MANAGING ANTITRUST AND COMPLEX BUSINESS TRIALS: A DISCUSSION WITH THREE FEDERAL DISTRICT JUDGES

Moderated by Steve Williams¹

In 2016, the Golden State Institute carried on its recent tradition of hosting a panel of trial court judges. This feature is always a crowd pleaser and this year was no exception as we heard from three distinguished federal district court judges who have a wealth of experience managing complex business litigation.

The panel:

• The Honorable Denise Cote was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1994. Judge Cote received her Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Mary’s College, a Master of Arts degree in History from Columbia and a JD from Columbia Law School. She clerked for Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Cote had experience in private practice and also as a federal prosecutor with two tours through the Southern District of New York US Attorney’s Office, first as an Assistant United States Attorney and later as Chief of the office’s Criminal Division. She also served in Washington DC as Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Criminal Division. Judge Cote has presided over several antitrust cases during her judicial career. Among the most recent are the high profile and significant e-books trial, United States v. Apple, and litigation involving allegations of price fixing in the credit default swap market.
• The Honorable Lucy H. Koh was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in 2010. Judge Koh received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard and her JD from Harvard Law School. Prior to taking the federal bench Judge Koh was a California Superior Court judge in Santa Clara County. Prior to becoming a judge, she worked in private practice in Silicon Valley. She also has served in Washington, D.C. as a special assistant to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General and as a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow on Sen. Ted Kennedy’s U.S. Senate Judiciary committee staff. Among the high profile antitrust matters that Judge Koh has presided over is In re High Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation which involved allegations of agreements among high tech firms not to poach each other’s employees. She is also presiding over the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge of Qualcomm’s alleged abuse of its market power.
• The Honorable James Donato was confirmed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in 2014. Judge Donato received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He received a Master of Arts degree in History from Harvard and his JD from Stanford Law School. He clerked on the Ninth Circuit for Judge Procter Hug. Judge Donato is currently presiding over the antitrust cases involving allegations of price fixing of capacitors and resistors.