Beth Wilkinson

When Microsoft announced two years ago that it would acquire Activision Blizzard, it reasonably suspected there might be some resistance.

"They hired us the day after the deal was announced," said Beth Wilkinson, who became the company's lead trial counsel for the matter. It was a good choice by Microsoft. Fifteen months later, the Federal Trade Commission sued to stop the $69 billion merger. And two weeks after that, Wilkinson ably defeated the FTC's preliminary injunction motion in a five-day trial. Federal Trade Commission v. Microsoft Corp., 3:23-cv-02880 (N.D. Cal., filed June 12, 2023).

She won a ruling from the Ninth Circuit just four days later refusing to change a part of the trial judge's decision.

Wilkinson and her law firm just do trials, she said. These days, about three-quarters of her cases are antitrust matters. In just a month, she starts trial in a multibillion-dollar antitrust case defending the NFL and its Sunday Ticket package. In re: National Football League's Sunday Ticket Antitrust Litigation, 2:15-ml-02668 (C.D. Cal., filed Dec. 10, 2015).

The plaintiffs assert that the package, which lets purchasers watch all the league's games rather than only their home team's games, is too costly but that it would be cheaper if the NFL offered the games on multiple distribution channels.

In another antitrust matter, Wilkinson also represents meatpacking company Cargill Inc. in putative class actions alleging an industrywide scheme to fix beef prices. She said there could be multiple trials from that litigation. In Re: Cattle and Beef Antitrust Litigation, 0:22-md-03031 (D. Minn., filed: June 3, 2022).

She also handles non-antitrust matters. The firm is lead counsel for 3M in PFAS litigation and is representing Plaid Inc. in a trade secrets case.

Wilkinson is lead trial counsel for tobacco giant Altria Group in the nationwide e-cigarette fraud and injury litigation. Last spring, she defended the company over its involvement with Juul Labs in a bellwether trial that she said "went really well." Just before the defense case was to begin, the plaintiffs agreed to settle the litigation for $235 million. "I guess I would say their case didn't go as well as they had hoped," Wilkinson said. In Re: Juul Labs Inc., Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, 3:19-md-02913 (N.D. Cal., filed Oct. 2, 2019).

Wilkinson said she much prefers trials to any other kind of legal work. "I like all the different levels of challenges," including persuading juries and writing motions. "And then just the excitement of being in the courtroom and working with the team instead of just sitting in your office.

"I've never had a trial that wasn't interesting."

-- Don DeBenedictis