Professionals

Kit Pierson

Of Counsel

WASHINGTON, DC

practice areas

Antitrust

Overview
Cases
Awards
News

Overview

Kit A. Pierson is of counsel at Cohen Milstein and a member of the Antitrust practice. Kit has also had the honor of serving as co-chair of the Antitrust practice (2010-2017). Under his leadership, the Legal 500 recognized Cohen Milstein as a Leading Plaintiff Class Action Firm for seven consecutive years and Law360 selected the Antitrust practice as a Competition Law Practice Group of the Year in 2013 and 2014.

Kit has served as lead or co-lead counsel in many of the nation’s most significant antitrust class actions on behalf of the victims of corporations engaged in price-fixing, market monopolization and other unlawful conduct. Prior to joining Cohen Milstein in 2009, he spent more than 20 years primarily representing defendants in a broad range of complex matters. Some of the companies he represented included Microsoft Corp., 3M Corp. and other major corporations, national associations and individuals in class actions and other antitrust litigation. As a result of his experience as a defense lawyer, Kit possesses deep insight into defense strategies, understands the dynamics of the other side and is someone who has earned the respect and credibility of opposing counsel.

Kit is a hands-on litigator who has litigated and tried antitrust lawsuits and other complex civil cases in many jurisdictions, helping to win settlements and judgments cumulatively totaling more than $1.8 billion in the past several years.

A champion for civil rights, Kit has also litigated a number of high profile civil rights cases, including pro bono cases:

Ahmed v. Obama (D.D.C.): In Ahmed v. Obama, Cohen Milstein represented a young Yemeni man incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay for eight years. After conducting one of the earliest habeas corpus proceedings challenging the legality of these detentions, a federal judge ruled that Mr. Ahmed had been illegally detained and the court directed that he be granted freedom and returned to his home.
Maryland Public Information Act Litigation (Md.): Mr. Pierson was co-counsel with the Maryland Civil Liberties Union in this litigation seeking records relating to illegal surveillance and infiltration of the American Friends Service Committee and local peace and anti-death penalty organization by Maryland State police. The evidence of improper law enforcement activity secured in this litigation resulted in appointment of a former Maryland Attorney General to conduct an investigation and the subsequent enactment of the Freedom of Association and Assembly Protection Act of 2009.

Kit is also a member of the Board of Trustees for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, a national organization, and a Member of the ACLU of Maryland’s Committee on Litigation and Legal Priorities. He is also a board member of the Washington Urban Debate League.

Kit has taught Complex Litigation as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School (a class that focused primarily on legal, ethical and strategic issues presented by class action litigation) and Antitrust Class Actions as a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School (a class examining legal, ethical and strategic issues in antitrust class action litigation).

At the University of Michigan Law School, Kit was a note editor of the Michigan Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.

ADMISSIONS

District of Columbia
Maryland

EDUCATION

University of Michigan Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, 1983
Macalester College, B.A., Economics & Political Science, magna cum laude, 1979

Clerkships & Fellowships

Law Clerk, the Hon. Judge Harry T. Edwards, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1983-1984
Law Clerk, the Hon. Chief Judge John Feikens, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, 1984-1985

Cases

Current Cases

Moehrl v. National Association of Realtors, et al.

Moehrl v. National Association of Realtors, et al. (N.D. Il.): Cohen Milstein is co-lead counsel in this certified class action, in which home sellers allege that National Association of Realtors (NAR) and many of the nation's largest real estate broker franchisors of conspiring to require home sellers to pay home buyer brokers fees – and at an inflated rate. Plaintiffs allege that the conspiracy revolves around NAR’s mandatory requirement that sellers make a buyer broker commission offer when listing their home on a multiple listing service. On March 15, 2024, NAR agreed to a landmark settlement of $418 million. Pending court approval, total settlements will exceed $997.1 million.

Flint Water Crisis Litigation

Flint Water Crisis Class Action Litigation (E.D. Mich.): On November 10, 2021, the Court granted final approval of a landmark $626.25 million settlement in an ongoing environmental toxic tort class action brought on behalf of more than 90,000 Flint residents and businesses against the State of Michigan, the former Governor Rick Snyder, and other defendants for their roles in re-directing toxic levels of lead-contaminated water from the Flint River into the City of Flint’s drinking water system in an effort to save money. In total, thus far, plaintiffs have achieved $659.25 million in settlements.

Past Cases

In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation

In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation (D. Kan.): Cohen Milstein served as Co-Lead Counsel on behalf of a class of direct purchasers of urethane chemicals who were overcharged as a result of a nationwide price-fixing conspiracy. Cohen Milstein and their co-counsel prevailed at trial and obtained a judgment of $1.06 billion against Dow Chemical in 2013. Dow ultimately settled for $835 million while the case was on appeal before the Supreme Court, bringing the total recovery, including prior settlements with other defendants, to $974 million – nearly 250% of the damages found by the jury. The Honorable John W. Lungstrum, who presided over the trial, remarked: “In almost 25 years of service on the bench, this Court has not experienced a more remarkable result.”

ExxonMobil -Villagers of Aceh Litigation

John Doe I v. ExxonMobil Corporation (D.D.C.): Cohen Milstein represented eleven villagers from Aceh, Indonesia, who alleged that they or their relatives endured horrific human rights abuses, including murder, torture, sexual violence, and kidnapping, at the hands of Indonesian soldiers contracted by ExxonMobil to guard its oil operations in the region. On May 15, 2023, a week before a jury trial was to start and after 22 years of litigation, the case settled. Although the case was litigated in U.S. federal court, Indonesian law applied to Plaintiffs’ claims and was applied by the court. The case set numerous legal precedents during its 20-year history, during which it saw two trips to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals (decided January 2007 and July 2011) and one to the Supreme Court (certiorari was denied in 2008). Each time, novel issues of foreign policy impact, extraterritorial jurisdiction, and choice of law were briefed and considered by the Court of Appeals. In August 2022, months before trial, the district court largely denied ExxonMobil’s motion for summary judgment, finding most of its arguments “entirely meritless.” Cohen Milstein and co-counsel were awarded the 2024 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for the successful resolution of this case.

