Bernard Persky

With more than four decades of experience as an antitrust litigator, Bernard Persky played key roles in numerous high profile class actions, securing major recoveries totaling well over $1 billion that serve to protect businesses, consumers, and the public at large. Persky has been honored to receive high praise from the bench and the bar, notably, in County of Suffolk v. Long Island Lighting Co., in which he served as co-lead trial counsel, the Second Circuit upheld a $400 million class settlement and quoted the sentiment of the trial judge, Hon. Jack B. Weinstein, that “counsel [has] done a superb job [and] tried this case as well as I have ever seen any case tried.” 907 F.2d 1295, 1327 (2d Cir. 1990).

Persky successfully defended a major department store chain in a complex antitrust class action involving price fixing among retailers, a case that was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Moitie v. Federated Dept. Stores, Inc., 452 U.S.394 (1981).

Persky served as Co-Lead Class Counsel in In re Disposable Contact Lens Antitrust Litigation, In re Keurig Green Mountain Coffee Antitrust Litigation, Anastasio v Total Gas & Power NA, Inc., and In re Optiver Commodities Manipulation Litigation. He has represented a generic drug manufacturer in an FTC antitrust investigation of an alleged unlawful reverse payment settlement of Hatch-Waxman litigation as well as several health insurer plaintiffs in their suit against defendant Mylan Laboratories Inc., among others, for violating various state antitrust statutes.

Susan (Sue) Kelly was elected to the Board of Trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation in February 2021 and serves on the Compliance, Finance and Audit, Nominating, and Technology and Security Committees.

Ms. Kelly previously served as president and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA) from 2014 to 2019, where she led the national trade association serving public power utilities, having come to the organization in 2004 as its senior vice president of Policy Analysis and General Counsel responsible for APPA’s energy policy formulation and policy advocacy before FERC, the federal courts, and other governmental and industry policy forums.

Ms. Kelly has served on a number committees, including the Steering Committee of the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (2014 to 2019), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Energy and Environmental Markets Advisory Committee (2015 to 2019), the U.S. Department of Energy’s Electricity Advisory Committee (2008 to 2009 under the Bush Administration; 2012 to 2014 under the Obama Administration), and as the president of the Energy Bar Association (2010 to 2011). She was also a member of the E Source Advisory Board and served on the Board of Directors of the Center for Energy Workforce Development. She currently serves as chair of the Energy Bar Association Masters Council and has helped start a virtual mentoring program for Energy Bar Association members.

Ms. Kelly was named one of Washington’s “Most Powerful Women” in the November 2015 issue of Washingtonian magazine in the “Business, Labor, and Lobbying” category. In March 2017, she was honored as Woman of the Year by the Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment. In January 2020, she received Public Utility Fortnightly’s Owen Young Award to honor her exceptional contributions to the electric utility industry.

Ms. Kelly earned her bachelor’s degree in Honors Interdisciplinary Studies and Economics from the University of Missouri and her juris doctorate from the George Washington University, both with high honors.

Arthur M. Kaplan, of counsel at Fine, Kaplan and Black, is a graduate of the Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1970), where he served as Articles Editor of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. Mr. Kaplan began practicing antitrust and complex litigation in 1970, and has served as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in a series of important matters. He commenced the In re Copper Antitrust Litigation, an action brought on behalf of major purchasers of copper cathode alleging a conspiracy to manipulate world copper prices, which settled favorably in 2007.

Mr. Kaplan was Co-Lead Counsel for plaintiffs in the In re Nasdaq Market-Makers Antitrust Litigation, a landmark case in which plaintiffs achieved settlements totaling more than $1 billion. Mr. Kaplan served as Lead Counsel for the plaintiff class in Sutton v. Medical Service Association of Pennsylvania, et al. (“Pennsylvania Blue Shield/Blue Cross Class Action”); Co-Lead Counsel for the plaintiff class in Northwestern Fruit Co. v. A. Levy & J. Zentner Co., et al. (“California Cantaloupe Antitrust Cases”); and Co-Lead Counsel for the plaintiff class in Meredith v. Mid-Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (“Virginia Soft Drinks Antitrust Litigation”).

The quality of Mr. Kaplan’s work has been praised repeatedly by the federal courts, including the Nasdaq court’s observation that “it would be difficult to conceive of better representation than the parties to this action achieved,” and the court’s observation in Sutton v. Independence Medical Service Association of Philadelphia, 1994 WL 246166 (E.D. Pa. 1994), another case in which Mr. Kaplan served as plaintiffs’ lead counsel, that the “quality” of counsel’s work was “extraordinarily good.”

