
quarter. Some of the financial highlights for the quarter included revenues of 40.8 million were up 41% year-over-year and rose 10% sequentially over Q3. Fourth quarter results included a startup of 2 major client assignments that were very
time-sensitive and both of those have continued in Q1, although at different levels of activity. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">The next few statistics are all before stock-based comp. Gross margins were nearly 45% in the fourth quarter, up significantly from 27% in the same quarter a year ago, also better than the 40% reported in Q3. Adjusted
EBITDA was 6.2 million compared to 0.4 million in the fourth quarter a year ago. Operating income rose to 5.5 million in the fourth quarter from a loss of 0.7 million in the same quarter last year and net income rose to 3 million from a loss of 1
million last year. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Other highlights include the following. As Gary mentioned,
our utilization was very strong at nearly 78% compared to 63% last year. Average billing rates came in at $243, up nearly 16% from a year ago, reflecting once again that we have the ability to raise rates when we are dealing in important matters for
our clients and when we provide an excellent value proposition. We finished the quarter with 28 million in cash on hand after IPO proceeds. DSO for the quarter were 61 days, which was in line with the high expectations we set for our MDs when it
comes to billing and collecting client receivables and managing our balance sheet. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">In response to business needs, SG&amp;A expenses were somewhat higher than originally forecasted for the following reasons. We have retained search firms to help us recruit senior level consultants more quickly. As Gary mentioned, SG&amp;A
also includes marketing or R&amp;D costs for our first General Counsel summit and other targeted marketing initiatives. These initiatives have already begun to pay significant benefits for us. In addition, public company expenses kicked in during
the fourth quarter for such things as Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, D&amp;O insurance, post IPO capital stock taxes, etc. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">For the full year 2004, again excluding stock-based comp as well as other special charges that were taken earlier in the year, revenues were up 57% to 159.6 million,
gross margins increased to 42% from 32% a year ago, adjusted EBITDA quadrupled to 28.7 million from 6.8 million a year ago, while operating income rose to 26.3 million from $1.5 million last year. Finally, net income rose to 13.9 million from a $1.1
million loss a year ago. I will point out that our effective tax rate for the year rose to 42.8%. This was due to higher amounts of non-deductible meal and entertainment expenses. We will be focusing on ways to hopefully reduce that effective tax
rate in future quarters. Utilization results for the full year were 72% versus 66% last year and the average billing rate for the year increased 10% to $239. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Now in terms of 2005 guidance, as far as the first quarter is concerned, we expect revenues to be in the 43.5 to $45.5 million range with an anticipated net income margin
in the range of 8 to 9%. This is without stock-based comp charges. As far as the full year goes, we expect revenues to be in the 183 to $187 million range with an anticipated net income margin of approximately 10% for the full year. Again, this
margin is without stock-based comp charges. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s it in terms of a wrap up on the financial results. Now we can go to the questions. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>QUESTION AND ANSWER </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">(OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS) </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Our first question
comes from Matt Litfin of William Blair. Please proceed, sir. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Matt Litfin
</B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>William Blair - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">Did you see weakness in utilization in the week between Christmas and New Years, as some other companies in this space did? And I guess really the question there is how has utilization trended so far in Q1? </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO
</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Matt, this is Gary Holdren. Clearly the utilization
always goes down between Christmas and New Years because of the holidays. And our utilization in Q1, I think we&#146;ve always told you guys we&#146;re between the 70 and 75% band and we&#146;re clearly within that band through the first 45 days of
&#146;05. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Matt Litfin </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>William Blair -
Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. And a follow-up, if I might. Now that
you have a couple of post IPO quarters under your belt, are you thinking of ratcheting up any acquisition activity and if so, in what areas would you be looking at? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We always have calls. There&#146;s a lot of interest in people who would like to join Huron.
At this point, we don&#146;t have anything to announce. And if we were to do anything on acquisitions, they would just be clearly stuff that&#146;s in our core competencies. We&#146;re not looking to expand beyond anything we&#146;re currently doing
today. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Matt Litfin </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>William Blair -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And one cleanup question for Gary Burge, which
is in &#146;05, can you talk about the share count that you&#146;re expecting given all the changes from the IPO, et cetera? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge - </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Right. Well, as you saw in the fourth quarter release, Matt, our fourth quarter diluted shares outstanding was 16.1 million. We&#146;ll
release our 10-K later today that&#146;ll have all the details of how that number was arrived at. And then, as we&#146;ve said before, expectations would be that we would have additional dilution from either options or restricted stock grants in the
3 to 3.5% range in &#146;05. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you, sir. Your next question comes from the line of Brandt Sakakeeny of Deutsche Bank.
