Dean Ringel

PARTNER

Dean Ringel is a member of the Firm’s litigation and antitrust practice groups. Dean has extensive experience in antitrust, media law, intellectual property and appellate areas.

Dean has counseled or litigated in a variety of high-visibility antitrust matters, at the trial and appellate levels. He has led both class and individual antitrust defense litigation teams, and has served as national “settlement counsel” in antitrust class action litigations. He designed a Practicing Law Institute (PLI) curriculum concerning Section 2 monopolization issues, and has lectured on the subject.

Dean has represented leading newspapers, news and business magazines, television networks and broadcasters in libel, privacy, reporter’s privilege and access matters in the state and federal trial and appellate courts and in the Supreme Court of the United States. He is recognized among the top Media & Entertainment/First Amendment litigation lawyers in New York by Chambers USA and The Legal 500.

Dean has also litigated intellectual property, employment discrimination, accountants’ liability and university tenure matters.

• Lead counsel in successful en banc proceeding overturning panel opinion and reinstating dismissal of a purported claim under Section 2 of the Sherman Act (NicSand v. 3M). 
• Lead counsel in defense of a series of Sherman Act Section 2 antitrust suits brought against a pharmaceutical company relating to the Hatch-Waxman Act. (In re: Remeron Antitrust)
• Lead counsel for Sony Music in price fixing suits brought in state and federal courts against Sony Music (and other music companies) by retailers, consumers and State Attorney General. (In re Compact Disc Antitrust; MDL 1216 (C.D. Cal.); In re Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust (MDL 1361, D. Maine); Ottinger v. EMI Music Distribution (Tenn.)
• Settlement counsel for 3M Company in nationwide state and federal antitrust class action lawsuits.
• Co-led successful trial defense of Engelhard Corp. against Department of Justice effort to enjoin a merger transaction under Section 7 of the Clayton Act. (United States v. Engelhard)
• Represented Sony Music (and Barbra Streisand) in Rhode Island Superior and Supreme Courts in successful defense of a claim under Rhode Island antitrust laws. (ERI-Max v. Streisand, et al.)
• Provided antitrust advice and counsel in connection with multi-billion dollar international tender offer.

Selected Media/First Amendment matters:

• Represented publisher and author in defending against claim for injunctive relief sought with respect to The Truth about Check Norris: 400 Facts about the World's Greatest Human.  
• Successfully represented The New York Times in protracted libel litigation brought by the former New York City Medical Examiner. (Gross v. New York Times Co.)
• Defended NBC in libel claim brought against Saturday Night Live. (Frank v. NBC)
• Successfully represented Yale University Press against an Islamic Charity which agreed to drop its libel suit in the face of anti-SLAPP motions brought by Yale and other defendants. The plaintiffs’ lawyer was quoted as saying of the motion: “Yale came at us hard.” (KinderUSA v. Yale University Press et al.)
• Obtained dismissal for book authors and publisher of claims in a libel suit arising from Iran-Contra scandal. (Secord v. Cockburn)
• Successfully represented television's "Law and Order" in New York in Fair Trial and Free Press Issues.
• Successfully represented Time Magazine in libel suit brought by the Church of Scientology International. (Church of Scientology International v. Time Warner, Inc.)
• Obtained dismissal of claims in a libel action brought in Kentucky state court concerning Tennessee Walking Horses at "The Celebration" for television's "Inside Edition." (Stith v. Cosmos Broadcasting)
• Represented McGraw Hill in the first case to recognize Reporters' Privilege for credit rating entity. (In re Scott Paper)
• Represented "Inside Edition" journalists at trial in a suit concerning the scope of permissible newsgathering activities (Wolfson v. Lewis)

Other selected cases:

• Successfully defended Columbia University in a tenure dispute. (Natta v. Columbia University)
• Represented The New York Times as plaintiff's counsel in Lanham Act-based challenge to another newspaper's use of a confusingly similar typography in its "flag". (New York Times Co. v. News World Communications Inc.)
• Represented Mead's Lexis/Nexis in trademark, anti-dilution challenge to the use of Lexus name.
• Counsel of Record on successful petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States in connection with accountants liability claims under the securities laws. (KPMG Peat Marwick v. Holloway)

Dean has served as chair or co-chair of the Federal Courts Committee and the Antitrust Litigation Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association. He has served as a member of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation, Communications and Federal Legislation Committees of the New York City Bar Association. He served as President of the Executive Committee, Defense Counsel Section, of the Media Law Resource Center and is currently President Emeritus and member of the Executive Committee of that Center.

He has lectured for the PLI on Section 2 of the Sherman Act and employment issues, and also at New York University and the Columbia School of Journalism on libel topics. He has authored articles addressing privacy law, libel law and electronic publications, and is a co-author of the MLRC Annual Survey of Second Circuit Libel Law.

For over a decade, Dean has served on the Board of Trustees of the Public Education Association and its successor, the Center for Educational Innovation — Public Education Association, groups devoted to advancing the interest of public schools.

Dean joined Cahill in 1972 upon completion of his clerkship and became a partner in 1979.