Julia K. York

Ms. York is trusted by clients to deliver practical solutions and secure successful outcomes for their most complex antitrust issues. She has extensive experience representing clients in antitrust investigations and litigation brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general. In addition, clients regularly turn to Ms. York for her deep knowledge of patent-related issues in antitrust and her extensive experience in complex antitrust litigation.

Ms. York is particularly valued for her work on merger litigation and government merger challenges, as well as her knowledge across a broad range of industries, such as pharmaceuticals, life sciences, technology, gaming, telecommunications, and media and entertainment. In addition, she frequently collaborates with the firm’s attorneys around the world in advising global companies facing antitrust challenges in the U.S.

In recognition of her work, Ms. York has been named one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers, 500 Leading Litigators in America and 500 Leading Lawyers in America. She has also achieved top rankings in Chambers USA, The Legal 500 U.S. and The Best Lawyers in America.

Ms. York’s representations include, among others:

• Actavis, Inc. in defending a suit brought by the FTC, including before the Supreme Court, challenging the legality of a patent litigation settlement
• Actavis, Inc., Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and a Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. affiliate in successfully resolving private reverse-payment litigations related to the brand-name drug AndroGel 1%
• Activision Blizzard Inc. in prevailing in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision. The FTC sought a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which the court denied following a five-day trial. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the trial court’s decision and found that the FTC failed to show it was likely to succeed on the merits
• American Express Global Business Travel in securing the dismissal of the DOJ’s lawsuit challenging its acquisition of CWT in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
• Anheuser Busch InBev in winning the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a Wisconsin-based brewery alleging a conspiracy to restrain trade in the Ontario beer market
• Apple Inc. in:
  • securing the dismissal with prejudice of an antitrust class action brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by a group of Google search users, alleging that Apple and Google entered an agreement to make Google the default search engine on Apple’s Safari browser, amounting to a horizontal conspiracy not to compete in the “search business,” in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act
  • the DOJ’s lawsuit against Google (United States v. Google)
• Catalent, Inc. in its acquisition by Novo Holdings A/S, the holding and investment company for the Novo Nordisk Foundation, at an enterprise value of $16.5 billion
• Glencore Xstrata subsidiaries in an antitrust class action concerning warehousing and trading of aluminum
• Greystar Real Estate Partners, LLC in an antitrust action initiated by the District of Columbia attorney general alleging that multifamily property managers inflated rents through the use of RealPage revenue management software
• Netflix, Inc. in government antitrust matters involving its $82.7 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc
• Norfolk Southern Railway Co. in securing the dismissal of all claims in an 18-year litigation brought by putative classes of rail customers alleging the four major freight railroads implemented coordinated fuel surcharges to achieve rate increases. The railroads defeated class certification twice in the D.C. Circuit, and then defeated the claims of more than 380 plaintiffs in 110 individual lawsuits on summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
• Sabre Corporation in the DOJ’s challenge to its proposed acquisition of FareLogix
• ServiceNow, Inc. in its $2.85 billion acquisition of Moveworks, Inc.
• Sprint Corp. in a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general challenging T-Mobile’s proposed acquisition of Sprint and before the California Public Utilities Commission
• Visa Inc. in the DOJ’s challenge to its proposed acquisition of Plaid Inc.

Ms. York previously served as vice chair of the ABA Antitrust Section’s Antitrust Law Developments Committee. She serves as the Washington D.C. office’s pro bono partner and actively works on pro bono matters, including securing a victory before the D.C. Circuit on behalf of a putative class of racial justice protestors and representing various amici curiae on briefs submitted to the Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. She has been invited to speak on a range of antitrust issues, including AI and antitrust at the ABA Section of International Law’s Annual Meeting, and gaming and antitrust as part of the More Than Just a Game conference hosted by Microsoft.