December 21, 2022
The U.S. Department of Justice suffered a string of stinging setbacks in criminal antitrust cases this year but also extracted guilty pleas in emerging areas of enforcement, while private antitrust parties saw key rulings on patent and class issues.
June 15, 2022
A Colorado federal judge on Wednesday ordered DaVita to return rather than destroy confidential documents produced by the U.S. Department of Justice in its failed criminal no-poach case against the dialysis giant, giving a minor win to follow-on civil plaintiffs who hoped the documents would be preserved for possible use in their litigation.
June 02, 2022
When a Colorado federal judge greenlighted the U.S. Department of Justice's first criminal trial over alleged deals to restrict worker mobility between rivals, the DOJ touted it as an important recognition that labor-side antitrust violations can warrant prison time. But defense attorneys in the case say the ruling could actually make such prosecutions harder to win.
April 22, 2022
Two recent high-profile trials included an unusual move by defense counsel to save their opening argument for after the prosecution's case, a bold tactic one of the attorneys told Law360 can catch the government off guard and provide a midtrial chance to speak persuasively to jurors.
April 15, 2022
A Colorado federal jury on Friday acquitted DaVita Inc. and its former chief executive on all counts of conspiring with three other companies to suppress competition in the market for employees, handing the U.S. Department of Justice a second consecutive high-profile loss in its crackdown on employment-related antitrust crimes.
April 13, 2022
Federal antitrust prosecutors closed out a groundbreaking employment antitrust case against DaVita and its former chief Wednesday with a fiery declaration that the dialysis behemoth "stole opportunities" from employees through the emotional pressure of a CEO's "feelings."
April 12, 2022
Dialysis giant DaVita's former CEO gave his opening argument Tuesday minutes after prosecutors rested their case alleging that he and the company struck no-poach agreements with rivals, exhorting jurors to focus on the executive's "intent" and to be wary of witnesses whose testimony they had watched and who had "axes to grind."
April 08, 2022
The co-founder of a radiology company told a Denver federal jury Friday he agreed to hobble his company's recruiting from dialysis chain DaVita, even while acknowledging he remained close with the chain's indicted former CEO and calling his testimony "personally painful."
April 06, 2022
A former health care CEO told a Denver federal jury Wednesday he struck an agreement not to poach executives of DaVita Inc., describing a history of perceived threats by its then-CEO that made him leery of landing on the dialysis behemoth's bad side.
April 04, 2022
Prosecutors for the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday kicked off their case against kidney dialysis center operator DaVita and its former CEO, telling a Colorado federal court they "cheated" by forming agreements with competitors not to solicit employees from each other.