Mr. Kaplan is an elected member of the American Law Institute, has guest lectured on litigation topics at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and has held leadership positions with the American Antitrust Institute and the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws. Mr. Kaplan is a member of the National Board of the ACLU, and is Vice-President of the Philadelphia ACLU and serves on its board.

James D. Hurwitz, J.D. (University of California, Berkeley), LLM (University of London, London School of Economics and Political Science) was a research fellow for the American Antitrust Institute.

Mauro Grinberg worked and still works in fundamental questions of antitrust law in Brazil since its beginning, having watched and participated in all of its development. Due to his expertise and experience, he is highly praised by many clients. He covers the whole range of antitrust law – from merger notifications, defenses in Cade and judicial actions – focusing mainly on complex anticompetitive conducts. His acting on the process that became known as the “generics case”, ending with a favorable decision by STJ (the highest non-Constitutional Court in Brazil) was remarkable. Working in almost lost cases is not a new problem for Mauro. He has worked and still works in sectors like pharmaceuticals, auto parts, fuel distribution, ports, navigation, glassware, chemical products, computers and others. He is a frequent speaker and writer of articles both in Brazil and abroad.

Dr. Gary L. French has been a consulting economist and served as an economic expert witness in matters before federal and state courts for over forty years.  Cases in which he has been an expert witness include antitrust, breach of contract, business and consumer fraud or misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, bankruptcy, business and personal torts, and issues before the U.S. Tax Court.  Dr. French’s numerous antitrust assignments have involved price fixing and other horizontal restraints, vertical restraints, bundling and tying, and mergers and acquisitions.  Many of the cases in which Dr. French has been involved have been class actions requiring Dr. French to analyze class certification issues, especially the incidence of economic impact or injury across class members.

Dr. French has also testified in matters before federal and state regulatory agencies including the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the International Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Office of Housing and Appeals of the U.S. Department of Energy.  These matters have involved the allocation of electromagnetic spectrum, wireless communication licensing, competition in parcel tanker shipping between Columbia and U.S. ports, and the U.S. government’s crude oil entitlements program.

Prior to becoming a full-time consultant, Dr. French served on the faculties of three different universities over an eight year period teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in economics, finance, and statistics.

After leaving the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, where he was a trial and appellate attorney with the United States Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (Honors Program), Mr. Freed has engaged in private practice, concentrating in business class action litigation and other complex litigation. He has served as a lead counsel in many prominent antitrust, securities fraud, and consumer fraud class action cases. Presently, Mr. Freed is serving as a lead counsel in the Containerboard Antitrust case, In re Opana ER Antitrust Litigation and In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation.

Prior antitrust class actions in which Mr. Freed served as a lead counsel include In re Aftermarket Filters Antitrust Litigation, In re Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, In re High Fructose Corn Syrup Antitrust Litigation, In re Linerboard Antitrust Litigation, In re Carbon Dioxide Antitrust Litigation, In re Infant Formula Antitrust Litigation, and In re Ocean Shipping Antitrust Litigation. Mr. Freed has also served as a lead counsel in more than a dozen securities fraud, shareholder derivative, and consumer fraud actions. In all, more than $2 billion has been recovered for plaintiffs and plaintiff classes in cases in which Mr. Freed has served as a lead counsel, including the 3 largest antitrust class action settlement recoveries in the history of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. Freed is a member of the bar of Northern District of Illinois (where he is a member of the Trial Bar ), and bars of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appels and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Freed has been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America by Best Lawyers, an Illinois Super Lawyer by Chicago Magazine, an Illinois Leading Lawyer by the Leading Lawyer’s Network, and one of the top plaintiffs’ antitrust lawyers in Illinois by Chambers and Partners. In March 2007, Mr. Freed was honored by the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice for exceptional pro bono efforts. He has also served on the boards or as a trustee of the Appleseed Foundation and the American Antitrust Institute, both of which are located in the District of Columbia, as well as The Loyola University of Chicago Consumer Law Institute and as a member of the Visiting Alumni Committee of the The University of Chicago School of Law.

Mr. Freed is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (B.S., 1959) and University of Chicago Law School (J.D., 1962).

Kenneth M. Davidson is a Washington DC attorney who is currently engaged in foreign and domestic consulting work. His foreign work has focused primarily on competition law and rule of law issues faced by transitional economies. In his domestic practice, he consults with law firms and investment institutions on antitrust issues and procedures related to cases that are or may be considered by the Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice and the courts of the United States. He does not normally accept individual law clients.

Mr. Davidson is also a writer, teacher and speaker on legal, business, and public policy issues and is available as a consultant on any of these topics.