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, as well as merger review, 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'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. He was on the trial team for the defense in the U.S. v. H&R Block merger litigation, and recently successfully tried a monopolization case in the Southern District of New York. 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 recently 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 Attorney General 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.
Some of Mr. Stock's recent representations include:
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 financial industry benchmarks;
Leading the defense of a European pharmaceutical company against a lawsuit filed against it in the S.D.N.Y. by a competitor alleging monopolization of certain drug markets;
Representing a technology company in connection with competition-related disputes with its competitors throughout the country;
Representing a major telecommunications company in civil antitrust litigation; and
Advising health care clients on the antitrust aspects of potential M&A transactions.
Examples of other 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.
Mr. Stock 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. He is also Co-Chair of the Insurance and Financial Services Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association. He was named among the Top 40 antitrust lawyers under age 40 worldwide by Global Competition Review in 2012, and one of the top 10 Rising Stars in Antitrust (U.S. only) by Law360 in 2010.
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 Harvard Law School in 1998.