In re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation

In re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation (S.D.N.Y.): Cohen Milstein was co-lead counsel in a class action lawsuit alleging that Apple and five of the leading U.S. publishers conspired to raise the retail prices of e-books. Mr. Pierson led the Cohen Milstein team, which secured class certification, defeated motions to exclude the class expert, and successfully moved for exclusion of most of Apple’s expert testimony. The five publishing defendants settled for $166 million and a settlement was reached with Apple shortly before trial for an additional $450 million.

UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health, et al.

Sutter Health Antitrust Litigation (Sup. Ct., San Fran. Cty., Cal.): On August 27, 2021, the Court granted final approval of a $575 million eve-of-trial settlement, which includes significant injunctive relief, in this antitrust class action against Sutter Health, one of the largest healthcare providers in California, for restraining hospital competition through anticompetitive contracting practices with insurance companies. Cohen Milstein was one of five firms that litigated this case since 2014 on behalf of a certified class of self-insured employers and union trust funds. California’s Attorney General joined the suit in March 2018.

In re Domestic Drywall Antitrust Litigation

In re Domestic Drywall Antitrust Litigation (E.D. Pa.): Cohen Milstein initiated the investigation, filed the first complaint and then served as co-lead counsel in an antitrust litigation alleging that the seven major U.S. manufacturers of drywall conspired to raise prices. In 2015 we took the lead for the direct purchaser plaintiffs in arguing against the defendants’ summary judgment motions (which were denied by the Court for four of the five defendants). The Court granted final approval to settlements totaling $190 million.

Allen et al v. Dairy Farmers of America

Allen et al v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc. et al (D. Vt.): Cohen Milstein served as Lead Counsel for one of two subclasses of dairy farmers challenging anticompetitive conduct in the Northeast which resulted in lower prices paid to farmers. In April 2017 the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a $50 million settlement between plaintiffs and the remaining defendants, bringing the total settlement to more than $80 million, in addition to industry-changing equitable relief.

In re Pre-Filled Propane Tank Antitrust Litigation

In re Pre-Filled Propane Tank Antitrust Litigation (W.D. Mo.): Cohen Milstein served as Co-Lead Counsel to Direct Purchasers in this price fixing class action against two of the largest distributors of propane exchange tanks. In June 2020, the court granted final approval of the $12.6 million settlement. Ms. Levens drafted the successful appellate brief argued before the Eighth Circuit en banc. The Court adopted Plaintiffs’ articulation of the continuing violation doctrine and held that sales made pursuant to an anticompetitive agreement constitute new acts for purposes of determining the timeliness of a claim, thereby reviving Direct Purchasers’ antitrust claims against distributors of pre-filled propane tanks. In January 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the Eighth Circuit’s ruling, allowing it to stand.

In re Resistors Antitrust Litigation

In re Resistors Antitrust Litigation (N.D. Cal.): Cohen Milstein served as Interim Co-Lead Counsel for the direct purchasers of resisters, who accused the world’s largest manufacturers of resistors of fixing prices. In November 2019, the court granted final approval of a $50.25 million settlement – a remarkable recovery, reflecting 33% - 57% of estimated single damages according to Plaintiffs’ preliminary analysis. Estimated payments to class members would be an average payment of $46,850.64; a median payment of $768.39.

Kit Pierson

WASHINGTON, DC

practice areas

Current Cases

Moehrl v. National Association of Realtors, et al.

Flint Water Crisis Litigation

Past Cases

In re Urethane Antitrust Litigation

ExxonMobil -Villagers of Aceh Litigation

In re Electronic Books Antitrust Litigation

UFCW & Employers Benefit Trust v. Sutter Health, et al.

In re Domestic Drywall Antitrust Litigation

Allen et al v. Dairy Farmers of America

In re Pre-Filled Propane Tank Antitrust Litigation

In re Resistors Antitrust Litigation

AAI Announces 2024 Antitrust Enforcement Award Honorees

Public Justice Announces Winner of 2024 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award

Oil Giant ExxonMobil Settles Long-Running Indonesia Torture Case

Acehnese Villagers Get Compensation from ExxonMobil for Lawsuits Against Torture by Hired Indonesian Soldiers

ExxonMobil Settles Decades-Old Torture Case with Indonesian Villagers

Home Sellers Win Class Cert. for NAR Antitrust Suit

$626M Flint Deal Gets Final OK From Michigan State Judge

Poultry Workers’ $85M Wage-Fixing Deals Land Initial OK

Federal Judge Grants Final Approval of $575M Settlement Against Sutter Health

Sutter Health’s $575M Antitrust Settlement Is Final: 4 Things to Know

Judge Approves Sutter Health Antitrust Deal. What That Means for California Health Care

Tyson, Pilgrim’s, Hormel to Face Poultry Worker Wage-Fixing Suit

Poultry Giants Can’t Dodge Workers’ Wage-Fixing Suit

Big Suits: In Re Urethane Antitrust Litigation

Judge grants final approval to the BASF settlement in Urethane Antitrust MDL

MAKING AN IMPACT

A Fair Price for Polyurethanes used to Manufacture Products from Carpet Padding to Skateboard Wheels.
$974M settlement in In Re Urethane Antitrust Litigation.