Eric J. Stock is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Mr. Stock’s practice focuses on antitrust litigation and investigations, especially for clients in the pharmaceutical, financial services, high tech, and health care industries. He is a member of Gibson Dunn’s Antitrust and Competition and Litigation Practice Groups.

Mr. Stock has been recognized as a leading antitrust lawyer by publications such as Chambers USA, Global Competition Review, The Best Lawyers in America®, and Law360.   Global Competition Review named him as one of the top Future Leaders in competition law globally under age 45 (2017), and earlier, as one of the top antitrust lawyers under age 40 (2012). He was previously named by Law360 as one of the top 10 Rising Stars in Antitrust in the U.S. (2010). He has been described by publications as “extremely knowledgeable in the antitrust space” (Chambers USA) and a “high profile name” in antitrust (Global Competition Review).

Mr. Stock’s practice involves all aspects of antitrust enforcement, including civil and criminal government investigations, merger clearance, and working with international regulators. He frequently is responsible for coordinating a client’s response to antitrust and competition law investigations and litigation in multiple proceedings and jurisdictions. He has extensive experience litigating class actions and other civil antitrust cases in federal court, including defending clients accused of unlawful monopolization, collusion, and anticompetitive transactions. Mr. Stock has particular experience counseling and litigating matters where a client faces antitrust scrutiny as a result of its defense of its intellectual property rights.

Mr. Stock’s litigation experience includes several significant antitrust trials. In 2014, Mr. Stock served as the lead trial lawyer in a pharmaceutical monopolization case in the Southern District of New York. Mr. Stock’s success at trial was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Mr. Stock also served on the trial team for the defense in the U.S. v. H&R Block merger litigation.

Mr. Stock served for three years as Chief of the Antitrust Bureau at the New York Attorney General’s Office (“NYAG”). In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the enforcement of New York State’s antitrust laws and representing the interests of New York and its consumers in national antitrust matters. During Mr. Stock’s tenure at NYAG, he served as lead counsel and lead trial attorney for New York in several noteworthy antitrust litigation matters and supervised dozens of antitrust investigations led by the state. He also had extensive experience partnering with the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission in joint federal and state investigations of proposed mergers or other business conduct. For example, he served as lead counsel for New York in the successful joint lawsuit brought by New York and the U.S. Department of Justice challenging an allegedly anticompetitive merger of Manhattan tour bus operators.

During his time at NYAG, Mr. Stock regularly worked with other state AG offices throughout the country on antitrust or related complex business litigation issues. In addition, in early 2016, Mr. Stock served as NYAG’s Acting Executive Deputy Attorney General for Economic Justice, a position which supervises much of the office’s business-related affirmative litigation, including cases filed under the Martin Act and state deceptive practices laws.

Mr. Stock has recently achieved several important victories for his clients. In a class action brought by purchasers of Eurodollar futures against financial institutions accused of manipulating the LIBOR benchmark, Mr. Stock deposed plaintiffs’ lead economist, led the briefing in opposition to class certification, and argued the class certification motion. The Court denied class certification. In a recent action brought against a European pharmaceutical company and two co-defendants by a competitor alleging unlawful monopolization of several drug markets, the District Court dismissed the action on the pleadings.

Other examples of Mr. Stock’s recent representations include:

Financial Services

• Representing a major European financial institution in the defense of more than a dozen class actions filed in the S.D.N.Y. alleging manipulation of various interest rate, foreign exchange, and precious metals benchmarks.

Pharmaceuticals

• Representing a major branded pharmaceutical company in an antitrust action filed against it by a competitor alleging unlawful bundled discounts and exclusive dealing.
• Representing a major branded pharmaceutical company in an antitrust class action alleging an unlawful “reverse payment” patent settlement.

High Tech and Health Care

• Representing a major telecommunications company in a civil antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
• Assisting health care clients seeking FTC clearance of M&A transactions.

Examples of antitrust matters that Mr. Stock has litigated during his time in private practice and government include United States and New York v. Twin America, LLC et al., Civ. No. 12-8989 (S.D.N.Y.) (antitrust challenge to consummated merger of tour bus companies); New York v. Actavis plc et al., Civ. No. 14-7473 (S.D.N.Y.) (product hopping antitrust lawsuit); In re Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litig., 06-MD-1775 (E.D.N.Y) (class actions and investigations concerning alleged collusion in air cargo industry); In re Packaged Ice Antitrust Litig., 08-MD 1952 (E.D. Mich) (class actions alleging collusion in packaged ice industry); and IBM v Platform Solutions, Inc., Civ. No. 06-13565 (S.D.N.Y.) (antitrust dispute between IBM and competitors that sought to emulate IBM’s mainframe computers).

Earlier in his career, Mr. Stock was an antitrust litigation partner at another major international law firm. He is a past Chair and current Executive Committee member of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association; he previously served as the Section’s Vice Chair, Secretary and Financial Officer. Mr. Stock serves as Co-Chair of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association.

Mr. Stock served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Allen Schwartz in the Southern District of New York. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1998.