Editorial: Competition in Texas

01 May 2007

According to our findings, Haynes and Boone LLP occupies a rarefied position within the Texan antitrust arena and the firm provides four professionals for the following pages. Barry McNeil oversees the whitecollar, antitrust and securities group at the firm and his work in the criminal antitrust arena was noted by numerous sources. McNeill gained a great deal of experience while working for the antitrust division at the Department of Justice and is said to be “quite outstanding”. Alison Smith also served within the antitrust division and is “easy to work with” and “nationally respected”, according to prominent sources. Among other matters Smith has represented clients before cartel grand juries, in monopolisation and antitrust securities litigation, and for civil merger investigations by the federal antitrust regulatory agencies. Robin Hartmann was also consistently recommended to researchers, particularly for his strengths as a trial lawyer. “A quite exceptional litigator”, Hartmann’s practice has a strong antitrust flavour. Much of partner Ronald Breaux’s practice is devoted to criminal antitrust matters for companies and individuals in areas such as price fixing and bid rigging. He is also known for his representation of companies in civil law suits under sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Sources rate him as “young and outstanding”; he has represented companies from industries such as energy, health care and telecommunications. With four highly respected individuals making the chapter, Haynes & Boone emerges as one of the goto firms in the state.

One source remarked that Susman Godfrey LLP boasts “the best trial lawyers in the US”, a statement borne out by the sheer number of recommendations received for Stephen Susman – “the number one plaintiff lawyer in the country” who divides his time between Houston and New York. Susman’s international reputation led one prominent player to remark, “if I had a personal antitrust problem in Texas then he would be my first port of call”. Susman has recently worked on major antitrust matters such as Kentucky Speedway v NASCAR in federal court in Kentucky, and Applied Med v Johnson & Johnson in Orange County, California. Partner Barry Barnett was variously praised as “excellent” and “outstanding” and over the years he’s represented the likes of Cisco Systems, EMC, ENSCO and New Century Financial to name but a few. The “top-notch” Terrell Oxford also has a strong following in our research, emerging as one of Texas’s most prominent players. Oxford is said to be excellent for securities litigation and in the antitrust arena prominent cases include acting as lead trial lawyer for Loews Corporation in the defence of a movie market allocation case. With the inclusion of such a strong trio it is unsurprising that one source noted, “to put it simply, there are no other antitrust plaintiff firms of that calibre in the state”. Fulbright & Jaworski LLP also provides three partners for the following pages. Layne Kruse co-chairs the firm’s nationwide antitrust, marketing, and trade regulation practice group, and “enjoys a good reputation” for antitrust litigation. Kruse is said to be particularly adept at handling class actions and has represented clients from industries such as oil and gas, health care, insurance and publishing. Former chair of the antitrust and trade regulation section for the State Bar of Texas Richard Carrell is “well respected”. He was praised as a “good strong lawyer” and prominent appointments include serving as lead counsel for The Home Insurance Company in the Voluntary Market Premium Litigation. William Pakalka also fared well in the research, coming recommended as a “premier litigator”. 

Several firms lend two of their lawyers for our list. Vinson & Elkins LLP is chief among these, based on the sheer number of recommendations its attorneys received. Harry Reasoner is rated as “one of the best trial lawyers in the country” and has “achieved wonderful things at V&E”, according to a prominent source. Reasoner is an “internationally recognised” figure on the antitrust scene and has “a velvet touch with clients”. Among other matters he obtained a take-nothing jury verdict for a newspaper in a $100 million suit brought by a failing newspaper just before it went out of business. Robert Walters comes to the table with an “excellent reputation” built up over many years representing insurance, computer, health care, telecoms, energy, transportation, entertainment and electric utilities companies on antitrust matters. Walters has a “very good handle on antitrust” and among other matters secured a trial verdict in federal court in San Antonio in litigation brought by independent retailers against Blockbuster and Hollywood’s principal movie studios. With two such high profile nominees it is unsurprising that the firm was praised as having “great depth and breadth in antitrust matters”.

