Catherine Simonsen is an antitrust enforcement attorney with over a decade of experience litigating complex antitrust cases on the plaintiff and defense sides in federal and California state courts.  Catherine currently serves as Senior Legal Fellow at the American Economic Liberties Project.  Before joining AELP, Catherine served in the Office of Policy Planning and as the Assistant Regional Director for the Western Competition Group at the Federal Trade Commission.  Catherine joined the FTC from the Antitrust Section of the California Department of Justice, where she served as a Deputy Attorney General on the State’s California v. Amazon matter.  Prior to her time with the California DOJ, Catherine was a partner at White & Case in the firm’s litigation practice.  Before entering private practice, 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.  Catherine holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Stanford University. 

Kalpana Srinivasan tries high-stakes cases for plaintiffs and defendants in courtrooms across the country. She also serves as Susman Godfrey’s firmwide co-managing partner and a member of its Executive Committee. Named the California Recorder’s Attorney of the Year in 2024, she has secured major victories for clients in trade secret, antitrust, patent, copyright, class action and other complex disputes.

Ms. Srinivasan’s recent representations include winning a $65.7 million jury verdict on behalf of Paltalk Holdings in a patent infringement lawsuit, obtaining a California jury finding the NFL engaged in a conspiracy and violated antitrust laws through its Sunday Ticket offering, securing an arbitration award of nearly $160 million on behalf of Black Knight for a former customer’s misuse of confidential information, serving as lead trial counsel for Intercontinental Exchange related to its $11.7 billion proposed acquisition of Black Knight in proceedings brought by the FTC in federal court in California, and securing an 8-figure deal to settle claims of conspiracy to fix prices/allocate markets for telescopes sold in the U.S.

Ms. Srinivasan is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and a member of  Senator Alex Padilla’s Judicial Evaluation Commission for the Central District of California. She previously served on the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission of the California State Bar, which vets the governor’s potential judicial candidates.

Ms. Srinivasan is a recipient of the Cornerstone Award from the South Asian Bar Association of North America and been recognized as a Trailblazer by the South Asian Bar Association of Southern California . 

Meaghan Thomas-Kennedy (Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP) represents innovative companies in precedent-setting competition litigations, including government investigations and enforcement actions, complex class actions, and business-to-business disputes.  She recently re-joined Latham from Apple, where she was Principal Counsel for antitrust litigation, leading strategy for the company’s North American antitrust docket and managing its highest-stakes antitrust cases.  With deep experience in competition claims in the tech sector, Meaghan provides practical, business-first advice to companies as they design and launch new products, navigate the intersection of intellectual property and competition law, and craft docket-wide dispute management strategies.  Outside of her client work, she is a Board Member for the First District Appellate Project in Oakland, California, whose mission is to ensure vigorous appellate representation for those who cannot afford it.  Meaghan earned her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. 

Judge Trina L. Thompson is currently serving as a District Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco division. Before her nomination to the federal bench in 2022, Judge Thompson served as a superior court judge in the Alameda County Rene C. Davidson Court for nearly twenty years and presided over Felony Jury Trials, Preliminary Hearings, Sentencing, and Motions. Her most recent high-profile trial was the Ghost Ship Manslaughter case. Judge Thompson was elected in 2002 and, when sworn to serve on the state court bench in January of 2003, she became the first African American woman elected to serve in the Alameda County Superior Court. Prior to her elevation to the state bench, Judge Thompson was appointed as a Juvenile Court Commissioner. Before serving on the bench, Judge Thompson managed a private criminal defense practice, emphasizing juvenile, misdemeanor, felony, and capital defense trials. At the time of her appointment to the bench, she had accumulated sixteen years of experience handling misdemeanors, felonies, homicides, and capital litigation. She began her legal career in the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office as an Assistant Public Defender. Earlier in her journey, Judge Thompson also held positions with Judge Henry Ramsey, Alameda County Superior Court; the Law Offices of Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus & Vlahos; the National Center for Youth Law; the Law Offices of Howard Moore and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Judge Thompson received a bachelor’s degree in Legal Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and graduated from UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law in 1986. She became a member of the California State Bar in 1987 and the Northern District of California, U.S. District Court in 1990.