Biography: Competition

John W Treece is a global coordinator of the antitrust and competition practice at Sidley Austin LLP and the head of the litigation - commercial, competition, and securities practice group in the Chicago office. His practice focuses on antitrust, patent and general commercial litigation. Mr Treece has substantial experience in multi district class actions alleging horizontal price fixing as well as price discrimination cases. He represented one of the defendants who won a directed verdict in a jury trial in In re Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, Kimberly-Clark in In re Commercial Tissue Paper Antitrust Litigation, and Together Rx in In re Pharmaceutical Average Wholesale Price Litigation. He currently represents AT&T Mobility in In re Text Messaging Antitrust Litigation and SSAB Swedish Steel Corporation in a series of cases alleging price fixing in the steel industry.

Mr Treece has also worked on several noteworthy monopolisation cases. In 2006, he won a six-week jury trial for Johnson & Johnson, in a case alleging price bundling and monopoly leveraging. Following trial victory, Johnson & Johnson was able to settle several prestigious cases favourably, including settling a $5 billion claim for $11 million. He represented AstraZeneca in the successful defense of a "product switching" monopolisation case, GlaxoSmithKline in the well-known Asahi Glass case, and Microsoft and Kimberly-Clark in patent-antitrust Section 2 cases. He currently represents Astellas Pharmaceuticals in a patent-antitrust 'tying' case, AstraZeneca in two 'sham patent litigation' class action cases, and Simon Properties in a monopolisation case brought under state antitrust law.

Mr Treece frequently consults on Robinson-Patman, pricing, distribution and joint venture issues, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. He has worked on a number of major mergers and frequently provides antitrust training to clients in a variety of industries.

Mr Treece also has substantial experience in patent litigation, having represented GlaxoSmithKline, Kimberly-Clark, AT&T, AC Nielsen, AM International, and R R Donnelly in such cases. Most notably, he represented GSK in Hatch-Waxman litigation concerning the patents covering its drug Avandia and currently represents AstraZeneca in a patent damage case against a generic drug company that launched 'at risk' and then lost the patent suit.

Mr Treece is a graduate of Harvard University (BA, magna cum laude, 1975) and Columbia University School of Law (JD, 1978). He is a member of the American Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Association. He is admitted in Illinois.