Mr Dylan Ballard > Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP > San Francisco, United States > Lawyer Profile

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP
FOUR EMBARCADERO CENTER
SEVENTEENTH FLOOR
SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111
CALIFORNIA
United States
Dylan Ballard  photo

Work Department

Antitrust and Competition; Litigation; White Collar Defense and Corporate Investigations

Position

Dylan Ballard is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition Practice Group in Sheppard Mullin’s San Francisco office, where he leads the firm’s San Francisco Recruiting Committee.  He is an Adjunct Professor at UC Hastings College of the Law, where he teaches legal writing and oral advocacy, and is on the Board of Directors of the Western Center on Law & Poverty.

Dylan is a trial lawyer who specializes in litigating antitrust and competition cases arising under the federal Sherman and Clayton Acts, as well as state antitrust, consumer protection, and unfair competition statutes.  He has more than a decade of experience successfully resolving every variety of antitrust and competition matter, from government investigations, to criminal prosecutions and government enforcement actions against businesses and individuals, to class actions and other private civil actions.  His practice encompasses matters civil and criminal, state and federal, before both trial and appellate courts, as well as various international arbitration tribunals. He also routinely counsels businesses on antitrust risks and best practices for avoiding them.

Dylan has served as counsel in some of the largest and most complex antitrust cases of all time.  He has successfully represented key defendants in major government cartel investigations, federal criminal prosecutions, state Attorney General actions, and multi-district class actions involving dealer management software, canned tuna, DRAM, SRAM, and flash memory chips, automotive parts, LCD panels, cathode ray tubes, lithium ion batteries, and many other industries. He frequently represents companies, as both plaintiffs and defendants, in lawsuits brought by competitors or customers alleging conspiratorial conduct or unlawful monopolization.

Dylan also has extensive experience in the area of overlap between antitrust and intellectual property laws, including cutting-edge antitrust and competition issues arising from the use and licensing of standard-essential patents. His work often involves international issues requiring close collaboration with clients and counsel located around the world.

Memberships

American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust

State Bar of California, Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section

Bar Association of San Francisco, Antitrust Section

Education

J.D., University of California, Hastings, 2007, Hastings Law Journal

B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2003, with highest honors

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense

Vinson & Elkins LLP regularly represents both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stake civil antitrust lawsuits, specializing in the airline, electronics and energy and chemicals sectors. The team is co-headed by antitrust investigations expert Darren Tucker and Hill Wellford, who counsels and assists clients in the energy, pharma, and tech industries. Trial lawyer Alden Atkins  focuses on antitrust class actions and arbitrations across a spectrum of industries, and Craig Seebald’s core practice consists of defending international and domestic clients in cartel and price-fixing investigations. In Houston, commercial and business litigator Jason Powers  also leads on many matters.  The practice has recently expanded its team with the hires of Stephen Medlock from Mayer Brown in October 2022 and the January 2023 arrival of Mike Scarborough and Dylan Ballard in San Francisco from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. All attorneys are based in Washington DC unless specified otherwise.

United States > Antitrust > Cartel

With an impressive client roster that spans a range of industries, including the chemicals, techn, automotive, pharma, and transportation sectors, the team at Vinson & Elkins LLP is noted for its strength in handling cross-border and international civil and criminal proceedings. Recent notable work includes representing Hitachi in the DOJ’s investigation into the auto parts industry, as well as representing Google in several investigations by Taiwanese and South Korean authorities. The team is jointly led by Darren Tucker and Hill Wellford, who both have significant in-house experience from the FTC and the Antitrust Division, respectively, and who take the lead on DOJ and FTC proceedings and governmental investigations. On the litigation front, Alden Atkins represents clients in domestic and international criminal and civil cartel matters and arbitrations, with Houston’s Jason Powers  also playing a key role on this front. Mike Scarborough and Dylan Ballard joined the firm from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP in January 2023, further strengthening the firm’s San Francisco office. Unless otherwise stated, lawyers are in Washington DC.