Michael Tubach

Tubach, an expert in white collar criminal and civil antitrust litigation, is an O'Melveny & Myers partner who often represents clients in cases involving a combination of both areas, such as criminal cartel matters.

Often, he's able to persuade federal prosecutors they have no case. "My best work never gets reported on," he said.

In one such confidential matter, he and colleagues represented a major company facing a criminal antitrust investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. "We got it shut down with no charges filed," he said, declining to supply details.

In general, the first thing he looks for in such cases is whether the antitrust division's amnesty program is available--a setup in which the first target of an investigation to self-report criminal conduct and that of others is relieved of liability.

"Typically we do our own investigation and try to convince the Department of Justice to look at the evidence differently," Tubach said.

In a separate long-running matter, Tubach represents a manufacturer of automotive wire harnesses in a Department of Justice criminal investigation and multiple related civil class actions and individual actions related to alleged price-fixing in the supply of the electrical distribution systems that transmit power to a vehicle's motor, windows, air conditioning and passenger safety features.

"This is a sprawling case that we took on starting in 2010," he said. "The litigation has since expanded to include allegations involving more than 40 different auto parts."

The total amount at stake in the combined cases was in the tens of billions of dollars, yet the government has filed no charges against Tubach's client, Germany-based Leoni AG, and helped it settle three class actions for less than $3 million in total. "In the antitrust world, that counts as a parking ticket," he said. One representative case: In re: Auto Parts Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Litigation, 12-md-02311 (E.D. Mich., transfer order Feb. 7, 2012).

An offshoot of the litigation involved a suit filed by the Mississippi attorney general against auto parts makers, including Tubach's client, for allegedly conspiring to harm residents of that state. "This was one of the last things hanging over Leoni," he said. "Here we had a German company in state court in the U.S. in a state in which it does no business. We established quite firmly that Leoni had not participated in any conspiracy."

Last year, at last, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's dismissal of Leoni and the other defendants from the state court litigation. State of Mississippi v. Yasaki North America, 2019-CA-00094 (Miss. Sup. Ct., decision filed Jan. 11, 2019). "My client is pleased to be out of the state court," Tubach said.

--John Roemer