Lessons from the DaVita Win

This article originally appeared in The Texas Lawbook. Reprinted with permission. Any opinions in this article are not those of Winston & Strawn or its clients. The opinions in this article are the author’s only.

Some of my trials have been conducted in relative obscurity. Sure, all were absolutely important to the participants but not always so to the outside world.

I’ve had a few that attracted a fair amount of attention. The I-30 condo case had so much attention it had to be moved out of Dallas. The Risperdal trial in Austin was streamed for viewing over the internet. And, of course, the SEC v. Cuban case attracted every outlet from ESPN to The Wall Street Journal.

But United States v. DaVita, Inc. and Kent Thiry in Denver was a different animal altogether. It attracted an intensely focused interest on a very particular world – antitrust. It was the first criminal case alleging an illegal conspiracy involving a nonsolicitation or “no-poach” agreement. The Department of Justice has amped up its efforts in investigating and prosecuting cases involving labor markets – as opposed to product markets – and this unprecedented case was the debut of this strategy.

Read the full article.