2025 Golden State Institute

United States Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler was appointed in 2010 to the Northern District of California. She has presided as a trial and settlement judge over hundreds of civil cases, including intellectual-property, employment, civil-rights, and commercial disputes.

Before joining the court, Judge Beeler was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District, prosecuting complex white-collar cases with parallel civil components. She was the Office’s Professional Responsibility Officer and supervised the Criminal Division. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Cecil F. Poole, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She trained as a mediator with the Northern District’s ADR Program, the Federal Judicial Center, and Harvard Law School.

Judge Beeler has served as a member of the Ninth Circuit Conference Executive Committee, the President of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court, a board member of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (Northern California), the President of the Federal Bar Association, a member of the Ninth Circuit’s Magistrate Judge Executive Board, a member of the Ninth Circuit’s Criminal Case Committee, a board member of the Northern District Practice Program, the chair (and founder) of the Northern District’s Criminal Practice Committee, the co-chair of the Conviction Alternatives Committee, a board member of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), a member of BASF’s Criminal Justice Task Force, the co-chair of the Lawyer Representatives to the Ninth Circuit, and a member of the Ninth Circuit’s Jury Trial Improvement Committee. She is one of four judges on the U.S. Department of Justice/Office of Defender Services Joint Electronic Technology Working Group. She implemented the court’s reentry and diversion courts.

Judge Beeler was named one of the Recorder’s 2012 Women Leaders in Law and received the Northern District Judicial Conference’s 2006 Public Service Award, BASF’s 2015 Barristers Choice Award, the Federal Bar Association’s 2018 Inaugural Chapter Achievement award, the San Francisco Trial Lawyers Association’s 2018 Federal Judge of the Year award, and the Women Lawyers of Alameda County’s 2023 Jurist of the Year award.

Judge Beeler taught Civil Trial Practice at U.C. Berkeley School of Law and Criminal Procedure at U.C. Law San Francisco (former U.C. Hastings College of the Law). She has led rule-of-law projects in Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, Jordan, Ukraine, Turkey, and Thailand.

Judge Beeler graduated with honors from the University of Washington School of Law, where she was Order of the Coif and an Articles Editor on the Washington Law Review. She received her A.B. with honors from Bowdoin College.

Lee Berger focuses on antitrust law, including civil enforcement, private litigation, criminal investigations, compliance advice, and mergers. Lee has experience working on cases focused on industries such as real estate; telecom; media and entertainment; esports; healthcare; energy; consumer technology; automotive; finance; travel; and agriculture.

Before joining Steptoe, Lee served as the inaugural Chief of the Civil Conduct Task Force, Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he supervised or advised on themajority of the Division’s civil conduct enforcement investigations and litigations, andcounseled the Division leadership on issues concerning civil conduct enforcement. As Chief,he created many policies that continue to drive the eff ectiveness and effi ciency of the Division’s civil conduct enforcement agenda today.

Lee’s extensive government experience included a focus on the telecom, media, and entertainment industries earlier in his career, when he served as a trial attorney in what was at the time called the Media, Entertainment, and Professional Services Section of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. Some of the more notable cases he worked on at the Antitrust Division include leading two investigations into civil conduct violations in the broadcast television industry, as well as investigations of the two largest-ever broadcast television station group mergers. He also was a key attorney on the investigation and litigation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s compliance with a 2010 consent decree, as well as the investigation of the Disney/Fox merger. He sat on a high-profile panel of television, cable, and digital media executives as the sole Antitrust Division representative at the 2019 Public Workshop on Competition in Television and Digital Advertising. Prior to his government service, Lee was a lawyer at two international law firms, where he specialized in price-fixing and other coordinated-conduct litigations.

Lee is a frequent speaker on antitrust issues and has long been involved in the California Lawyers Association, where he has served in a variety of roles including current advisor and past chair of the Antitrust & Unfair Competition Section, Secretary of the Board of Directors, and Chair of the Governance Committee.

