Patricia Farren

PARTNER

Patricia has nearly three decades of experience handling jury trials, bench trials, appeals, and all forms of alternate dispute resolution in complex antitrust cases and other commercial litigation. She is counsel to domestic and multinational companies and trade associations in a wide range of industries, including newspaper, magazine and online publishing, broadcasting, franchising, marine construction, banking, pharmaceuticals and other consumer products.

Her diverse areas of substantive experience include antitrust litigation and compliance, merger analysis, trade association oversight, software and music licensing, trademark and copyright litigation, vertical integration, franchise law issues, class action practice, securities law, ERISA, employment law, government investigations and related proceedings.

• Defense counsel for an offshore marine contractor in bid-rigging claims in U.S. and Europe arising from indictments and guilty pleas of competitor.
• Representation of leading insurance companies in prosecuting breach of fiduciary duty and accounting claims against reinsurance intermediary and its principals.
• Defense counsel for a newspaper publisher in antitrust action arising from termination of wholesaler, and prosecution of related counterclaims.
• Representation of a major consumer lending company in securities class action.
• Defense counsel for a British holding company against antitrust conspiracy charges in multidistrict class action in the payment card industry.
• Defense counsel for large consumer products distributor in transshipping and "gray market" investigation by the office of a state Attorney General.
• Defeated summary judgment motion brought by plaintiffs, and won cross motion for defendants in pharmaceutical industry class action, on issue of alleged market power arising from control over price and volume of brand name drug.
• Defeated ERISA and age discrimination claims against a chemicals manufacturer.
• Negotiated a settlement nearly double the value of a preliminarily approved settlement fund for opt-out class members in a copyright infringement action.
• Prepared winning briefs in the first Court of Appeals case to apply the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act to preclude subject matter jurisdiction of U.S. courts over claims of antitrust injury arising from harm to non-U.S. markets.
• Defended a newspaper industry trade association in a federal antitrust suit culminating in exoneration of defendants, affirmed in an influential opinion of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on the standards for proving participation in a conspiracy.
• Successfully defended antitrust cases in various industries involving allegations of vertical price and non-price restraints. On behalf of the newspaper industry, co-wrote an amicus curiae brief adopted and quoted by the United States Supreme Court in overruling its prior ruling on the application of the per se rule to maximum vertical price fixing.
• Won summary judgment for a leading newspaper in an antitrust action culminating in influential Second Circuit opinion on market definition under Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Subsequently defeated the antitrust claims of unrelated distributors on issue preclusion grounds affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
• As representative of the joint defense group in publishing industry class action, briefed and argued opposition to plaintiffs' summary judgment motion on horizontal price fixing issues, and negotiated zero-payment (and ultimately zero-fee award) settlement in the wake of oral argument.
• Won dismissal of claims of independent distributors challenging a major soft drink distributor's vertical integration plan on numerous legal and equitable grounds, including under federal antitrust laws.
• Won dismissal of tie-in claims based on alleged linking of products with and without licensed trademarks for leading headwear manufacturer.
• Won judgment for a thoroughbred racing association in a matter of first impression interpreting the governing pari-mutual waging statute in the context of the simultaneous transmission of races by an off-track betting organization.