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LA JOLLA - Jarod M. Bona founded the antitrust boutique Bona Law PC in 2014 in La Jolla and has now established additional offices in New York, Detroit, Dallas and Minneapolis. He acts as CEO; the firm employs 14 other attorneys.

Earlier, after collecting his JD cum laude at Harvard Law School, Bona clerked for Judge James B. Loken of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and, for a decade, at DLA Piper.

"I saw an opportunity to do antitrust work in a more efficient, more effective fashion," he said. "I know markets, and we could offer better rates, pay close attention to our clients and see matters from their business perspective. You don't need a giant law firm to practice antitrust law. At first, it was just me, but now we are fully staffed with attorneys with deep antitrust experience. And we compete very directly with big firms."

In October 2022, the California Attorney General's office retained Bona Law to serve as co-counsel in a major price-fixing suit against three multinational gasoline companies.

The complaint alleges the defendants conspired to raise prices to take advantage of market disruptions following a 2015 explosion at a refinery in Torrance. People of the State of California v. Vitol Inc.; SK Energy Americas Inc.; SK Trading International Co. Ltd. et al., CGC20584456 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed May 4, 2020).

"They hired us to utilize our expertise," Bona said. "This is a first for us. We're currently nearing the end of discovery, and the defendants' demurrer has been denied."

In May 2022, Bona and co-counsel added claims in an amended complaint on behalf of client tax consulting and software development company Lucasys Inc. against alleged monopolist PowerPlan, Inc., the maker of utility management software.

The complaint alleged that the defendant maintains its monopoly in part by asserting sham trade secret misappropriation claims; a court dismissed PowerPlan's trade secret counterclaims against Bona's client. Lucasys Inc. v. PowerPlan Inc., 1:20-cv- 02987 (N.D. Ga., filed July 17, 2020).

"Damages in this case could treble to $47 million," Bona said. He added: "Bona Law is a boutique antitrust firm that competes with Biglaw for antitrust work. We are not a plaintiff-side or class action shop like some of the other firms our size that do antitrust. In that way, we are unique. When we are on the defense side of an antitrust class action, we are often the only non-big-law firm."