Kathryn K. Conde is a partner in the Litigation Department, chair of the Antitrust practice group and co-chair of the Data Security Breach and Privacy Law group, as well as a member of the firm's Hiring Committee. She practices in the areas of general commercial litigation with expertise in antitrust, privacy and data security breaches and all varieties of business torts, including trademark and copyright matters.
Antitrust Litigation
Kathryn’s antitrust experience includes counseling and litigation in civil and criminal matters. Companies rely on her advice to reduce antitrust risk in all areas of their business - from pricing and distribution to joint ventures and mergers to compliance and government investigations. She has significant experience advising on cross-border joint ventures and antitrust issues relating to the licensing of intellectual property. She also represents companies and individuals in civil and criminal antitrust investigations by the state or federal governments.
Kathryn’s antitrust litigation experience ranges from large-scale class-actions in multi-district litigation to suits affecting local and regional companies. She is knowledgeable about all aspects of class-action litigation and experienced working with multiple plaintiffs counsel on parallel class actions to minimize cost to defendants. Her antitrust litigation clients have included companies in the computer, publishing, high-tech, food-services and health care industries.
In her antitrust counseling and litigation work, Kathryn draws upon her prior experience as an economic analyst for an economic consulting firm, where she assisted in the preparation of expert economic testimony for regulatory approval of mergers and in antitrust and intellectual property litigation. She brings this experience to bear by working closely with economic experts where appropriate and by taking a real-world, market-based approach to assessing antitrust risk and identifying creative business options.
Data Security and Privacy
Kathryn also represents companies on data security and privacy matters - satisfying notice requirements, responding to inquiries from government agencies and preparing for and minimizing litigation risk. She counsels companies in the banking, mortgage lending, consulting and retail industries on privacy and data security issues arising from employee theft of personal information, stolen laptop computers and external computer system compromises. Kathryn has experience working with forensics companies to respond to data security breaches with a view to potential litigation and dealing with affected business partners, including merchant banks, credit card processors and credit card companies.
Litigation
Kathryn also litigates a broad range of business torts and complex commercial disputes in state and federal courts and in arbitrations. She represents businesses in all types of business tort matters, including trademark and copyright infringement, trade defamation, RICO, unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation, and breaches of non-competition and non-disclosure agreements. She has experience representing shareholders and partners in close corporation and partnership disputes and representing companies in complex contractual disputes.
Kathryn’s recent representative litigation matters include:
representing a manufacturer in vitamin price-fixing conspiracy cases in state and federal court
representing companies in the health care and fishing industries to respond to grand jury or civil subpoenas in antitrust and Medicare fraud investigations
defending a publisher of college text books in a federal price discrimination suit
defending a lighting distributor against price discrimination and RICO claims
representing a radiation oncology service provider in a boycott case
representing manufacturers in the medical devices industry in cases involving terminated distributors
representing a commercial landlord in a constructive eviction case
representing a high-tech company in a dispute arising from the earn-out provision of an acquisition agreement
representing a manufacturer in a dispute arising from a toll manufacturing agreement
representing shareholders in the real estate and transportation industries in shareholder derivative and freeze-out matters
representing companies to defend or prosecute non-competition claims
representing a magazine publisher to enforce its trademark rights against a new entrant
defending a wholesale club company against copyright infringement claims and obtaining judgment for the company against its independent contractor under Chapter 93A
Kathryn is an active member of the Boston and the American Bar Associations and serves as co-chair of the Boston Bar Association Antitrust Committee of the Business Law Section. She is a contributor to the chapter on Massachusetts antitrust law in State Antitrust Practice and Statutes, published by the ABA Section of Antitrust Law.
Her pro bono work has included appellate briefs on First Amendment issues and work on behalf of the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
The Legal 500, a prominent and comprehensive guide to the legal market in over 100 countries, named Kathryn to the 2009 edition of The Legal 500 United States noting “Kathryn Conde’s solid background in economics is appreciated by clients.”