“Colorado Lawyers on Growing Number of Federal Antitrust Cases,” Law Week Colorado

August 22, 2022

In an interview with Law Week Colorado, Recht Kornfeld shareholders Rick Kornfeld, David Beller and Kelly Page shared insights from the major, national chicken price-fixing trial that resulted in a full acquittal of the firm’s client. The Denver antitrust case lasted nine months with the first two trials ending in hung juries.

Yet despite a third and ultimately unsuccessful trial on behalf of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Rick, David and Kelly explained that the current DOJ remains committed to antitrust prosecutions. The Biden administration requested an increase in excess of $80 million for the DOJ’s Antitrust Division in 2023. Rick, David and Kelly explained that the poultry executive trial is an example of an aggressive antitrust DOJ.

“The Department of Justice isn’t slowing down anytime soon, even in the face of not guilty verdicts here, as well as not guilty verdicts across the country,” said Kelly. “And so, attorneys, corporations, really anybody who has potential antitrust exposure needs to be very aware of what’s happening in the litigation space.”

David added, “For many years, people have thought of antitrust as something that is unique to really large, major corporations. But the reality is, it actually applies across all industries in all size companies.”

“The Department of Justice under the Biden administration and under Merrick Garland is prioritizing antitrust,” said Rick. In the face of a recession and growing inflation rates, put simply, “antitrust is not going away any time soon,” he cautioned.

To read the full interview, please visit Law Week Colorado here.