Sima Namiri-Kalantari 

Sima Namiri-Kalantari’s work has often involved translating difficult or technical concepts for non-specialists. Between college and law school, she worked as an IT consultant, helping programmers and users understand each other.

A former economics major, she does much the same now in her antitrust cases, translating experts’ reports and testimony about econometrics and regression analyses for laypeople.

“I can speak expert, so to speak,” Namiri-Kalantari said. “It makes it easier for me to interact with them, but also then to take what experts are saying and make it something that a layperson can understand.”

Last month, she was part of a team that helped win a defense verdict for a company accused of monopolizing the market for sheet wave machines used to create surfing conditions far from the ocean. She cross-examined one of the plaintiff company’s expert witnesses. “That was really fun, and it seemed like I had the jury quite engaged during that process.” Pacific Surf Designs Inc. v. Whitewater West Industries Ltd., 3:20-cv-01464 (S.D. Cal., filed July 29, 2020).

Attorneys from Buchalter were the primary defense team, but Namiri-Kalantari and other Crowell & Moring lawyers were brought in for their antitrust expertise, she said.

For one somewhat unusual matter that she handled last year, Namiri-Kalantari represented Arrow Electronics and Ingram Micro as they responded to subpoenas as witnesses for multidistrict litigation over computer hard drives. She negotiated with plaintiffs’ counsel to limit the quantity of data and documents her two clients had to find and turn over.

“It can usually be a huge expense for companies to be third parties like this in a class action,” she said. “I was able to … limit the amount of work that the clients had to do.” In re: Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assemblies Antitrust Litigation, 3:19-md-02918 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 8, 2019).

Namiri-Kalantari is also part of the team defending an aircraft engine company in a class action alleging it had a “no-poach” agreement with some other companies in violation of antitrust laws. She helps lead strategy and expert work, she said.

Perhaps her favorite work is counseling clients about antitrust laws and enforcement. “There are a lot of moving parts right now in antitrust [concerning] what the DOJ and FTC are willing to pursue,” she said. That makes counseling clients “really interesting and challenging work.”

In a very different sort of case, Namiri-Kalantari represents a former Afghani judge and women’s rights advocate now seeking asylum in the U.S. She was finally able to get the client an interview 10 months ago, but they are still waiting for the formal response. “We’re trying everything we can,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to see how much waiting has affected her life and her ability to work.”

—Don DeBenedictis