Our runners up for Litigator of the Week include Cravath Swaine & Moore partners Peter Barbur, Rory Leraris, Evan Chesler and Kevin Orsini. They prevailed on behalf of American Express Co., convincing U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in the Eastern District of New York to shut down an antitrust suit brought by two putative classes of merchant plaintiffs.
Garaufis ruled that the merchant plaintiffs who accept AmEx cards must individually arbitrate their complaints about the company’s anti-steering provisions, which bar merchants from discouraging customers from using an AmEx card at the point of sale. As for the merchants who don’t accept AmEx, the judge granted the Cravath team’s motion to dismiss their claims.
