Parkinson A. Alex

Alex A. Parkinson

Education

  • University of Chicago Law School, J.D., with High Honors, 2015
    • Editor-in-Chief, The University of Chicago Law Review
    • University of Chicago Law School Moot Court Champion
    • Kirkland & Ellis Scholar
  • Harvard University, B.A., 2011
    • President, Harvard Debate Council
    • Top-ranked Collegiate Policy Debate Team (Coaches’ Poll)
    • Top-ranked Debater, American Debate Association National Championship

Clerkships

  • Law Clerk, Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, 2018-2019
  • Law Clerk, Judge Robert D. Sack, U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2016-2017

Admitted

  • 2016, New York
  • 2018, District of Columbia

Alex A. Parkinson represents plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil matters at the trial level, with a particular focus on multidistrict litigation, class actions, and antitrust law. He handles all aspects of trial litigation, including cross-examining witnesses and experts, arguing jury instructions, and presenting dispositive motions – all at jury and bench trials. 

Most recently, Alex was trial counsel for Meta in an antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission seeking to breakup Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Over the course of the six-week trial, Alex examined multiple witnesses, including the FTC’s opening expert witness and first nonparty witness. Alex has served as trial counsel in several matters, including bench trials and arbitrations (both domestic and international), a preliminary injunction hearing, and a jury trial – all of which resulted in favorable outcomes for the client. He currently represents plaintiffs in multiple class actions, including one class action brought against Apple currently pending in a multidistrict litigation.

Alex is a thought leader in complex litigation, particularly multidistrict litigation. He is the author of Multidistrict Litigation, a leading treatise on the subject, published by the Practising Law Institute in 2025, along with multiple articles in leading law journals on class actions and other aggregate litigation.

Prior to joining Kellogg Hansen, Alex served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to Judge Robert D. Sack on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Alex graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, with High Honors, where he was Editor in Chief of the University of Chicago Law Review and the winning oralist at the University of Chicago Law School’s moot court competition – the first to do both at the University of Chicago Law School in decades.  

Representative Experience

  • Dexon Computers v. Cisco Systems, No. 5:22-cv-00053-RWS-JBB (E.D. Tex.):  Defended Cisco Systems against antitrust claims.  Just before closing arguments in a jury trial, Dexon agreed to dismiss the claims and pay Cisco to resolve Cisco’s counterfeit-trafficking claims pending in a separate case.
  • Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms, Inc., Mark Zuckerberg, and Within Unlimited, Inc., No. 3:22-cv-04325 (N.D. Cal. 2023):  Defeated a request by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to preliminarily enjoin Meta’s acquisition of Within Unlimited, Inc.  After the district court ruled in favor of Meta, the FTC abandoned its parallel administrative complaint in the administrative home court.
  • Served as part of a trial team that obtained a successful outcome in a multi-week confidential arbitration between high-net-worth individuals, during which trial he cross-examined the other side’s lead expert economist.

Articles, News & Events

  • Multidistrict Litigation (PLI Press 2025) (treatise, 1 vol., May 2025)
  • Taxing Class Size, 69 DePaul L. Rev. 1 (2019)
  • Behavioral Class Action Law, 65 U.C.L.A. L. Rev. 1090 (2018)
  • Class Actions as Firms, 2016 Colum. Bus. L. Rev. 740 (2016)
  • Comcast Corp. v. Behrend and Chaos on the Ground, 81 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1213 (2014)

News