Holly House is an experienced and highly credentialed litigator and certified mediator. Her practice focuses on antitrust and trade regulation matters as well as complex commercial disputes. Ms. House has successfully represented premier clients as both plaintiffs and defendants in myriad types of commercial, intellectual property and class action disputes, including at several notable trials.
Ms. House spent 23 years at McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enersen/Bingham McCutchen, including several years as chair of the firm’s Antitrust group, then six years as a partner at Paul Hastings, LLP. She is the past chair of the California State Bar’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law section and of the San Francisco Bar Association’s Litigation section. For the past several years, she has been selected one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” nationwide, one of the “Top 100 California Women Lawyers,” one of the top 50 women lawyers in Northern California, and a national and local “Litigation Star.” Ms. House also has been deemed one of the “Best Lawyers in America” since 2005, and a Northern California “Super Lawyer” since this peer award was first offered. In addition, Ms. House has repeatedly been named one of the top antitrust lawyers in the United States by Chambers USA, where sources single her out as “a reliable and responsive, business-savvy practitioner” and “a long-standing, diligent antitrust attorney — she commands great respect.”
EXPERIENCE
- Led defense of FactSet Research Systems, Inc. in lengthy litigation brought by Ashbury Heights Capital, LLC based on FactSet’s 2013 acquisition of Revere Data, LLC. Ashbury alleged it had a perpetual oral royalty agreement with Revere which Revere, its former owner, and FactSet had all fraudulently denied and that FactSet was continuing to improperly use Ashbury’s IP. After a three week jury trial, where Ashbury revealed damages demands of $100 million plus a request for punitives, Holly secured a total defense victory for Revere and FactSet, with Ashbury only awarded the $50k in quantum meruit damages that FactSet had proffered
- Co-counsel for Cave Consulting in Walker-Process case against OptumInsight
- Led defense team for LG Display in TFT-LCD Flat Panel Screens MDL in the Northern District of California
- Secured initial dismissal on the pleadings of claim that Sara Lee engaged in per se price fixing and territorial allocation with its distributors
- Represented Blackberry in arbitrations challenging bona fides of resolution of patent litigation
- Led the damages effort and on trial team for Oracle Corporation that yielded a $1.3 billion verdict against SAP AG, SAP America and TomorrowNow for improper infringement and misuse of Oracle’s proprietary service and support software; this was the largest jury verdict of 2010 and the largest copyright verdict ever
- Represented IKON Office Solutions in antitrust actions brought by independent servicer competitors who are complaining about IKON’s leasing practices and pursuing single-brand aftermarket domination claims
- Assisted in defense of Intel Corporation in civil purported antitrust class actions related to Intel’s and other Silicon Valley companies’ hiring practices
- Was on team representing Anadarko Petroleum in connection with Louisiana oil spill litigation against BP
- Represented SanDisk Corp. in antitrust litigation in EDVA “rocket docket” seeking determination that MPEG patent pool was anti-competitive
- Defended luxury goods conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy – Louis Vuitton and international trading giant Mitsui Co. Ltd. (and its subsidiaries) in complex multidistrict price-fixing litigations involving prestige cosmetics and the food additive methionine
- Key member of team that represented Oracle Corporation in California state action brought by PeopleSoft in connection with PeopleSoft’s efforts to avoid acquisition by Oracle
- Member of team which represented California Department of Water Resources (DWR) in dispute with energy supplier Sempra stemming from the California energy crisis; arbitration panel awarded $75 million to DWR in the first phase of the dispute
- Lead counsel for high-tech storage company Adaptec Inc. in dispute with company it had acquired yielding client $53+ million arbitration result
- Part of teams which represented electronic payment company First Data Corporation in actions brought by DOJ to block acquisition of Concord and investigating practices of subsidiary Western Union
- Secured $50 million settlement for national real estate developer suing Indian tribe over casino development
- Represented Covad Communications in its successful battles to compete in the dynamic broadband market, including $30 million arbitration result against SBC Communications
- Defended National Football League in a heated dispute with Oakland Raiders involving intellectual property, contract, derivative and other claims summary; adjudication for NFL granted
- Defended Eastman Kodak in all stages of ITS v. Kodak, a groundbreaking antitrust suit brought by independent service organizations regarding access to service parts that included several appeals (including to the U.S. Supreme Court) and a jury trial
- Represented Frito-Lay Inc. against suit brought by California Attorney General under Proposition 65
- Represented insurance company in defense against claims for reimbursement from Portland Archdiocese for myriad clergy sexual misconduct actions by victims
