Judith A. Zahid

Zahid is co-chair of Zelle LLP's antitrust group and the managing partner of the firm's San Francisco office. There are tentative plans to re-open following the coronavirus pandemic closure, but working remotely remains the norm and there is no rush, she said.

"At some of our offices, say in Minneapolis and Dallas, you can just drive up and park. But here in San Francisco, and in New York and London, there are BART and subways and tubes involved in getting to work. So we're setting our own pace on re-opening. I'm listening to learn when people are comfortable coming back in."

Zahid represents the restaurant chain El Pollo Loco Inc. in an individual antitrust claim against the nation's major broiler chicken suppliers. The complaint, filed in March, alleges a capacity-reduction and price-fixing conspiracy. Her complaint, filed this year, has been consolidated with a group of cases filed earlier. In re: Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litigation, 1:16-cv-08637 (N.D. Ill., filed Sept. 2, 2016).

The litigation took a turn favorable to plaintiffs in early June when federal prosecutors criminally indicted some of the same industry executives named in the civil suits. The new federal indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Colorado. In a single count, it names current and former executives at Pilgrim's Pride and Claxton Poultry Farms and alleges they fixed prices and rigged bids from 2012 to 2017. U.S. v. Penn, 20-cr-00152 (D. Colo., filed June 2, 2020).

"Pilgrim is a big supplier to my client," Zahid said. "And we knew the government was deeply into an investigation." The indictment specifies that national restaurant chains were targets of the conspiracy to keep prices high. "Because it calls out fast-food restaurants as victims, this was the kind of big news you hope for in a case like this."

For another client, United HealthCare Services Inc., said to be the largest health care company in the world by revenue, Zahid has filed antitrust claims against 20 generic drug makers accused of price fixing. Hers is among numerous cases consolidated in multi-district litigation in Pennsylvania. In re: Generic Pharmaceuticals Pricing Antitrust Litigation, 2:16-md-02724 (E.D. Penn., filed Aug. 5, 2016).

Alongside the individual lawsuits is a complaint by 49 state attorneys general. Together, they allege industry-wide coordination to inflate prices, block competition and otherwise manipulate markets.

Potentially huge damages are at stake. Zahid said a federal government investigation is also underway, with an amnesty applicant's bid for leniency in the works.

"This is looking to be one of the largest conspiracies in history," she said. "As many as 200 generic drugs could ultimately be involved. There's a tremendous amount of potential harm, and we've all been paying for it."

-- John Roemer