Curtis Frisbie has been “involved in some very big pieces of antitrust litigation” and leads the charge at Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP. Frisbie is currently engaged to represent various AIG companies against claims by RSR Corporation that they violated state antitrust laws through contingent commission arrangements and other practices. Among other high profile cases he is also engaged to represent WPP Global, Grey Global Group and various individuals in a state court suit brought in Dallas. Mark Bayer is a major case litigator and has represented clients from industries such as insurance, advertising and aviation. Highlights include the defence of a major scrap metal dealer against claims of predatory pricing brought in El Paso. Thompson & Knight LLP is another of Texas’s major players. In the figure of Gregory Huffman the firm boasts a “very bright guy [who] goes to trial and is successful”. One respondent to our survey went so far as to describe Huffman as “my favourite antitrust lawyer in Dallas”. The firm is also blessed with “good depth[…]and good clients”, a statement made all the more accurate thanks to the strong showing of rising star William Katz. He is representing a group of physicians in an adjudicatory proceeding before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) involving price-fixing allegations and is one of the “younger generation” of antitrust practitioners in the state. Robert Cohan is part of a strong duo from Jackson Walker LLP that appears in the chapter. Cohan is rated as “well known, very bright, solid and dependable” and chairs the firm’s antitrust practice. Cohan “knows his stuff ” and is joined in the chapter by partner Kathleen LaValle – “an excellent litigator”. 

Greenberg Traurig LLP significantly bolstered its Houston antitrust practice with the February 2006 lateral hire of Allan Van Fleet from Vinson & Elkins. Van Fleet is a “superb practitioner who knows Mexico and Latin America” and is working on Vitacost. com v Gaia Herbs in West Palm Beach, Florida. The case relates to the refusal to deal with a would-be distributor of dietary supplements, allegedly in furtherance of a resale price maintenance scheme. Another prominent matter he has been working on is University of Texas at Austin v Kalaouze et al, where the university sought to enjoin the sale of T-shirts and merchandise with the ‘Saw ‘Em Off ’ logo, which parodies the university’s longhorn mascot. This matter incorporated aspects of both trademark and competition law and was settled out of court. The “outstanding” Sean Royall practises in both the Dallas and Washington, DC offices of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP and was one of the leaders in our survey. Royall co-chairs the firm’s antitrust and trade regulation group and served as deputy director of the bureau of competition at the FTC in Washington, DC. Praised as “very hard working”, an “excellent young lawyer” and “nationally respected”, Royall is a major player in the market. Representative matters include acting as lead trial counsel for Johnson & Johnson in nationwide federal court class action antitrust suits involving the branded pharmaceutical Ditropan XL. Other clients include Dell, Wal-Mart and Tenet Healthcare, to name but a few. Rufus Oliver represents Baker Botts LLP on the following pages and is “very skilled” and “well regarded”, according to sources. Oliver is currently head of the firm’s antitrust section and has worked on matters in industries such as steel, oil and gas, chemicals, automotive, electric, airlines and data processing. Recent highlights include successfully defending a retail electric company against allegations it participated in a conspiracy to manipulate the Texas wholesale electricity market. He is also well known on the corporate side and handled a government review of proposed mergers in the oilfield equipment manufacturing and chemical production industries. 

Jerry Beane at Andrews Kurth LLP is “very, very fine – one of my favourites” according to a source. The firm is said to be growing in the area in no small part because of Beane’s sterling reputation. He is recommended for both corporate counselling and litigation. Michael Ferrill of Cox Smith Matthews Incorporated also features prominently in the research and among other matters acted as co-counsel for the plaintiff in a federal antitrust litigation resulting in a $174 million jury verdict and a $250 million post-verdict settlement. He also acted as co-counsel for a defendant in class action litigation brought by independent video retailers against major motion picture studios under federal antitrust laws. This resulted in a judgment for the defendants. Lin Hughes at McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore LLP is the only Austin-based practitioner to make it into the chapter. Rated as “a hard worker and good”, she is said to have “a strong, pure practice”.

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