Jonathan B. Pitt is Co-Chair of Williams & Connolly’s Antitrust practice group. He handles a wide variety of complex civil and criminal trial and appellate matters involving the antitrust laws, the federal securities laws, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Lanham Act, and RICO.
In the field of antitrust law, Mr. Pitt successfully represented Google in connection with the FTC’s highly publicized investigation into online search and search advertising, and a pharmaceutical manufacturer in connection with the first class action antitrust trial involving “pay-for-delay” claims after Supreme Court’s decision in FTC v. Actavis (resulting in a complete defense verdict). He has successfully defended individuals against charges of price-fixing, and a major motion picture studio against claims of monopolization and tying; served as antitrust counsel to major trade associations on issues such as standard-setting and denials of membership; has represented corporations in matters before the Federal Trade Commission; and was actively involved in the firm’s representation of the nine non-settling plaintiff States in the Microsoft antitrust case.
In other areas, Mr. Pitt has successfully represented a group of corporate executives in lawsuits alleging wrongful termination and shareholder derivative claims; has secured dismissals from multiple U.S. jurisdictions, on forum non conveniens grounds, of a major tort action based upon events allegedly occurring in Latin America; and has conducted internal corporate investigations into allegations of wrongdoing under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the federal False Claims Act, the anti-kickback laws, and the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. He has also secured the dismissal of civil RICO and Lanham Act claims in the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit (where he successfully argued the appeal on behalf of his client); and has litigated several highly contested and sensitive private disputes for individual clients, involving considerable assets.
Mr. Pitt also participates in the firm’s pro bono practice, having successfully represented an impecunious plaintiff in an NASD arbitration against a Wall Street bank (obtaining a payment thirty-three times the size of the bank's initial settlement offer); and having successfully defended a local small-business owner against a lawsuit that threatened to destroy the business.
Mr. Pitt grew up in Washington, D.C. and North Potomac, Maryland. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, in 1994 and his Master of Government Administration in 1999 from the University of Pennsylvania. After college, Mr. Pitt joined the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office of Planning and Policy as Assistant Deputy Mayor for Policy and Planning under Mayor Ed Rendell before leaving in 1997 for Yale Law School, where he received his J.D. Mr. Pitt joined Williams & Connolly in 2001 after serving as law clerk to Chief Judge Ralph K. Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Updated Sep 2024
