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Alexander Okuliar

Counsel


Alexander Okuliar is a counsel in O’Melveny's Washington, DC office and a member of the Antitrust/Competition Practice.  He is involved in both the firm’s litigation and regulatory practices, with a focus on antitrust private damages actions, class action lawsuits, complex commercial litigation, cartel investigations, antitrust counseling, agency merger investigations, and appellate work.  Alex has extensive experience representing major corporations in both private party litigation and in government investigations.

Illustrative Professional Experience

  • Asiana Airlines, Inc. in In re Korean Air Lines Co., Ltd. (C.D. Cal.), a putative class action brought by airline passengers alleging that the defendants conspired to fix prices on tickets for air travel between the United States and Korea.
  • Asiana Airlines, Inc. in In re Air Cargo Antitrust Litigation (E.D.N.Y.), a putative class action brought by freight forwarders and others alleging that the defendant air cargo carriers conspired to fix prices on global air cargo transportation services.
  • Capital One Financial in American Express v. Visa, et al. (S.D.N.Y.), an action brought by American Express against the payment card networks and issuing banks alleging that the defendants conspired to prevent American Express from competing in the network services market.
  • Capital One Financial in In re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation (MDL 1720, E.D.N.Y.), a putative class action brought by merchants against Visa, MasterCard and issuing banks alleging that the defendants conspired to set the fee that merchants pay for accepting credit cards.
  • Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation in the Department of Justice investigation of its sale to Univision. 
  • Hynix Semiconductor Inc. in In re Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.), an action in which plaintiffs allege that semiconductor manufacturers fixed the prices for DRAM over a multi-year period.
  • Honeywell International Inc. in monopolization cases under the state law of California, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont involving home thermostats in which plaintiffs allege Honeywell monopolized a market consisting solely of round-shaped thermostats.
  • Humana, Inc. in Weintraub v. Ingenix et al. (D. Conn.), an action involving a claim of price fixing and RICO violations.
  • Mesa Air Group, Inc. in Aloha Airlines, Inc. et al. v. Mesa Air Group, Inc. et al. (D. Haw.), an action in which the plaintiff alleges that defendant engaged in predatory pricing in violation of Sherman Act Section 2.

Professional Activities

Law Intern, Honorable Curtis L. Collier, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee
Author, 2008 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (forthcoming 2009) (contributor); Antitrust Evidence Handbook, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (forthcoming 2009) (contributor); Antitrust Law Developments, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (6th ed. 2007) (contributor); Premerger Notification Practice Manual, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (4th ed. 2007) (contributor); Premerger Notification Practice Manual, ABA Section of Antitrust Law (3d ed. 2003) (contributor)
Co-Author, "State Antitrust Lawsuits: a Good Way to Balance Costs and Incentives for Patented Drugs?" Legal Backgrounder (June 2008); "Without Presumptions: Rigorous Analysis in Class Certification Proceedings," (with Ian Simmons and Nilam A. Sanghvi), 21 Antitrust 3 (Summer 2007); "Extending the Reach of the Antitrust Police," Mergers & Acquisitions, The Dealmaker's Journal (July 2004) (with William Vigdor); "Characterization of Health Care Receivables: Are Post-Petition Receivables Subject to Pre-Petition Liens as ‘Proceeds' or ‘Rents' Under the Bankruptcy Code, or Are They Excluded as After-Acquired Property?," The American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review (2000) (with Samuel Stricklin).
Member, American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust Law

Representative Experience

Asiana Airlines
O'Melveny represents Asiana Airlines, Inc. (Asiana) in two consolidated MDL proceedings concerning allegations of price fixing, one in the Central District of California involving passenger tickets and the other in the Eastern District of New York relating to air cargo rates. In the passenger proceeding, the plaintiffs brought claims under 28 state laws and purported to represent a putative class of indirect purchasers—those buying their tickets from the United States to Korea through travel agents or ticket consolidators. We recently achieved dismissal of these claims in a decision that resolved a highly-contested area of statutory interpretation. The widely publicized ruling was the first in 16 years to address directly whether the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) preempts certain state law claims against foreign air carriers. See In re Korean Airlines Antitrust Litigation, ___ F. Supp.2d ___ (C.D. Cal. 2008), 2008 WL 2893666

Vanderbilt University, J.D., 1999:  Managing Editor, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law; Raymond I. Paul Scholar; Dean’s List; Vanderbilt Scholastic Excellence Award

University of Pennsylvania, B.S., Economics and B.A., History, 1995:  Editorial Staff Member, The Daily Pennsylvanian; Ford Foundation Research Grant


District of Columbia; Texas