Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST—NDCal: Interim Lead Class Counsel Appointed in Lithium Ion Battery Antitrust Litigation, (May 20, 2013)

By Tobias J. Gillett, J.D., LL.M.

In multidistrict class action litigation alleging that manufacturers of lithium ion batteries conspired to fix prices, the federal district court in Oakland, California, has appointed interim lead class counsel and interim liaison class counsel for the direct purchaser plaintiffs and indirect purchaser plaintiffs (In Re: Lithium Ion Batteries Antitrust Litigation, May 17, 2013, Rogers, Y.).

The court appointed Bruce L. Simon of Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, LLP, R. Alexander Saveri of Saveri & Saveri, Inc., and Joseph J. Tabacco, Jr. of Berman DeValerio to serve as interim lead class counsel for the direct purchaser plaintiffs, and Judith A. Zahid of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP to serve as interim liaison class counsel for those plaintiffs. Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, and Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP will serve as interim lead class counsel for the indirect purchaser plaintiffs, while Jennie Lee Anderson of Andrus Anderson will serve as interim liaison class counsel for those plaintiffs.

The court will designate the members of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committees for the two groups by a separate order. The co-lead counsel were ordered to make recommendations for firms to appoint. The court’s order also specified the duties and responsibilities of the various counsel and of the committees. The co-lead and liaison counsel will be the counsel for purposes of service of process, and any agreements reached between the co-lead counsel for the classes and the defendants will be binding on all plaintiffs’ counsel in the respective actions.

The defendants in the suit include: LG Chem America, Inc., Maxell Corporation of America, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics America, Inc., Sanyo North America Corporation, and Sony Electronics, Inc.

The case is No. 13-MD-2420-YGR, MDL No. 2420.

Attorneys: Bruce L. Simon (Pearson, Simon & Warshaw, LLP), R. Alexander Saveri (Saveri & Saveri, Inc.), and Joseph J. Tabacco, Jr. (Berman DeValerio) for Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. Nanci Eiko Nishimura (Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP), Jeff D. Friedman (Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP), and Eric B. Fastiff (Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP) for Indirect Purchaser Plaintiffs. Kenneth P. Ewing (Steptoe & Johnson LLP) for LG Chem Ltd. Jeffrey L. Kessler (Winston & Strawn LLP) for Panasonic Corp. John C. Dwyer (Cooley LLP) for Sony Corp. Michael W. Scarborough (Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP) for Samsung SDI America Inc.

Companies: LG Chem Ltd.; Panasonic Corp.; Sony Corp.; Samsung SDI America Inc.

Cases: Antitrust CaliforniaNews