Qianwei Fu is a partner in the Oakland office of Zelle LLP.  Her practice focuses on representing consumers and opt-out claimants in antitrust cartel and monopolization cases.  Her practice spans across various industries, including technology, automotive, transportation, energy, financial, and pharmaceuticals.  Qianwei has played a primary role in all critical stages of litigation in some of the nation’s largest antitrust cases, routinely collaborating with economic and industry experts on damages and pass-on issues.

Qianwei leads the firm’s international competition law practice, and has collaborated with co-counsel in Canada, China, and Europe to secure recoveries for multinational corporations.  In addition to her antitrust practice, she provides counseling in complex commercial disputes, data privacy matters, and insurance class action defense.  Qianwei is a past Chair of the California Lawyers Association Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section and currently serves as an Advisor of the Section.

Alexis Gilman is a partner in Alston & Bird’s Litigation & Trial Practice and Antitrust Team in Washington, DC.  With over two decades of antitrust experience, Alexis advises and represents clients on a broad range of civil antitrust matters, including merger reviews and clearances, government investigations, premerger Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) notifications, and antitrust litigation.  He has a particular focus on representing merging parties and third parties in merger investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and state attorneys general. His experience spans a wide range of industries, including retail, consumer goods, food and beverage, healthcare, and other industries. Alexis has been recognized as a leading antitrust practitioner by Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, and other publications. 

From 2014-2017, Alexis served as the Assistant Director of the Mergers IV Division in the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission, leading this 30-attorney division. Prior to this position, Alexis served as a Deputy Assistant Director of the Mergers IV Division from 2012-2014, and a Staff Attorney in the division from 2010-2012. During his time at the FTC, Alexis supervised, led, and worked on some of the agency’s highest-profile merger matters, including litigation successfully challenging the Staples/Office Depot, DraftKings/FanDuel, and Pinnacle/Ameristar transactions, as well as the investigations of the Amazon/Whole Foods, Dollar Tree/Family Dollar, Albertsons/Safeway, Men’s Wearhouse/Jos. A. Bank, and Bass Pro/Cabela’s transactions.

The FTC’s Western Competition Group (WCG) bridges a critical gap between federal and state-level antitrust enforcement by coordinating antitrust merger and conduct investigations with Western States’ Attorneys General in a range of industries. The WCG leverages the expertise of attorneys from the FTC’s San Francisco and Seattle Regional Offices.

Erik is an experienced antitrust attorney and litigator based in San Francisco.  After graduating from New York University School of Law, Erik started his career at Davis Polk & Wardwell in Washington, DC. In 2019, he joined the FTC’s Mergers II Division and contributed significantly to several investigations, including Altria/Juul, Nvidia/Arm, Meta/Within, Axon/VieVu, and Qualcomm/Autotalks.  In 2024, Erik transferred to the WCG where he led the Planned Companies/Guardian Services no-poach investigations and IBM/HashiCorp merger investigation.  In December 2024, Erik was appointed Acting Assistant Regional Director of the WCG, in which position he filed the Commission’s recent Robinson-Patman Act lawsuit against PepsiCo and has been responsible for a number of non-public investigations. Erik also serves as a JAG Attorney with the Army Reserve.

Manish Kumar served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) for Criminal Enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He was responsible for overseeing more than 100 prosecutors working in the Division’s five criminal offices across the United States.

Prior to his appointment as DAAG, Mr. Kumar served as Chief of the Division’s San Francisco Office, supervising trial attorneys as they conducted investigations and prosecutions of international price-fixing, civil antitrust, and domestic bid-rigging and procurement fraud matters involving the western United States. Mr. Kumar joined the Justice Department through the Honors Program and since then has served in various roles including as Trial Attorney, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, Assistant Chief, and Chief in the Antitrust Division.

Mr. Kumar is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Minnesota Law School. He clerked in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.

Jill M. Manning is a Mediator, Arbitrator, Special Master, Neutral Evaluator and Discovery Referee at JAMS.  Prior to joining JAMS, Ms. Manning represented clients in class action and complex litigation matters in a wide variety of fields, including antitrust and competition, consumer protection, cybersecurity and privacy, and sports matters. In addition to her ADR practice at JAMS, Ms. Manning serves as a neutral for the various state and federal courts, including the Northern and Central Districts of California. Ms. Manning is presently serving a two-year term as Vice-President of the California Lawyers Association and is a former Chair of the Executive Committee of the Antitrust & Consumer Protection Section.

