News & Events

News & Events
November 01, 2024

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. ..

Read More
September 19, 2024

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. ..

Read More
August 12, 2024

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 ..

Read More
June 12, 2024

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 ..

Read More
May 23, 2024

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. ..

Read More
May 21, 2024

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. ..

Read More
May 01, 2024

May 1, 2024— Twenty-three Kellogg Hansen attorneys qualified for recognition on the 2023 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll for contributing fifty hours or more of pro bono work to those who cannot afford legal counsel.  Twelve Kellogg Hansen attorneys also qualified for the High Honor Roll for providing one hundred hours or more of pro bono service.  The District of Columbia Courts have recognized attorneys through the Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll since 2011.  The complete list of 2023 Honor Roll members hail from 166 firms, solo practices, federal and local government agencies, corporations, associations, and public interest organizations, accounting for least 392,750 hours of pro bono service across all types of practice. It can be found here. Chief Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia stated: “Thank you for answering – and in many cases exceeding – the call to service embodied by Rule 6.1. We know that your actions stem not only from a commitment to your ethical obligations, but also from your principled belief in equal access to justice. We are pleased to recognize your dedication by including your name on this year’s Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll.”  Kellogg Hansen 2023 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll Rachel T. Anderson* Scott K. Attaway* Justin B. Berg* Geoffrey Block* Mary Charlotte Y. Carroll* Tiberius T. Davis Abigail E. DeHart* Hannah D.C. DePalo D. Chanslor Gallenstein Nataliia Gillespie Jordan R. Gonzalez Minsuk Han* Mark P. Hirschboek Derek T. Ho* Geoffrey M. Klineberg* Ariela M. Migdal Matthew D. Reade* Catherine M. Redlingshafer Derek C. Reinbold* Caroline A. Schechinger Andrew Skaras Alex P. Treiger* Daren G. Zhang* * denotes High Honor Roll ..

Read More
April 30, 2024

April 30, 2024—  This month, Kellogg Hansen partner Steve Benz presented at the American Bar Association’s 72nd Antitrust Spring Meeting in Washington, DC.Along with Ian Simmons, partner & co-chair of the Antitrust Practice Group at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Tara L. Reinhart, partner at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, Sharon K. Robertson, partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, and Kalpana Srinivasan, managing partner at Susman Godfrey LLP, the group’s gave a discussion titled, “Trying a Section 2 Case: Best Practices.”Understanding exclusionary conduct, a critical element in monopolization claims, poses conceptual challenges as the law adapts to technological advances and changes in the marketplace. A raft of enforcement, competitor, and consumer actions are pending against Amazon; Apple; Google; and Meta. These platforms are alleged to have monopolized complementary markets, often by tying the platforms to the use of their own products and services. Over the next decade, courts will continue to develop Section 2 digital platform jurisprudence. The discussion encompassed both the conceptual underpinnings of monopolization doctrine and practical strategies for developing and trying monopolization cases, highlighting the dynamic and complex nature of Sherman Act Section 2 litigation. ..

Read More
April 16, 2024

April 16, 2024— In a case highlighted by Law360’s Petition Watch, Kellogg Hansen client Living Essentials has asked the Supreme Court to clarify what a private plaintiff must prove to win a “secondary line” price discrimination case under the Robinson-Patman Act.  At trial, Living Essentials persuaded both a jury and the court to reject claims that it had violated the Act by offering Costco lower prices to buy its popular energy shots, 5-hour ENERGY®, than it had offered to certain wholesalers.  The district court explained that the wholesalers could not show they competed with Costco for the same customers, as required by Volvo Trucks North America, Inc. v. Reeder-Simco GMC, Inc., 546 U.S. 164 (2006).  But a fractured panel of the Ninth Circuit, breaking from the decisions of other courts of appeals, held Volvo inapplicable.  The petition urges the Court to grant review because the decision “invites litigation that will punish the price competition that antitrust law aims to encourage.” Living Essentials, LLC and its parent company, Innovation Ventures, LLC, are represented by Kellogg Hansen attorneys David C. Frederick, Daniel G. Bird, Collin R. White, and Kyle C. Bailey. Read more in this report by Law360. ..

