Insights
Firm News

Farella Receives American Antitrust Institute 2022 Antitrust Enforcement Award

November 3, 2022 Announcement

Northern California legal powerhouse Farella Braun + Martel is proud to announce that it has received a 2022 Antitrust Enforcement Award for “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice” from the American Antitrust Institute (AAI).

Farella lawyers Christopher Wheeler, Karen Kimmey, John Cooper, Janice Reicher, and Alex Reese along with co-counsel at Pillsbury & Coleman, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Kellogg Hansen Todd Figel & Frederick P.L.L.C., and McCracken Stemerman & Holsberry, LLP are being honored for their role in the landmark antitrust class action against Sutter Health, the dominant hospital system in Northern California, UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health et al. Click here for the AAI awards announcement.

“The Sutter case demonstrates how effective a partnership between private plaintiffs and state attorneys general can be in enforcing the antitrust laws,” said Farella partner Christopher Wheeler.

On August 27, 2021, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo granted final approval of the historic $575 million antitrust class action settlement with Sutter Health, one of the largest all-cash settlements in the history of California state court. The settlement includes ten years of comprehensive injunctive relief that limits Sutter’s punitive out-of-network pricing, requires price and quality transparency, enables insurance products that exclude overpriced Sutter providers, permits “steering” to lower-cost, high-quality non-Sutter providers, and provides for a court-appointed monitor to oversee Sutter’s compliance with the settlement.

The case was filed in San Francisco Superior Court in April 2014 by a putative class of self-funded payors (employers, union trusts, and governmental entities who self-insure for healthcare costs). The California Attorney General filed its own action in 2018, and the two actions were consolidated that year. Following five and one-half years of litigation, the parties reached a groundbreaking settlement in October 2019, just minutes before opening statements.

Honorees will be recognized at the AAI Awards Night on November 9.

Celebrating our 60th anniversary, Farella Braun + Martel is a leading Northern California law firm representing corporate and private clients in sophisticated business transactions and complex commercial, civil and criminal litigation. Clients seek our imaginative legal solutions and the dynamism and intellectual creativity of our lawyers. We are headquartered in San Francisco and maintain an office in the Napa Valley that is focused on the wine industry.

Contact:
Cheryl Loof
Farella Braun + Martel LLP
415.954.4433 /  [email protected] 

Firm Highlights

News

Tony Schoenberg Receives Award of Merit From Bar Association of San Francisco

Anthony P. Schoenberg headshot
Read More
Publication

The Humility To Prepare and the Confidence To Pull It off With Doug Young

Mike Herring interviews past ACTL President Doug Young in this episode of  Trial Tested: A Podcast by the American College of Trial Lawyers . S3E6: The Humility To Prepare and the Confidence To Pull It off With...

Read More
Publication

One Pending Supreme Court Case Could Change the Internet as We Know It: Gonzalez v. Google and Tech Platforms’ Liability

The Supreme Court granted certiorari in Gonzalez v. Google , a high-stakes case appealed from the Ninth Circuit about the scope of protection Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act affords technology companies against...

Read More
Event

The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions

Join Carly Alameda and Amy Briggs in the discussion on "The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions" to the ACC Bay Area Chapter. Corporate counsel are often tasked with negotiating...

Read More
News

Farella Braun + Martel Earns 2023 U.S. News – Best Lawyers® "Best Law Firms" Rankings

Read More
News

Farella Braun + Martel Partner Sarah Good Appointed to California State Bar Board of Trustees

Read More
Publication

SB 54: Shifting the Burden to Producers To Address California's Plastic Pollution

California's SB 54: Plastics Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act  (Public Resources Code § 41821.5) adopts the “extended producer responsibility model” (or “circular economy framework”), which makes manufacturers of single-use plastic products and packaging responsible...

Read More
Publication

What Recent Rulings in 'hiQ v. LinkedIn' and Other Cases Say About the Legality of Data Scraping

LinkedIn obtained a permanent injunction on Dec. 6 in its six-year-old lawsuit against data scraping company hiQ Labs, which LinkedIn quickly cheered as a “final, decisive victory” that established an “important legal precedent.” While...

Read More
News

Judges Are Trying to Squeeze in More Trial Dates to Clear Court Backlogs

Farella partner and trial lawyer Karen Kimmey spoke to The Recorder  for the article, "Judges Are Trying to Squeeze in More Trial Dates to Clear Court Backlogs," discussing how lawyers are changing how they prepare for trial...

Read More
Event

The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions

Join Carly Alameda and Amy Briggs in the discussion on "The Fine Print: A Litigator’s Perspective on Boilerplate Contract and Insurance Provisions" to the ACC Bay Area Chapter. Corporate counsel are often tasked with negotiating...

Read More