Global Competition Review has recognized Robins Kaplan LLP and partner Hollis Salzman as finalists for the 2019 Antitrust Awards. The firm is a finalist for Regional Firm of the Year: Americas, and Salzman is a finalist for Litigator of the Year. Finalists were chosen by GCR’s editorial team, and winners will be selected through online votes. Voting is open until midnight on February 20.
Robins Kaplan was recognized for its many successes over the past year on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust matters impacting entire industries. The firm reached a $6.26 billion settlement for plaintiffs—the largest known settlement of a private antitrust case in the 120-year history of the Sherman Act—concluding more than a decade of litigation over an innovative theory that the organizational structure of Visa and Mastercard, and the voluminous rules they require retailers to follow, are anticompetitive in nature. The firm also achieved class certification and an ice-breaker settlement in antitrust litigation against the four dominant manufacturers and the largest nationwide distributor of contact lenses, and defended grocery wholesaler Supervalu Inc. against a string of antitrust class actions seeking over $500 million in damages, culminating in the denial of class certification and a summary judgment victory.
Salzman has recovered more than $2 billion in settlements for victims throughout her 25-plus-year career. Over the past year alone, she recovered more than $150 million in settlements for purchasers of price-fixed auto parts in a historically significant piece of antitrust litigation: In re Automotive Parts Antitrust Litigation. The unprecedented MDL encompasses 41 coordinated actions against more than 160 different defendants—and stems from the largest criminal antitrust investigation in U.S. history. The cumulative settlement figure, which now amounts to more than $1.2 billion, is the second-largest indirect purchaser recovery in U.S. history.
Winners will be announced at the GCR awards ceremony on March 26.
