Jason S. Hartley

SAN DIEGO - Jason S. Hartley serves as managing partner of the firm he founded in 2018, Hartley LLP, to litigate commercial contingency matters asserting antitrust, unfair competition and class action claims. His 10-attorney boutique has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of victims and has been appointed lead class counsel and served in senior litigation roles in dozens of cases.

Earlier, he was the managing partner at Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP's San Diego office. Hartley said his firm is booming. "I was wrong in 2020 when I said business couldn't be busier."

Hartley has played major roles in recent antitrust cases involving capacitors, generic pharmaceuticals, packaged seafood products and the gas refining industry.

Hartley was appointed co-lead counsel for class members alleging price fixing in the automotive sheet metal parts aftermarket. The case settled recently for more than $33 million. Fond du Lac Bumper Exchange Inc. v Jui Li Enterprise Co. Ltd. et al., 2:09-cv-00852 (E.D. Wis., filed Sept. 4, 2009).

He was appointed co-lead counsel for the purchasing class in a major price-fixing class action against the country's largest beef processors: Tyson Foods, Inc., National Beef Packing Co. LLC, JBS S.A. and Cargill Inc. In re Cattle and Beef Antitrust Litigation, 20-cv- 01319 (D. Minn., filed June 6, 2020).

Among Hartley's clients: Central Grocers Inc. The defendants are accused of coordinating supply restrictions to artificially increase the price of beef in a U.S. commercial market worth several billion dollars annually. In February 2022, JBS announced that it would pay $52.5 million to partly settle its part of the case.

"I consider that an icebreaker settlement," Hartley said.

Hartley was appointed co-lead counsel in a chemical industry multi-district case involving claims of price-fixing of a polyurethane that is ubiquitous in everyday products involving foam, plastics adhesives, elastomers and coatings. The chemical is a precursor for the manufacture of the products. The complaint alleges a conspiracy to reduce supply and increase the price of the chemical. In re Diisocyanates Antitrust Litigation, 2:18-mc-01001 (W.D. Penn., filed Oct. 10, 2018).

"We're in discovery," Hartley said. "The chemical is part of a $1 billion annual market."

In an anti-poaching case, Hartley was appointed co-lead counsel targeting the tax preparer Jackson Hewitt Inc. The defendant allegedly conspired with its franchisees not to hire each others' employees -- a scheme that may have affected tens of thousands of tax preparers around the U.S. whose wages and mobility were diminished. Robinson et al. v. Jackson Hewitt Inc. et al., 2:19-cv-09066 (D. N.J., filed March 28, 2019).