Read More
February 01, 2024

February 1, 2024— Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick, P.L.L.C. is pleased to announce that Joshua Hafenbrack and Thomas W. Traxler, Jr. have rejoined the firm as partners, and Alejandra Ávila has rejoined the firm as of counsel. Joshua Hafenbrack represents plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation and antitrust cases. Before rejoining Kellogg Hansen as a partner in January 2024, Josh was Senior Litigation Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. In that role, he served as a member of the litigation and trial team in the United States vs. Google search monopolization case. United States v. Google, 1:20-cv-03010 (D.D.C.). He examined and cross-examined key expert and fact witnesses and argued evidentiary and other motions. While at the DOJ, Josh also helped lead merger and conduct antitrust investigations in a variety of industries, including the sports and media industries. Before joining the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, Josh was an associate at Kellogg Hansen, where he focused on complex commercial and antitrust litigation. Josh helped build and litigate the antitrust conspiracy case against the two leading providers of auto dealer software management systems. In re Dealer Mgmt. Sys. Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 2817 (N.D. Ill). Josh clerked for the Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded the George P. Mickum III Prize for the highest first-year GPA. Before law school, Josh was a newspaper journalist, covering politics and public affairs in Florida and West Virginia. Thomas “Tommy” Traxler’s practice focuses on complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in a broad array of subject matters, including antitrust, class action, securities, financial, and general commercial litigation. As a former federal prosecutor for nearly seven years, he brings substantial experience in leading teams in high-stakes litigation and jury trials. Before rejoining Kellogg Hansen in December 2023 as a partner, Tommy served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the National Security and International Crime Unit in the Eastern District of Virginia. In that capacity, Tommy led teams in investigating and prosecuting violations of federal criminal law, focusing primarily on national security and extraterritorial offenses. He handled cases through the life cycle of litigation, from charging through appeal and post conviction litigation. Among other responsibilities, he first-chaired jury trials, argued substantive motions in federal district court, examined witnesses in grand jury proceedings, and argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. As a federal prosecutor, Tommy frequently handled high-profile, sensitive cases that received national and international attention. He was one of the lead prosecutors in charging Julian Assange, the founder and leader of WikiLeaks, for conduct related to one of the largest leaks of classified information in American history. He handled highly publicized civil-contempt proceedings related to Chelsea Manning’s refusal to testify before the grand jury. Tommy also led the team that secured the conviction of former Special Forces officer Peter Debbins for participating in a 14-year espionage conspiracy with Russian intelligence agents. Tommy likewise played a significant role on the team that brought the first-ever indictment under the federal War Crimes Act against four Russian-affiliated soldiers for alleged war crimes committed against a U.S. national in Ukraine. Before becoming a federal prosecutor, Tommy was an associate at Kellogg Hansen, where his practice centered on complex civil litigation.  He began his career as a law clerk to the Honorable Diane S. Sykes on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the Honorable Henry F. Floyd on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina.  Tommy graduated first in his class from the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he served as Editor in Chief of the South Carolina Law Review. Alejandra Ávila represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation at the trial and appellate levels.  Her practice includes presenting oral arguments in federal and state courts, drafting merits and amicus briefs, and representing clients in depositions, discovery, trial, and administrative proceedings. Alejandra also maintains an active pro bono practice at the firm, and has provided pro bono representation to indigent criminal defendants, individuals facing eviction, asylum seekers, and domestic abuse survivors. Alejandra rejoined the firm as of counsel in January 2024 following her clerkship with Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the United States Supreme Court.  Previously, Alejandra was an associate at Kellogg Hansen, where her practice focused on appellate and complex commercial litigation.  Before joining the firm, Alejandra was a civil rights attorney at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.  In that role, she successfully represented individuals and organizations in a variety of civil rights cases and litigated issues of first impression in a wide range of matters, including voting rights and education law.  Alejandra began her career as a law clerk to the Honorable Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable Micaela Alvarez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.  She is a member of the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and was presented with the Rising Star Award by the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia in 2021. Kellogg Hansen is a preeminent trial and appellate litigation firm founded on the idea that talent, creativity, and hard work achieve the best results for clients.  Formed in the spring of 1993 by law school classmates Michael Kellogg, Peter Huber, and Mark Hansen, our firm has grown over the past 30 years – with each year proving that our founding principle holds true.  Today, Kellogg Hansen has more than 90 attorneys, including 42 partners, and boasts an extensive record of success for our clients.  ..

Read More
January 31, 2024

January 31, 2024— In a landmark resolution reached just before closing arguments in a jury trial in the Eastern District of Texas, Dexon Computer has dismissed antitrust allegations against Cisco Systems as part of a comprehensive settlement agreement. Dexon will also pay Cisco to resolve Cisco’s counterfeit-trafficking claims pending in the Northern District of California. Dexon, an unauthorized reseller of Cisco products, also agreed to stop selling unauthorized Cisco products, revamp its business model, and apply to join Cisco\'s authorized reseller program. These steps are intended to uphold customer confidence and ensure the delivery of trusted and verified Cisco products. Cisco sued Dexon in the Northern District of California in July 2020, alleging that Dexon trafficked in counterfeit “Cisco” equipment. Dexon brought counterclaims, including under the antitrust laws, but the court dismissed them. Dexon then brought similar antitrust claims in the Eastern District of Texas in April 2022. A jury trial in the latter case began on January 22, 2024, and the presentation of evidence concluded at the end of that week. The parties were scheduled to deliver closing arguments the following Monday, but on Saturday Dexon moved to dismiss its own claims with prejudice. Cisco Systems is represented by attorneys from Kellogg Hansen: Aaron M. Panner, Andrew E. Goldsmith, Leslie V. Pope, Alex A. Parkinson, Ryan M. Folio, Caroline A. Schechinger, Geoffrey J.H Block, D. Chanslor Gallenstein, Jonathan I. Liebman, and Hilary M. Weaver. Kellogg Hansen is grateful for the critical contributions by its co-counsel in Texas, Deron R. Dacus of The Dacus Firm PC and Jennifer H. Doan and Mariah Leigh Hornok of Haltom & Doan, and its co-counsel in both cases, Richard J. Nelson, Louis P. Feuchtbaum, Zachary Alinder, and Lyndsey Heaton of Sideman & Bancroft LLP. The overall litigation effort was led by Cisco’s in-house team, including Sarita Venkat, Karen Lu, Gil Ohana, Michael Blaisdell, and Jon Schwartz. See also: Order of Dismissal (January 29, 2024) ..

Read More