John Briggs > Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider > Washington DC, United States > Lawyer Profile
Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider Offices
1901 L STREET NW
WASHINGTON DC 20036
United States
- Firm Profile
- Go to...
John Briggs
Position
John Briggs, a former chair of the ABA’s Section of Antitrust Law, is one of the most accomplished competition lawyers of his generation. He has been antitrust and litigation counsel of choice for dozens of major companies in the US, Asia and Europe. He has handled substantial competition litigation matters as lead trial and appellate counsel for more than 50 Global 500 companies. In mergers, he has considerable trial and regulatory experience, having represented one or both merging parties in fully litigated successful merger cases against both the FTC and the DOJ, including on behalf of the Comptroller of the Currency.
Currently, he is lead counsel for Independence Blue Cross in the largest class action antitrust case pending in the United States and Shintech Incorporated in two substantial consolidated class action antitrust lawsuits, having successfully established the court’s lack of jurisdiction over Shintech’s shareholder, Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. He has also been engaged as an antitrust expert witness in proceedings in Australia, Canada, California, Switzerland, the UK, New York, Texas, and elsewhere. He founded the Brussels office of his prior law firm in 2001, growing it to more than 50 lawyers before his departure, and established the DC office of his current firm in January 2009, now some forty lawyers. He was an adjunct professor at The George Washington Law School for nine years until 2019, teaching a course in International Competition Law and he has written more than fifty published articles on competition law and policy.
Memberships
- American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust Law: Chair (1995-1996); Program Officer (1993-1994); Secretary (1991-1992); Chairman of Editorial Board of Antitrust Law Developments (1984-1989)
- Member, MLex Advisory Board, (2016-2020)
- Member, Advisory Board, Bureau of National Affairs’ Antitrust and Trade Regulation Report (1994-2015)
- Member, Law360 Advisory Board, (2010-2015)
- Member, Trial Law Institute
- Member, Diversity Law Institute
- Barrister, Order of Veritas, Diversity Law Institute
- Advocate, Order of Certus, Diversity Law Institute
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Board of Trustees, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia (1996-2010)
Education
- JD – Georgetown University
- Officer, United States Navy
- AB – Harvard College
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
The team at Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider has extensive experience as lead counsel in private treble damage actions and in representing companies and individuals in follow on litigation arising from cartel investigations across the manufacturing and pharmaceuticals industries. Recent work includes defending Fortune 500 companies like Tyson Foods in strategically important disputes including multiple class action suits and private arbitrations. Heads of team include John Harkrider in New York, who acts as lead counsel in cross-border litigation involving claims under section 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and Michael Keeley in Washington DC, who has experience in trying monopolization and patent jury cases with recent involvement in the Avogen generics price-fixing litigation. Also in DC is Rachel Adcox, who defends major corporations in multidistrict litigation especially in cartel disputes, John Briggs, who offers extensive experience in large antitrust class actions work and Tiffany Rider who is known for her work in international cartel cases and civil follow-on multi district and class action litigation. In New York, Craig Reiser’s litigation spans federal and state courts at both trial and appellate level while Denise Plunkett often defends clients in the payments, financial services and pharmaceutical sectors. New arrival James Attridge, who offers experience as previous deputy chief of staff of the antitrust division in the DOJ, joined the DC office in September 2022.