Trends and Developments on Antitrust Class Certification: Legal and Economic Issues Explored

Sophie Meadows is a professional economist with extensive experience providing economic research and data analyses for clients. Ms. Meadows specializes in developing economic and statistical models to provide rigorous analysis in complex antitrust class actions and commercial litigation. In the area of antitrust, Ms. Meadows has worked on a variety of matters analyzing class certification, liability, and damages issues resulting from monopolization, price-fixing, and other exclusionary conduct. She has provided support to clients on issues related to the economics of class certification for both direct and indirect purchaser classes, processing and managing large data from multiple sources and applying rigorous statistical analysis to assess class-wide issues.

Kenina Lee is an antitrust associate in Axinn’s Washington, DC office. Kenina litigates major class action and multi-district antitrust litigation cases in federal courts throughout the United States. She also provides antitrust counseling and represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ).

Prior to joining the firm, Kenina worked in both the Anticompetitive Practices and Mergers I division at the Federal Trade Commission as a legal extern and law clerk. At the FTC, she aided in merger investigations in the pharmaceutical and medical data-analytics industries.

Dr. Anne Gron provides expert economic analysis and testimony in the context of antitrust disputes, complex commercial litigation, government and regulatory investigations, class actions, and damages estimation. She has testified and consulted on class certification in matters alleging price fixing, collusion, monopolization, and breach of contract in the context of commodity markets, financial benchmarks, insurance claims settlements, and insurance contracts. She has advised clients in matters involving insurance regulators, federal regulators (the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and the US Department of Justice), and corporate boards. She has testified in state and federal court proceedings and in state regulatory proceedings at deposition and at trial. Dr. Gron has had a distinguished academic career, and her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed economics and finance journals. She holds a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BA in economics (with Honors) and computer science, magna cum laude, from Williams College.

A partner in the Litigation Department, Craig Benson focuses his practice on trial work in the areas of antitrust, product liability, intellectual property and major commercial disputes. Craig’s experience has involved representing clients before federal and state courts, regulatory agencies, and arbitrators, in industries including financial services, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, electronics, automotive, chemicals, oil and gas, tobacco, and hospitality. He also has significant experience in class action defense. Craig is Co-Chair of the Firm’s Professional Development and Training Committee and a hiring partner for the Firm’s Washington office.

Craig’s pro bono practice spans the areas of political asylum and immigration, reproductive freedom, disability benefits, and civil rights for members of the LGBT community and those living with HIV. He was also part of the Paul, Weiss team that represented Edie Windsor in the historic litigation that resulted in the Supreme Court declaring the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.