The ‘consistently excellent’ team at McDermott Will & Emery LLP leverages its strength across the full spectrum of antitrust issues to offer a strong litigation practice with notable strength advising on civil class actions and price-fixing allegations. Global practice co-head Raymond Jacobsen, in Washington DC, has a strong track record acting for clients in the defense industry. Katharine O’Connor, in Chicago, handles antitrust compliance and litigated merger work for clients in the healthcare, food, and manufacturing sectors; also in Chicago is Stephen Wu, who co-chairs the firm’s healthcare antitrust sub-group. Michelle Lowery splits her time between Los Angeles and Chicago and heads the firm’s West Coast antitrust offering. In New York, Nicole Castle is another key contact for healthcare antitrust work, working alongside seasoned antitrust expert Elai Katz, who joined the team from Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP  in August 2023. Another new arrival is Ryan Tisch, who joined the Washington DC office from Crowell & Moring LLP in May 2023, strengthening the team’s merger clearance offering.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘MWE is consistently excellent and have great expertise.'

  • ‘Expertise and commerciality.’

  • ‘Elai Katz was highly professional, knowledgeable and open-minded to pursue the defense strategies we recommended. We have the utmost respect for his conduct.’

Key clients

  • Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.
  • Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.
  • Prime Therapeutics LLC
  • Reproductive Medicine Associates of Philadelphia
  • Constellation Brands
  • Lockheed Martin
  • Premier Inc.
  • Motorola Mobility LLC
  • Treehouse Foods, Inc.
  • Du Pont de Nemours, Inc.
  • CSXT
  • Corteva Inc.
  • Perkin Elmer
  • Southern Illinois Healthcare
  • Voyant Beauty LLC
  • Apple Inc.
  • Poly/HP, Inc.
  • Cedars Sinai Health System
  • Airboss of America
  • Envision Healthcare Corporation and Envision Physician Services
  • Dr.First
  • Airbnb, Inc.
  • CareMetx

Work highlights

  • Representing Apple Inc. in its victory in a bench trial, affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, in a case brought by Epic; as well as representing Apple in connection with the App Store antitrust cases filed by two purported classes of consumers and app developers in the N.D. California.
  • Successfully representing Southern Illinois Healthcare, the largest non-profit healthcare system in Southern Illinois, in a long-running civil antitrust litigation.
  • Representing Apple Inc. in relation to consumer class actions concerning the Powerbeats Pro wireless earphones, successfully achieving dismissal of plaintiffs’ complaints concerning deceptive advertisement.

Lawyers

Next Generation Partners
Junior partners with significant recognition from clients and peers in the market and key roles on multiple matters.
McDermott Will & Emery LLP
Katharine (Kate) O’Connor focuses her practice on complex antitrust litigation, antitrust investigations brought by the US antitrust regulators and state attorneys general, and counseling clients on antitrust compliance questions. Kate also regularly represents clients before the antitrust regulators related to mergers and acquisitions. Kate has experience representing clients in a wide array of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, food and finance.   Kate is a member of the firm’s antitrust and competition practice, which Global Competition Review has designated a “Global Elite” and “Illinois Elite” practice. She has been recognized by Global Competition Review, Benchmark Litigation, Legal 500 US and Super Lawyers as excelling in the field of antitrust. Kate has tried cases before juries, judges and arbitration panels, presented evidentiary hearings in federal and administrative courts and argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, federal district courts and state courts. She is a member of the Northern District of Illinois Trial Bar. While in law school, Kate was the managing articles editor of the University of Illinois Law Review and a legal extern to Magistrate Judge David G. Bernthal of the US District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Raymond Jacobsen, Stephen Wu, Michelle Lowery, Elai Katz, Nicole Castle

Other key lawyers

Ryan Tisch, Katharine O'Connor