David C. Kiernan

David Kiernan is an accomplished trial lawyer who has litigated antitrust and unfair business practice cases, class actions, public nuisance, climate change, joint venture disputes, and bankruptcy matters throughout the United States. He has represented clients in the tech, energy, health care, consumer brand manufacturing, digital advertising, and railroad industries and routinely counsels clients on antitrust and competition law issues related to licensing, interoperability, refusal to deal, discounting, bundling, and pricing.

David recently led the defense of Sutter Health, a hospital system in Northern California, in an antitrust class action alleging that Sutter restrained competition by allegedly forcing insurers to include certain hospitals in their provider networks and forbidding them from steering patients to other hospitals. After a month-long trial, the jury returned a unanimous defense verdict and rejected plaintiffs' claims for $1.2 billion in post-trebled damages. In addition, David led the defense of Marathon Petroleum in obtaining summary judgment in an antitrust class action in which plaintiffs alleged that Marathon and other major refiners conspired to reduce supply and thus inflate the price of gasoline and sought $72 billion in treble damages.

His other recent matters include representing the American Bankers Association in an antitrust class action challenging standard setting for financial identifiers; a tech company in a class action challenging licensing restrictions and lack of interoperability; a consumer brand manufacturer in a public nuisance action seeking to hold manufacturers liable for marine plastic pollution; and a fossil fuel company in climate change litigation. David also has a wealth of experience in antitrust class actions alleging "no-poach" agreements between competing employers.

David is also head of litigation for the San Francisco Office.