November 1, 2024–  Kellogg Hansen has been recognized in The National Law Journal Legal Awards 2024. Derek T. Ho has been named a finalist for Winning Litigators, and Bradley E. Oppenheimer has been honored as a Rising Star. The Winning Litigators awards recognize those who have at least one significant win in a jury or bench trial in 2023. Significant wins include prevailing when substantial damages were at stake, setting a legal precedent or overcoming an unfriendly jurisdiction. The Rising Stars awards recognize the Washington, D.C., region’s 40 most promising lawyers aged 40 and under. These individuals are innovators who develop unique practice niches, secure wins for clients, cultivate robust books of business, and demonstrate strong leadership qualities. Derek T. Ho litigates high-stakes commercial cases, securing billions for clients through trials and settlements. As an experienced trial and appellate lawyer, he handles all phases of litigation. He has particular experience in antitrust and complex litigation (class actions and MDLs). His cases have established important legal precedents in those fields, including his work on Petersen Energía Inversora v. Argentine Republic, No. 15-cv-2739 (S.D.N.Y.); Eton Park Capital Management, L.P. v. Argentine Republic, No. 16-cv-8569 (S.D.N.Y.). Bradley E. Oppenheimer represents clients in high-stakes litigation and investigations, focusing on securities, FinTech, False Claims Act, consumer protection, and complex commercial proceedings. Congratulations to all the finalists and winners. See the full list here. ..

September 19, 2024– Kellogg Hansen was honored as the Pro Bono Law Firm Partner of the Year by Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law at the 2024 Annual Awards Reception on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, in Washington, DC.  Hosted annually, Bazelon Center’s Awards Reception recognizes and celebrates leaders in law, disability rights, social justice, mental health, and entertainment. Kellogg Hansen was recognized in particular for its work on two amicus briefs. Bazelon Center was joined by the American Psychiatric Association and other mental health organizations in a brief filed in the Supreme Court in support of respondents in City of Grants Pass v. Johnson. The brief was principally authored by Annamaria M. Morales-Kimball, Geoffrey J.H. Block, and Kyle C. Bailey.  Bazelon Center was joined by the American Academy of Pediatrics and several other medical and advocacy organizations in a brief filed in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in support of affirmance in United States v. Florida.  The brief was principally authored by Rachel T. Anderson, Tiberius T. Davis, and Nataliia Gillespie. Aaron Panner supervised both projects.  Kellogg Hansen has worked with Bazelon Center for many years and has been proud to support its mission of promoting the civil rights and full inclusion of people with mental disabilities. ..

August 12, 2024–  On Monday, August 5, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit delivered a significant victory for Kellogg Hansen client NTE in its antitrust monopolization case against Duke Energy.  The Fourth Circuit’s ruling creates an important precedent on multiple important principles of U.S. antitrust law. NTE’s mission has been to provide cleaner, lower-cost electricity to wholesale customers in the Carolinas, where Duke Energy has been the incumbent monopolist for years. Duke Energy admittedly could not compete with NTE on price or efficiency, so, as NTE’s lawsuit highlighted, Duke undertook multiple strategies to stifle competition from NTE.  Among other things, Duke Energy terminated NTE\'s interconnection agreement under false pretenses and in violation of FERC regulations; and it offered a renewal contract to an existing customer, Fayetteville, with a complex discounted pricing structure that was designed to prevent NTE from competing. The District Court had initially granted summary judgment to Duke Energy.  It analyzed each aspect of Duke’s multi-pronged strategy separately, and asserting that each separate component did not independently constitute an antitrust violation. The Court of Appeals also reaffirmed an important principle of judicial recusal:  once a judge is recused, that judge is recused from the case permanently.  The Fourth Circuit rejected this reasoning and sided with NTE Energy. NTE Energy is represented by Derek Ho, Caroline Schechinger, Matthew Wilkins, and Jonathan Liebman of Kellogg Hansen. Read the full article here: Law360\'s Legal Lions Of The Week - Law360 ..

June 12, 2024 – Kellogg Hansen partner John Thorne and associate Derek Reinbold recently authored the U.S. chapter for Global Competition Review’s inaugural Data & Antitrust Guide. The chapter details how U.S. antitrust enforcers and courts view uses and abuses of data. It begins by discussing data’s role in monopolization cases such as the high-profile actions against Google, Facebook, and Amazon. It next addresses how enforcers treat mergers in which the merging parties maintain competitively valuable – or competitively sensitive – data. It then turns to issues of collusion, particularly how enforcers view new technologies such as artificial intelligence in cases involving information exchanges or alleged price-fixing. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how data privacy has emerged as a new metric of market power, an element of competitive harm, and potential procompetitive justification for otherwise anticompetitive conduct. Read the full article here: United States: High-profile cases shed light on antitrust enforcement against data abuse - Global Competition Review ..

May 23,  2024— Kellogg Hansen partner Derek Ho will present at The 2024 Global Class Actions and Mass Torts Perfect Law Conference on Thursday, May 23, 2024. This two-day conference, held in London, is a prestigious international event that focuses on the concept of collective redress, which refers to legal mechanisms that allow a large group of individuals who have suffered similar harm or injury to pursue their claims together as a single entity. Derek will speak on a panel titled, “Models of Damages Assessment,” with other industry leaders from across the globe. See the full line up of speakers here and the full agenda here. ..

May 21,  2024— Chinese state-owned enterprise Irico Group Corporation and its subsidiary Irico Display Devices Co. face a potential default judgment for more than $2.4 billion in a long-running price-fixing lawsuit brought by classes of American purchasers of cathode ray tubes.  Special Master Vaughn R. Walker, appointed by U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar, recommended the default judgment as a sanction for discovery misconduct. The Special Master’s report and recommendation found that Irico’s misconduct over the course of the litigation showed “contempt for th[e] court,” “defied the basic responsibilities of a civil litigant in the United States,” and reflected a “malign strategy” under which “evidence . . . grew stale” and “Irico’s own witnesses . . . disappeared.”  The report included a litany of specific examples including failures to preserve and spoliation of both electronic and physical evidence, false representations to the court, an appeal that delayed the litigation for a year, and failures to produce key witnesses.  It concluded that no sanction less than a default judgment would suffice as a remedy. Judge Tigar will now consider whether to adopt the Special Master’s report and recommendation.  If that occurs, Irico will be required to pay plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees, and the court will determine the total damages due. The direct purchaser class of plaintiffs is represented by R. Alexander Saveri, Geoffrey C. Rushing, Matthew D. Heaphy and David Y. Hwu of Saveri & Saveri Inc.; Steven F. Benz, Gregory G. Rapawy, and Robert C. Klipper of Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick PLLC.  The indirect purchaser class of plaintiffs is represented by Mario N. Alioto and Lauren C. Capurro of Trump Alioto Trump & Prescott LLP; and Joseph W. Cotchett, Adam J. Zapala, James Gerard Beebe Dallal, and Imtiaz A. Siddiqui of Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP. The case is In re Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1917, No. 4:07-cv-05944, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. ..