Catherine Simonsen is a Partner and Co-Founder of Simonsen Sussman LLP, a boutique plaintiff-side antitrust and unfair competition law firm.  She has over a decade of experience investigating and litigating government and private antitrust cases on both the plaintiff and defense sides in federal and California state courts.  Prior to co-founding the firm, Catherine served as the Assistant Regional Director for the Western Competition Group at the Federal Trade Commission, where she managed several merger and conduct investigations and complaint preparation.  Before joining the FTC, Catherine served as a Deputy Attorney General in the Antitrust Section of the California Attorney General’s office.  Prior to her government enforcement roles, Catherine was a partner in private practice, where she successfully prosecuted numerous competitor suits under federal and state antitrust laws.  Catherine clerked for the Honorable J. Jerome Farris of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable John C. Coughenour of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.  She holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Stanford University.

A partner in the San Francisco office, Todd A. Seaver litigates both antitrust and financial manipulation cases.  He has litigated antitrust cases involving varied industries of high-tech, pharmaceuticals, autos, chemicals, consumer electronics, biotech, diamonds, and online retailing.  He is a leader of the firm’s antitrust practice group.

Currently, Mr. Seaver is co-lead counsel for consumer plaintiffs in an antitrust class action against American Express, Oliver v. American Express Co., No. 1:19-cv-00566-NGG (E.D.N.Y.), which is being tried to a jury in August 2025.  The action is at the forefront of the payments industry and is now shaped by the landmark ruling in Ohio v. American Express Co., 138 S. Ct. 2274 (2018), in which the U.S. Supreme Court articulated a new analytical framework for so-called “two-sided” markets.

Mr. Seaver is also presently counsel for plaintiffs and represents California State Teachers’ Retirement System in the Euribor (Sullivan v. Barclays PLC, et al., No. 13-cv-2811 (S.D.N.Y.)), which has resulted in $651.5 million in partial settlements to date, and Yen Libor (Laydon v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd., No. 1:12-cv-03419 (GBD) (S.D.N.Y.), and Sonterra Capital Master Fund, Ltd. v. UBS AG, No. 1:15-cv-05844 (GBD) (S.D.N.Y)), which has resulted in $364.5 million in partial settlements to date.  Both are antitrust cases involving Wall Street banks’ manipulation of interest rate benchmarks and bid-ask spread price fixing on interest rate derivatives.

Mr. Seaver was also one of the attorneys who spearheaded the landmark case against the major credit rating agencies (Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s), California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. Moody’s Corp., No. CGC-09-490241 (Cal. Super. Ct. San Francisco Cty.).  The case, filed on behalf of the nation’s largest state pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, was groundbreaking litigation that held the rating agencies financially responsible for negligent misrepresentations in rating structured investment vehicles. 

Mr. Seaver was ranked by Benchmark Litigation as a California Litigation Star (2022-2025), Local Litigation Star (2019-2020, 2022-2025), and Noted Star (2019-2025) in Plaintiff Work, Securities, and as a California Future Star (2020-2021).  He was recently recognized as a leading antitrust attorney by Chambers USA.  He was further recognized as a Recommended Attorney by The Legal 500 (U.S. edition) in Antitrust (2019-2025) and Securities Litigation (2017-2018).  He was also recognized as a Super Lawyer by Northern California Super Lawyers (2017-2025).  He has also been recognized by Lexology Index (formerly Global Competition Review’s Who’s Who Legal) in Competition (2017-2023), which also named him a Thought Leader in Competition (2019-2020, 2022-2024) and a Thought Leader: USA (2023-2024). He was selected by Lawdragon for its 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers guide (2019-2025), as featured in Lawdragon’s The Plaintiff Issue magazine.

