Sarah Neuman is a Partner at Wilkinson Stekloff. Since joining the firm in 2017, she has been a member of numerous winning trial teams, including most recently the firm’s groundbreaking victory for Microsoft, defeating the FTC’s efforts to enjoin its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and winning the second-biggest merger trial in American history. Sarah played a key strategic role with economic experts who testified during the five-day bench trial, following which a federal judge denied the FTC’s motion for preliminary injunction, with the deal closing shortly thereafter. The Ninth Circuit later unanimously affirmed the district court’s decision, and the FTC dismissed its Part 3 administrative complaint.
Sarah was also a member of the trial team that secured a complete defense verdict in a multi-state consumer fraud class action involving Bayer’s One A Day multivitamins, where plaintiffs alleged that Bayer made false, misleading, and deceptive statements. At trial, the defense rested without calling a single witness and the jury deliberated just over an hour before returning their verdict.
Currently, Sarah serves as a lead member of the team defending Cargill, one of the largest beef producers in the United States, in a series of civil antitrust cases alleging a conspiracy to constrain beef output. She has also been integral to the firm’s representation of industry-leading companies in multiple confidential merger matters at the prelitigation phase.
In recognition of her success, Chambers and Partners has identified Sarah as “Up and Coming” among Antitrust Litigation Specialists, and Legal 500 recommends her for antitrust litigation. In addition, Bloomberg Law honored her among their “Top 40 Under 40,” Benchmark Litigation included her on their “40 & Under” list, and the National Law Journal has named her a D.C. “Rising Star.”
Before joining the firm, Sarah served as a law clerk to Judge Julie E. Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and then-Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Sarah graduated from The University of Chicago Law School, where she was the Executive Editor of The University of Chicago Law Review.
Sarah’s other notable representations include:
- Member of the trial teams that won the first two state-court bellwether trials involving Xarelto in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas. After the first trial, Hartman v. Janssen, the judge ruled from the bench in favor of defendants, granting judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), concluding that the plaintiff had failed to introduce sufficient evidence of causation to prevail in the case. The team won a complete defense verdict in the second trial, Russell v. Janssen, which was also the first involving failure to warn claims based on the alleged increased risk of taking Xarelto along with antiplatelet medications.
- Secured asylum for pro bono clients from Cameroon and Colombia. Led teams in both cases, developing an overwhelming factual record supporting each client’s entitlement to relief and presenting compelling argument in evidentiary hearings, delivering life-changing victories.
