The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) held its second annual Antitrust Enforcement Awards on Tuesday night, honoring litigation achievements in three categories.
UCLA’s Edward Leamer, Ph.D. received the award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Economics for his work in In Re High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation. Dr. Leamer’s work helped demonstrate that, even in a post-Dukes environment, economic analysis can help determine if a class action is the appropriate vehicle for employees to seek redress for alleged harms. Finalists in the Economics category were Princeton¹s Orley C. Ashenfelter and UC Berkeley¹s Richard Gilbert for their work in United States of America v. Apple Inc., et al. (e-books), Duke University’s Leslie M. Marx, Ph.D. For her work in In Re Petition of Pandora Media, Inc. related to United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) et al., and UC Berkeley’s Carl Shapiro, Ph.D. for his work in United States v. Bazaarvoice, Inc.
K. Craig Wildfang of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP was awarded Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice for his work as co-lead counsel for the plaintiff class in In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Litigation in which he secured approval of what is believed to be the largest-ever settlement of a private antitrust case in the 120-year history of the Sherman Act. Finalists in the Private Law Practice category were Jay N. Fastow of Ballard Spahr LLP for his work in ZF Meritor LLC v. Eaton Corporation and Kenneth L Steinthal of King & Spalding for his work in United States v. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) et al. There were two honorable mentions: Eric L. Cramer of Berger & Montague, P.C. For his work in Marchbanks Truck Service Inc., et al. v. Comdata Network, Inc., et al. and K. Craig Wildfang and Christopher Burke of Scott & Scott for their work in Dahl v. Bain Capital Partners, LLC et al.
The AAI added a new category to the Antitrust Enforcement Awards in 2014. Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement by a Young Lawyer was awarded to Matt Duncan of Fine, Kaplan and Black, R.P.C. for his work in In re Steel Antitrust Litigation. Duncan and a small group of co-lead counsel managed all aspects of the claims against eight large defendants. He helped lead this enormous litigation to outstanding results. Finalists in the Young Lawyers category were Andrew C. Curley of Berger & Montague, P.C. For his work in Marchbanks Truck Service Inc., et al. v. Comdata Network, Inc., et al., and Meegan F. Hollywood of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P. for her work in In re Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation.
Qualified nominations had to be for antitrust-focused litigation that was (a) initiated in or appealed in any U.S. state or federal court and, (b) Resulted (whether or not subject to appeal) in a final judgment, verdict, dismissal, conviction, injunction, order, or settlement between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014. The award submission period ended on September 10. A panel of judges determined finalists within each category. A second round of judging determined the winning entry.
The judging committee was comprised of:
· Daniel E. Gustafson, Gustafson Gluek PLLC, Chair
· Hollis Salzman, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi L.L.P., Vice Chair
· Jonathan Baker, American University’s Washington College of Law
· Ellen S. Cooper, Office of the Attorney General of Maryland
· Harry First, New York University School of Law
· Kathleen E. Foote, California Department of Justice Antitrust Section
· Warren Grimes, Southwestern Law School
· Thomas Horton, South Dakota School of Law
· Ellen Meriwether, Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP
· Dianne Nast, NastLaw, LLC
· Roger Noll, Stanford University
· Linda Nussbaum, Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A.
· Christopher Sagers, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
· Bonny Sweeny, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
· Richard O. Zerbe, University of Washington
