James R. Atwood

Jim Atwood is a member of the firm’s Antitrust and Consumer Law Group and resident in the San Francisco office.

Mr. Atwood practices antitrust, civil litigation (both trial and appellate), and international law.  As a litigator, Mr. Atwood has prevailed in multiple complex antitrust and other civil cases in federal and state trial courts, in a half-dozen different appellate courts, and three times in the U.S. Supreme Court.  As a counselor, Mr. Atwood has advised clients on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing arrangements, distribution issues, cartel-related matters, and other substantive antitrust areas in a wide variety of industries.  He regularly lectures and publishes on antitrust subjects, including in particular the application of US antitrust law to international business.  He is co-author of the leading treatise Antitrust and American Business Abroad.

Representative Matters

• Obtained dismissal of a putative class action brought by medical residents alleging price fixing among the nation’s leading teaching hospitals; successfully defended of the judgment on appeal.  Jung v. Assoc. of American Medical Colleges, 339 F. Supp. 2d 26 (D.D.C. 2004), 226 F.R.D. 7 (D.D.C. 2005), aff'd, 2006-1 Trade Cas. ¶75,275 (D.C. Cir. 2006), cert.denied, 127 S. Ct. 1041 (2007).
• Successfully defended PPL Corporation in federal and state government antitrust investigations, and in six private antitrust suits, claiming monopolization and manipulation of regional wholesale electricity markets.
• Successfully defended a leading Asian telecommunications company in a federal grand jury investigation dealing with allegations of price fixing of international telephone charges.

Previous Experience

• Stanford Law School, Acting Professor (1980)
• U.S. Department of State, Senior Deputy Legal Adviser (1979-1980) 
• U.S. Department of State, Deputy Assistant Secretary (1978-1979)

Honors and Rankings

• The Best Lawyers in America, Antitrust Law (2007-2008)
• Northern California Super Lawyers, Antitrust Litigation (2007)

Publications and Speeches

• "International Update: American Antitrust: 2005-2006," Australian & New Zealand Trade Practices Law Bulletin (March 2006), Co-Author
• "Testimony on International Issues," Antitrust Modernization Commission (Washington) (2006)
• "Observations on Negotiating Government Antitrust Settlements in the United States," Fordham Corporate Law Institute (January 2006), Co-Author