Mr. Seaver graduated magna cum laude from Boston University in 1994 with a B.A. in International Relations.  He earned a M.Sc. from the London School of Economics in 1995 and graduated cum laude from the American University Washington College of Law in 1999.  While in law school, Mr. Seaver served as a law clerk at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition and as a judicial extern for the Honorable Ricardo M. Urbina, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Gary is a partner with Hausfeld splitting time between San Francisco and San Diego, focusing on complex federal antitrust litigation. Over the last decade of practice, Gary has recovered over $1 billion for clients that were the victims of antitrust violations. The Legal 500 has identified Gary as a “key name in California” for antitrust litigation and described Gary as “creative and intellectually nimble,” “a practical and effective litigator,” “a pleasure to work with,” and “a very skilled advocate” that “takes his professional and ethical obligations seriously.” Among many active cases, Gary is presently represents the plaintiffs in In re RealPage, Inc. Rental Software Antitrust Litigation. 

Gary has been honored as a Rising Star Under 40 in Healthcare Law by Law360 (2017), a Rising Star in Antitrust Litigation (2017 to 2022) and a Super Lawyer for Antitrust Litigation (2023-2024), a Trailblazer by the Legal Intelligencer (2019), an Honoree on Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under List (2023 to 2024), a recipient of the American Antitrust Institute’s Outstanding Achievement in Private Law Practice Award (2023), and was named to Best Lawyers Ones to Watch list for Antitrust (2025).

Gary is also committed to legal scholarship, the development of the antitrust laws, and serving the community through pro bono work. Gary has authored numerous articles on competition issues and the legal profession, including for the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Young Lawyers Division, the ABA’s Health Care Chronicle, and most notably, contributing to the ABA Antitrust Section’s seminal publication, Antitrust Law Developments. As a former Chair of the Committee to Support the Antitrust Law’s (COSAL) Amicus Committee, Gary has authored or contributed to amicus filings across the circuit courts and in the Supreme Court seeking to advance competition law policies. And on the pro bono front, Gary has represented victims of clergy sexual abuse that received settlement offers from the Philadelphia Archdiocese. For this and other pro bono work, Gary and Hausfeld’s Philadelphia office received the Philadelphia Bar Foundation’s 2019 Pro Bono Award.

Jeff VanHooreweghe is a partner at Wilson Sonsini and vice chair of the firm’s Antitrust and Competition Group, where he leads high-stakes civil and criminal antitrust matters both domestically and internationally, including criminal grand jury investigations, civil investigations, private litigation, and compliance counseling. With a track record of advising Fortune 500 companies and emerging industry leaders, Jeff provides invaluable counsel on complex antitrust matters that can have significant financial and reputational impact. Drawing on his extensive experience at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, Jeff brings a wealth of knowledge to help his clients navigate some of the most sensitive and challenging antitrust issues. Jeff is also an adjunct professor at UC Law San Francisco, where he teaches antitrust law. Jeff received his A.B. in Economics and History from Washington University and J.D. from Catholic University of America.

Bryn Williams is an attorney in the Colorado Department of Law where he manages the Antitrust unit as they investigate and litigate violations of state and federal competition law. Prior to that position, he served in the Defense, Industrials, and Aerospace Section at DOJ Antitrust. Before turning to public service, Bryn worked for two mid-size firms in California where he represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of complex civil disputes, patent litigation, product counseling, and regulatory matters. Before becoming a lawyer, Bryn earned a Ph.D. in archaeology from Stanford University.

Valarie C. Williams is Partner in Charge of Alston & Bird’s San Francisco office and Co-Lead of the firm’s Global Antitrust Team. She has a national practice focused on complex antitrust litigation. Valarie has served as lead counsel in multidistrict proceedings, class actions, and competitor suits involving allegations of price-fixing, monopolization, and other anticompetitive conduct. Her litigation experience spans federal courts across the country and covers a wide range of industries, including technology, healthcare, agriculture, and consumer products. In addition to her courtroom work, Valarie regularly advises clients facing investigations by the DOJ and FTC, and she has guided companies through merger challenges and conduct inquiries. Valarie is recognized by Chambers USA and The Best Lawyers in America for her antitrust expertise and is a frequent speaker on litigation strategy and competition law developments.