The Legal 500

Within Mass tort and class action - plaintiff representation: antitrust: National,

Susman Godfrey LLP

PRACTICE: Susman Godfrey LLP is a nationwide litigation boutique with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and Seattle. The antitrust practice is well established and popular, built around a core of some 10 lawyers with wider support from attorneys with some experience in the discipline. One client comments ‘the retention of Susman Godfrey LLP sends an unmistakable signal that the principles in the dispute are important and worthy of the most vigorous advocacy - counterparties understand that it is no longer business as usual’. The practice takes both plaintiff and defense instructions.

Recent successful class representations include an out-of-court settlement agreement between Sprint and long-distance telephone subscribers who alleged that Sprint and other telecom companies had fixed prices to help pay for subsidized phone services - the $30m settlement included the distribution of prepaid telephone calling cards to class members. Attorneys from the practice are representing Tessera Technologies in an antitrust case against Hynix Semiconductor alleging violation of California’s Cartwright Act - specifically, that Hynix conspired with other manufacturers to boycott Tessera’s proprietary packaging technology and memory technology in order to establish a monopoly and to fix prices.

INDIVIDUALS: Dallas-based Barry Barnett has a large antitrust practice and acts for plaintiffs and defendants. Stephen Susman, in Houston, is a well-known, top-rank litigator whose practice includes plaintiff antitrust. Clients say, ‘not every lawsuit is won and even those won don’t always leave us winners: be a winner - hire Steve Susman’.

Within Antitrust - South West,

Susman Godfrey LLP

PRACTICE: Susman Godfrey LLP is well-known for plaintiff-focused antitrust litigation. The team was one of two co-lead counsel in a novel antitrust class action on behalf of a class of football and basketball players at Division I schools that challenged a rule under which the NCAA limits the amount of athletics-based financial aid that member schools may provide. Also of interest, the practice jointly advised a class of several million Comcast cable subscribers in the Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia metropolitan areas who alleged that Comcast conspired with competitors to divide markets. The practice also represented airline passengers claiming that Korean Airlines and Asiana engaged in a conspiracy to fix the prices of airfares, the litigation involving more than 70 class action cases.

CLIENTS: The roster includes Platform Solutions ACE Limited, Gateway, Masimo, ChoiceParts and Tessera Technologies

INDIVIDUALS: Houston-based Stephen Susman is an ‘astonishing litigator and trial lawyer’ who represents both plaintiffs and defendants, and who acted for Northrop in its suit against McDonnell Douglas over an F-18 jet fighter. Lee Godfrey also comes highly recommended for headline antitrust litigation.