Bonnie Lau

Lau is a partner in Morrison & Foerster’s antitrust litigation practice with specialties in cartel investigations, agency enforcement actions and class action defense. In the male-dominated antitrust bar, she is among the few Asian American women who has first-chaired an antitrust class action jury trial.

“I grew up as a commercial class action litigator. Then, a favorite partner introduced me to the antitrust world,” she said, naming Richard L. Fenton, a prominent Dentons litigator who died in April 2021. Lau moved from Dentons to MoFo in 2019. “Antitrust is intellectually stimulating. With each new case, you have to delve into the industry at issue, and there are brand new issues every time. That keeps things fresh and different.”

In early November, she was prepping for the resumption later in the month of the antitrust class action jury trial that was suspended midway over COVID-19 concerns. She serves as lead trial counsel for a Japanese technology client accused of antitrust price-fixing cartel class action claims; her client faces $1.2 billion in potential exposure. In re: Capacitors Antitrust Litigation, 3:14-cv-03264 (N.D. Cal., filed July 18, 2014).

Earlier in the litigation, she resolved a U.S Department of Justice antitrust investigation and criminal proceedings against her client, and she oversees the defense of related Canadian class action litigation and foreign enforcement proceedings in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, Brazil and the European Union.

“It’s like directing a symphony,” Lau said. “The direct purchaser case alleges a conspiracy not supported by the facts of the defendants’ criminal pleas. Our position is that the plaintiffs inflated the defense list to increase the potential damages.” Because the pandemic suspension caused a mistrial, “We have to start anew, with a new jury, so I’ll be giving my opening statement again,” she added. “It’s rare to have antitrust trials of this type and extraordinarily rare to have them make it past opening statements. I’m incredibly excited about this. Trials are the best part of my job.”

Soon after Lau arrived at MoFo, she was called on to help clear the $30 billion merger of clients Softbank Group Corp. and its Sprint Corp. subsidiary with T-Mobile US, Inc. after an emergency complaint was filed on the Monday before Thanksgiving seeking a temporary restraining order to block the deal.

Lau needed to get up to speed quickly to master the complicated legal and factual record supporting the merger. She turned around a TRO opposition brief in just a week. After a brief stay to await the outcome of related litigation, Lau defeated the TRO in March 2020. “It kept a lot of us busy and it was a great way for me to integrate with my new colleagues,” she said.

“I thrive in the emergency environment. Between the capacitors and Sprint matters, I haven’t had a holiday in a while.”

--John Roemer