Practice Areas & Industries: Jones Day

Practice/Industry Group Overview

Jones Day has what many believe is the premier litigation practice of any global law firm. We also have developed a reputation for excellence in matters involving complex antitrust litigation. Our antitrust litigators handle a broad range of matters before courts and tribunals around the world, including the federal circuit in the U.S., the European Court of Justice, and the Court of First Instance. We have significant dispute resolution capabilities in virtually all of our larger U.S. offices as well as several of our European and Asian offices. Accordingly, we are able to structure litigation teams that are tailored to the scope of the problem, utilizing the full range of skills available at Jones Day.

Our experience includes defending clients against all forms of government actions, including challenges to mergers and cartel prosecution (both civil and criminal), matters that commonly involve scores of follow-on civil litigation actions as well as investigations by governments around the world. Jones Day has marshaled the resources, on a fast-track schedule, to prevent U.S. antitrust authorities from obtaining preliminary injunctions to block proposed transactions, knowing that the success of the transaction often depends on the outcome of the motion. In recent years, for example, we have tried to successful conclusions governmental lawsuits filed against our clients Tenet Healthcare and Sutter Health to enjoin hospital mergers in Missouri and California. We also represented Nextel in an action that successfully modified a consent decree that had limited its purchases of telecommunications licenses.

Jones Day has one of the most active practices of any law firm in defending antitrust class action lawsuits filed not only in federal court, but also in numerous state courts around the country, as plaintiffs' counsel increasingly turns to state indirect purchaser laws when pursuing antitrust claims. We coordinate Aventis's defense to worldwide civil litigation, including more than 150 civil cases filed in federal and state courts around the U.S., relating to price-fixing allegations in the vitamins industry. Other examples include representing R.J. Reynolds in connection with numerous class actions alleging a conspiracy to fix cigarette prices, Federated Department Stores against class actions alleging conspiracies to fix the prices of cosmetics/fragrances and women's shoes, and Bayer AG and its affiliates against multiple federal and state class action lawsuits alleging price fixing and market allocation of rubber chemicals and synthetic rubber products.

We have also litigated a number of strategic antitrust cases in the U.S., representing either the plaintiff challenging a competitor's conduct or the defendant in a challenge to a claim filed by a competitor, customer, or supplier. Our experience includes litigating claims under the Robinson-Patman Act. On the plaintiff's side, we have represented RE/MAX in a lawsuit seeking damages resulting from a conspiracy by the dominant real estate firms in Northeast Ohio, as well as several European communications companies claiming abuse of dominant position against the incumbent mobile telephone operator in Belgium. On the defense side, we have represented clients in a variety of antitrust lawsuits, including those alleging conspiracies to fix the terms of doing business or challenging a transaction between competitors.

Jones Day antitrust lawyers also handle the antitrust issues that frequently arise in the course of patent enforcement litigation. Working with the Firm's highly regarded intellectual property lawyers, we have represented companies such as Bayer, Eastman Chemical, and Texas Instruments in litigating antitrust counterclaims filed in response to those companies' patent or trademark enforcement efforts.