Please proceed. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche
Bank - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">A couple of questions. Can you talk to
the attrition rates in the fourth quarter and how they compared against the third quarter results? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I&#146;ll let Mary Sawall take that question. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Mary Sawall </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - VP, Human Resources</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay, we &#151; in our third quarter call we said we anticipated lower turnover in the
fourth quarter and, in fact, that&#146;s what we did see. Our voluntary turnover among our chargeable employees was 4.5%, which brought us for the year a little over 22%, actually about 22.5% for voluntary turnover among our chargeable employees.
Which, as we had said, we anticipated our full year turnover to be higher than we wanted it to be, but it came in about where we expected. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. Is that your target for &#146;05? </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO
</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">No. As I said in my comments, Brandt, that is probably
one of my number 1 initiatives and we would &#151; we&#146;re working on it very hard and I would say that we need to spend more time and more attention with our people. We&#146;ve done that, I think, in the first 45 days of the year and we&#146;re
already starting to see very positive feedback from our people about this. And so we won&#146;t tell you what it is, but we have &#151; you know how we managed day sales outstanding? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Yes. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I think you&#146;ll see us managing retention and turnover to the same industry standards
where we&#146;ll be very proud of what we do with retention. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt
Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Right. And with respect, I think you said you grew headcount, or headcount will have grown by 7% by the end of February. Is that right? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s correct. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay, how is the market for talent right now given obviously strong demands generally across
this whole industry? And are you finding that you&#146;re able to get the people that you want for reasonable rates? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s a multi-part question. There&#146;s plenty of demand. The pipeline that we have
for senior level people is very robust. The better question is can you get them for the right price and what they can produce for you short term and long term. And that&#146;s what you just always are continuing to sort of fidget with is more and
more we would like the people to have really no dilution when they come with us as a managing director. So they can start almost immediately with revenues comparable, that we can generate the margins we want. But we have a huge amount of inflow in
the pipeline at the top levels and we&#146;ll just have to see whether we and they fit based on where we want to go. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Kelly Flynn of UBS. Please proceed. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Andrew Fones </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>UBS - Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Hi, this is Andrew Fones for Kelly. I had a couple of questions on retention and hiring goals. I was wondering if you could kind of give us
a sense of where you had turnover, where that occurred? Was that in the junior ranks or were there any MDs that left? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I&#146;ll let Mary Sawall answer that question. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Mary Sawall </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - VP, Human
Resources</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">The majority of our turnover was among the
more junior staff. Analysts, associates were the largest turnover group and then managers also. We did have some turnover among our MDs, but I think I can say that virtually all of the MD turnover was a mutual agreement between us and them, that the
fit just wasn&#146;t quite right. And for the year, voluntary turnover among MDs was 6%. So it&#146;s relatively low. We feel like we&#146;ve done a good job of vetting the people we&#146;ve hired and brought in good people. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Andrew Fones </B><I>-</I><B> </B><B><I>UBS - Analyst</I></B><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thanks. And then in terms of the hiring that&#146;s already occurred in Q1, can you kind of
just walk through what practices that&#146;s been in and perhaps what level? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Mary Sawall </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - VP, Human Resources</I></B><I></I><B>
</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Well, so far we&#146;ve &#151; in the first quarter among people
who&#146;ve started, we&#146;re focusing on people with 2 to 5 years of experience. And then the senior people that Gary talked about., The operational consulting has had, at this point, that more people started about two-thirds, one-third and that
is consistent with the rapid growth that we&#146;re expecting in that practice. Although in financial consulting we are actively building pipelines also. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Andrew Fones </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>UBS - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. And based on kind of your full year revenue guidance, what kind of hiring are you baking into that? And perhaps can you give us a
sense of what your expectations are in terms of MD hiring from this kind of search process you&#146;ve begun? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I think on the MD hiring, again I&#146;ll just say that if they&#146;re in the areas that we think are the right market segments and they fit our criteria of being able
to come and start with almost no dilution of revenues, we would add as many as the market would allow us to support. We&#146;ve got quite a few &#151; in our growth strategy we&#146;ve got quite a few MDs that we&#146;re trying to add. And they
would &#151; I think to follow my script, they would follow right along with our hot segments. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Andrew Fones </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>UBS - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. And that actually leads me to my final question. You kind of walked through the areas broadly across all groups that you&#146;re expecting improvement in the
upcoming year. But if you had to focus on 1 or 2 groups that you&#146;re most excited about, could you just kind of detail that? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">It&#146;s like I have 4 children and it&#146;s hard to focus on &#151; I mean I really, I
tell you, we are so excited on almost every one of our segments. If you just looked at payor, provider, sourcing, legal business consulting, higher education, financial, our disputes and investigations, you can&#146;t pick a favorite. They all got
