Beth Wilkinson

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Beth Wilkinson explains her firm simply. "Anywhere there's a big trial, that's what we're hired to do," she said. Frequently, she is the lead trial counsel.

Among those big cases, she and the firm represent Bayer in Roundup litigation, 3M in lawsuits over PFAF contamination and the NCAA in an antitrust class action by current and former college athletes seeking income from their names, images and likeness. That case is pending before Judge Claudia Ann Wilken in Oakland. In re College Athlete NIL Litigation, 4:20-cv-03919 (N.D. Cal, filed June 15, 2020).

Wilkinson is used to working on big cases. As a relatively junior U.S. attorney in 1991-92, she helped prosecute Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. Five years later, she made the closing argument urging the death penalty for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Recently, Wilkinson has noticed a shift in the civil cases she tries. "I used to do almost all jury trials," she said. "Now ... government agency cases have become very significant."

A current example is the FTC's recent move to block Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc. The commission alleges the deal -- the largest ever for Microsoft and for the video gaming industry -- would empower the company to suppress competitors to the Xbox and its cloud-gaming business.

Wilkinson is Microsoft's lead attorney for the Aug. 2 trial before an FTC administrative law judge and any later appeals to the full commission or a federal appellate court. In the Matter of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, 9412 (FTC, filed Dec. 8, 2022).

She has already handled a different antitrust trial before the same FTC judge, representing the big tobacco company Altria when the commission sought to unwind the company's $12.8 billion investment in Juul.

She won before the judge. In September, she defended the win in the appeal before the full commission. In the Matter of Altria Group Inc. and Juul Labs, 9393 (FTC, filed April 1, 2020).

Wilkinson also is defending Altria in civil lawsuits attacking the investment and in the multidistrict litigation pending in San Francisco against Juul. In Re: Juul Labs Inc. Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

That's my role: I tried the case the FTC brought against them and won that here, and now I'm the lead trial counsel for the cases in San Francisco," she said.

In yet another large class action, with potential damages in the billions, she and her partners are defending the National Football League's deal with DirecTV that plaintiffs complain requires viewers to buy an expensive package of games to watch just one. Her partner Rakesh Kilaru will argue against class certification later this month. But if the case goes to trial as scheduled in February 2024, Wilkinson will be lead.