Berman Tabacco

Antitrust, Consumer

Partner

Todd A. Seaver, a partner in the San Francisco office of Berman Tabacco, provides financial justice through his litigation of antitrust and investment-related matters, with a primary focus on litigating antitrust cases. Todd has litigated antitrust cases involving a variety of industries, including high-tech, pharmaceutical, financial derivative, automobile, chemical, consumer electronic, biotech, diamonds and online retailing. He co-leads the firm’s antitrust practice group.

Todd also litigates asset recovery cases on behalf of institutional clients, including leadership of the firm’s landmark action against the major credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's in connection with structured investment vehicles (SIVs), the most complex type of structured finance product ever marketed.

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

He began his career representing large and small businesses in commercial litigation and has participated in trial work. In 2003, Todd was an adjunct law professor with the New England School of Law. While in law school, Todd 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 of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and for the Honorable Judith Retchin of the District of Columbia Superior Court.

Todd is married with two children. His hobbies include wine making and motorcycle racing. He speaks Portuguese and is competent in German.

EXPERIENCE

Currently is lead counsel in an antitrust class action against American Express. Filed in 2019 following the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Ohio v American Express on behalf of consumers, the case challenges American Express's anti-steering rules under the two-sided market definition announced by the Supreme Court in Ohio. In January 2024, Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis certified classes of debit cardholders in ten states. Brought the first pharmaceutical antitrust actions, QVAR and Respimat, which challenge brand name drug manufacturers for listing patents in the Federal Drug Administration's "Orange Book" that claim a device, and not a drug, in order to delay competition from generic drugs. Co-lead counsel in In re European Government Bonds Antitrust Litig., alleging that ten international banks conspired to fix the prices of bonds issued by European Economic Area nations, which caused U.S. investors to be harmed in the buying and selling of those bonds. Represents named plaintiff San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association (SBCERA). Mr. Seaver led plaintiffs’ efforts in In re New Motor Vehicles Canadian Export Antitrust Litigation, No. 03-md-1532 (D. Me.), in which Berman Tabacco was lead counsel. The case alleged that major auto manufacturers unlawfully conspired to stop the export of cheaper new Canadian vehicles into the United States for use or resale. The federal case ended in 2009. Mr. Seaver was one of the lead partners for the firm in California state court, captioned In re Automobile Antitrust Cases I and II, JCCP Nos. 4298 and 4303 (San Francisco Superior Court), which recently settled with the last remaining defendant, Ford Canada, for $82 million, bringing the total settlement in this action to $137.85 (including three prior settlements of $55.85 million for class members in the federal and California actions, which have been approved). The Court approved the $82 million settlement on October 31, 2022. Presently leads the firm’s class action litigation teams in the firm’s price-fixing/market manipulation cases alleging that major banks colluded to fix the prices of derivatives and other financial instruments by manipulating numerous financial benchmark rates.  Todd represents (i) California State Teachers’ Retirement System in the Euribor, Yen Libor and Swiss franc Libor actions; (ii) Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association in the Forex action; and (iii) Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System and IBEW in the Mexican Bonds price-fixing action. Partner who oversaw, on behalf of direct purchaser plaintiffs, the day-to-day prosecution of the major multi-district antitrust litigation In re Lithium Ion Batteries Antitrust Litigation, No. 13-md-2420-YGR (N.D. Cal.). The lawsuit resulted in settlements totaling $139.3 million for the benefit of battery purchasers, which are pending final approval. Spearheaded the firm’s landmark litigation on behalf of the nation’s largest state pension fund, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, against the major credit rating agencies in California Public Employees’ Retirement System v. Moody’s Corp. CGC-09-490241 (Cal. Super. Ct. San Francisco Cty.), an action alleging negligent misrepresentations. The firm recovered $255 million from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s for their “Aaa” ratings on three Structured Investment Vehicles.  The case resulted in the only known court of appeals’ decision that places credit ratings outside free speech protection and designates them actionable opinions. Led efforts for the firm in an antitrust action against Netflix and Wal-Mart in In re Online DVD Rental Antitrust Litigation, 09-cv-2029 (N.D. Cal.), which alleged an unlawful agreement between Netflix and Wal-Mart whereby Wal-Mart agreed to exit the online DVD rental market in exchange for Netflix agreeing not to sell new DVDs to its subscribers. As co-lead counsel, firm achieved a settlement of $27.25 million. Led efforts for the firm as part of the leadership of the direct purchaser plaintiffs’ price-fixing action against makers of optical disk drives in In re Optical Disk Drive, No. 10-md-02143-RS (N.D. Cal.). The case settled in 2013 for a total of $74.9 million. Key member of the firm’s litigation team on the high-profile case In re Cardizem CD Antitrust Litigation, No. 99-01278 (E.D. Mich.), still the leading generic drug competition case, which settled in 2003 for $80 million.

Member of the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute Member of the Antitrust Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco and served a two-year term on the executive committee (2012-2014)

American University Washington College of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1999) London School of Economics (M.Sc., 1995) Boston University (B.A., International Relations, magna cum laude, 1994)