huge market opportunities. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you. We have a follow-up question from Matt Litfin of William Blair. Please proceed.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Matt Litfin </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>William Blair -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Yes, I have a follow-up question on the
guidance. As I calculate the margins you&#146;re expecting for &#146;05, that&#146;s obviously an improvement over &#146;04 and the implications are that and I guess the question is do you think SG&amp;A continues at this level, 12 million per
quarter, and you just get better gross margins as you build out that pyramid? Or rather is it that you expect quarterly SG&amp;A to pull back from Q4 levels? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Yes, Matt, this is Gary. In terms of the guidance, I think clearly over time we will leverage the SG&amp;A costs and make those an
improvement as a percentage of revenue. But over time I think we look at a combination of factors in creating &#151; or generating bottom line margins and it&#146;s going to be improving gross profit margins as well as leveraging the SG&amp;A. And
we&#146;re comfortable that we can have an overall 10% target for this year at the bottom line. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - COO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">This is George Massaro. On the margins, I think we&#146;ll continue to see expansion of our leverage ratio and I think that will also contribute as well. So the factors
all combined give us good comfort with respect to the net income margin that we&#146;re talking about. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Again, Matt, we said we didn&#146;t want to basically continue to have various people answer, but if you think about the way we have people who make sales that have no
client deliverability, we put all those costs down into SG&amp;A. So the margins could go up because the sales people are much more efficient, which means that your gross margins go up, but your SG&amp;A. So that&#146;s why we think the better thing
to focus on is either operating income and net income is the way we look at our business. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 6 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">You have another follow-up question from Brandt Sakakeeny of Deutsche Bank. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Brandt Sakakeeny </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Deutsche Bank - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">A question on the restructuring business. Could you just give us an update on just your sense as to how that business is faring in the
current economic climate? Thanks. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B>
</B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">The large bankruptcies and the filings of the large bankruptcies is definitely declining. And the number of ones that we know that are in the process of filing is declining. So what we have to do, we still got some of our assignments that
we&#146;re still at, which we&#146;ve been at for some while, which is I think the ones that are public are United and ATA. We continue to have some very &#151; we clearly have a very good position in the airline industry. But we&#146;re going to
have to take &#151; we&#146;re going to have to go more in middle market, we&#146;re going to have to be scrappy, we&#146;re going to have to keep going. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And then as I think that we see and I think a lot of other people see that you probably heard before us is that the amount of defaults is going down, the amount of credit
available is very good right now, but that maybe in &#146;06 you&#146;ll have a comeback of that marketplace. So that&#146;s why we think our portfolio of being able to move our people around our various sectors until it comes back is the way
we&#146;ll sort of manage the business. But we&#146;ve got 10 managing directors right now working in corporate advisory services. We want to keep all those people because it&#146;s a really good business. So we&#146;ll just have to &#151;
we&#146;ll move people around and go for smaller things until that market comes back. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you, sir. Your next question comes from the
line of J.D. Padgett of Founders Asset Management. Please proceed. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D.
Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Just had a couple of quick ones on the guidance for &#146;05. What tax rate are you assuming within that? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Hi, J.D., this is Gary. Assuming right now a 43% effective tax rate and as we&#146;ve said, though, we&#146;re going to be looking at some
initiatives that may help us reduce that going forward. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett
</B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. And I&#146;m not certain I understood the answer to the shares outstanding question. Is the Q4 base the right number to use? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Yes. That would be a good base. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. So that&#146;s all in and then add 3% for
dilution and so forth going forward? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B><I>-</I><B>
</B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - COO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I&#146;m
not sure that&#146;s all in. When I &#151; this is George Massaro. When I look at the analysts&#146; numbers that are out there, it looks like for most of them they have used outstanding shares. And so I think you guys probably have to line up with
the methodology you&#146;re going to use as you deal with stock-based compensation and you back that out. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay, but the fully diluted number from Q4 was a good place to start at? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - COO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Fully diluted is the GAAP basis number. And that&#146;s really the only number we can use. We can&#146;t really reconcile with some of the
analysts&#146; numbers that are out there. So I think outstanding you can certainly see in the 10-K, which you&#146;ll see today. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And the revenue guidance I presume is just the billable revenue, not the reimbursable expense, right? </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 7 - </FONT></P>


<p Style='page-break-before:always'>
<HR  SIZE="3" COLOR="#999999" WIDTH="100%" ALIGN="CENTER">

 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B>
</B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s right, J.D. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And it seems like you hired what, like low 30s
in terms of headcount so far this year. Is that just a seasonal thing where people are more available after they got bonuses or what do you attribute this success in hiring to so far this year? </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group -
COO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">This is George. A couple of things. Number 1, there
clearly is a seasonality factor and that is the fact that people tend to stick to get their bonuses. But the other thing is frankly, we&#146;ve been building the pipeline, we&#146;ve been very deliberate about building it. We want it to get through
