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 investigations and civil litigation in multiple jurisdictions and proceedings. 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. 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 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 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 in the District Court. The District Court denied class certification, and Mr. Stock successfully defended the decision in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. 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:

Pharmaceuticals

• Representing major branded pharmaceutical companies in antitrust class actions alleging unlawful “reverse payment” patent settlements (ongoing)
• Representing a major branded pharmaceutical company in an antitrust action filed against it by a competitor alleging unlawful bundled discounts and exclusive dealing (motion to dismiss granted)
• Assisting a branded pharmaceutical manufacturer in obtaining FTC clearance of several important acquisitions (clearance granted).

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 and foreign exchange benchmarks (ongoing).
• Representing a major European financial institution in defending class actions filed in the S.D.N.Y. alleging manipulation of precious metals benchmarks (motion to dismiss granted).

High Tech and Health Care

• Represented major telecommunications company in a civil antitrust lawsuit brought against it by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (resolved).
• Representing several major New York hospital systems defending antitrust litigation brought against them by a rival hospital (motion to dismiss granted).

Examples of antitrust litigation matters that Mr. Stock is currently litigating, or litigated previously during his time in private practice and government include: In re Zetia (Ezetimibe) Antitrust Litig., 18-MD-02836 (E.D. Va.) (class action alleging unlawful “reverse payment” patent settlement between Merck and generic manufacturer); Shire US, Inc. v. Allergan, Inc. et al., 17-7716 (D.N.J.) (competitor lawsuit alleging Allergan monopolized drug market by bundling and exclusive dealing practices); In re Restasis Antitrust Litigation, 18-MD-2819 (S.D.N.Y.) (class action alleging Allergan monopolized drug market through patent and regulatory actions); In Re: Libor-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litig., 11-MD-0262 (S.D.N.Y.) (class action against banks alleged to have manipulated Libor benchmark); In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litig., 13-CV-07789 (S.D.N.Y.) (class action against banks alleged to have manipulated foreign exchange markets); In re Commodity Exchange, Inc. Gold Futures and Options Trading Litigation, 14-MD-2548 (S.D.N.Y.) (class action against banks alleged to have manipulated precious metals benchmark); U.S. v. AT&T Corp. et al., 17-cv-02511 (D.D.C.) (government antitrust lawsuit seeking to block AT&T/Time Warner transaction); Beltran, et al v. Interexchange, Inc., et al, 14-CV-03074 (D. Col.) (class action against au pair agencies alleged to have fixed au pair stipend levels); United States and New York v. Twin America, LLC et al., Civ. No. 12-8989 (S.D.N.Y.) (government antitrust lawsuit seeking to undo consummated merger of Manhattan tour bus companies); New York v. Actavis plc et al., Civ. No. 14-7473 (S.D.N.Y.) (government challenge to alleged pharmaceutical “product hopping”); 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.