our business planning process to make certain that we&#146;re comfortable. We&#146;re making the right bets. And all of those factors sort of work together. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Is that about right, a 7% on the end of year basis, like 34 people? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Mary Sawall </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - VP, Human Resources</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">About 30. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And that&#146;s probably gross, right? </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and
CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s net. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>George Massaro </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group -
COO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We factored in attrition up through February.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group -
Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s net. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s great. And the plan, then, through
the rest of the year would be what, to try and bring in a couple of select hires each month or what kind of pace do you think you could sustain? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">The marketplace, as far as people wanting to join us, is very robust. And so we just need to
make sure that they&#146;re in the right sectors and they meet our criteria. Whether that&#146;s 1 a quarter or 2 a quarter, I guess &#151; we&#146;ll probably have a lot more news to tell you about this next quarter. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Sounds good. And then the price increase that
you alluded on Jan. 1, was that 5%? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B>
</B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Yes, we
expect that it&#146;ll have an overall 5% impact and it takes about a quarter for that to begin to bake in. But that should have at least that kind of impact. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
<P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And the average bill rate increase that we saw for Q4, that&#146;s obviously not taking that
into account yet, right? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 8 - </FONT></P>


<p Style='page-break-before:always'>
<HR  SIZE="3" COLOR="#999999" WIDTH="100%" ALIGN="CENTER">

 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s correct. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">So we could use the end of the year average bill rate to kind of compute the &#146;05
target? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group
- CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">I think that would be a good assumption.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. Was that just mix in Q4 that helped the
bill rate? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting
Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">There&#146;s a lot of factors that go into
bill rate. Mix can be an issue, plus discounting off of rackrates, all those types of things. But we&#146;ve got our MDs focused in on improving our yield constantly. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And SG&amp;A, there was no sort of one-time factors in the fourth quarter that then would
fall off, sounds like some of those special events that you were doing to try and recruit and so forth? Will we see SG&amp;A decline if you don&#146;t repeat those? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">At this stage, we&#146;ll continue to make investments constantly in our future and if we
think it&#146;s the right thing to do in terms of continual investments in marketing, as well as recruiting costs, we&#146;re going to do that. And then over the &#151; in terms of the full year for &#146;05, we would expect that SG&amp;A will
continue to ramp up. And that over time will improve as a percent of revenue. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">And the other thing, J.D., you got to remember we had 120 to 130 people who all got pay raises January 1st. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">So that &#151; so it may step up in the Q1 to take that into account but then kind of flat
line from there kind of thing? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B>
</B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">And we may not have all the special events, but I think the thing is that we gave you &#151; the thing I think you should look at us is we need to manage to the net income numbers we gave you and we&#146;ll do that in several ways.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. I think you said what, like 15% revenue
growth, and 5% was price and 10% was the headcount? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren
</B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Correct. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B>
</B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman"
SIZE="2">Does that mean if you&#146;re already 7% of the way there, there&#146;s only incrementally a little bit more that you need to do? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We&#146;ll update you next quarter. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That makes sense. And I guess just 1 final
thing; the net margin guidance excludes the stock comp? How much will that be for &#146;05? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 9 - </FONT></P>


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 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - CFO </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">We had projected somewhere in the neighborhood for full year &#146;05 about 3.8 million.
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management -
Analyst </I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Okay. That&#146;s pre-tax or after-tax?
</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group -
CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">That&#146;s pre-tax. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>J.D. Padgett </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Founders Asset Management - Analyst
</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Well, excluding that pre-tax, we&#146;d get to the 10%
margin target? </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Burge </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting
Group - CFO</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Right. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you, sir. You currently have no questions at this time. I&#146;d like to turn the call back over to, Mr. Holdren. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Gary Holdren </B><I>-</I><B> </B><I></I><B><I>Huron Consulting Group - Chairman and CEO
</I></B><I></I><B> </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Thank you all for being on the call today and giving
us your time. We look very forward to talking to you again when we wrap up our first quarter. So we&#146;ll be talking to you again sometime in May. Thanks again for joining us. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2"><B>Operator </B></FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:-6px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your participation in today&#146;s conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. </FONT></P> <P
STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">Have a great day. </FONT></P> <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><FONT
SIZE="1">&nbsp;</FONT></P>
 <P STYLE="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px" ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Times New Roman" SIZE="2">- 10 - </FONT></P>

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