Daniel M. Wall is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ San Francisco Office. He previously served as Co-Chair of the Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. He is recognized as one of the leading antitrust lawyers in the United States, with a practice that covers the gamut from complex antitrust litigation, government conduct investigations, merger reviews and counseling. His specialties are single-firm conduct litigation (e.g., monopolization actions) and the application of the antitrust laws to high technology industries.
Over the past 25 years, Mr. Wall has represented some of the world's leading companies in antitrust litigation. He recently served as the defendant's lead trial counsel in United States v. Oracle Corp., the US Department of Justice challenge to Oracle's hostile tender offer for PeopleSoft, Inc. Mr. Wall's victory in that case was hailed by the National Law Journal as the "Top Defense Win of 2004." Other recent cases include representing Genentech in a challenge to a patent settlement agreement; Movielink LLC (a joint venture of five motion picture studios) in monopolization litigation; Sempra Energy in actions stemming from the California electricity crisis; INVISTA in numerous class and direct actions following a DOJ price-fixing investigation; and Varian Medical Systems in monopolization litigation. Other companies Mr. Wall has represented in antitrust matters include Intel, Eastman Kodak, Compaq Computer and DIRECTV. Mr. Wall has also represented clients in dozens of government antitrust investigations into proposed mergers, suspected anticompetitive business practices and cartels.
Mr. Wall is recommended by every significant publication ranking antitrust lawyers, including Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Legal Media Group's Expert Guide to Competition and Antitrust Lawyers, and the Global Competition Review's GCR 100.
Throughout his career, Mr. Wall has been active in the ABA's Section of Antitrust Law. He was recently named to the Section's Council for a three-year term. Previously, Mr. Wall was a founder and served four years as Editor of Antitrust magazine, was Chair of both the Computer Industry Committee and Sports and Entertainment Industry Committee, and organized and chaired The Stanford Conference on Antitrust in the Technology Economy (2003). He was a chair for The Berkeley Conference on Antitrust in the Technology Economy in June 2005. Mr. Wall is much sought after as a speaker on antitrust issues and was featured in recent seminars presented by, among others, the ABA's Antitrust Section, The Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, and the PLI. He has also authored numerous articles on the application of economic theory to antitrust issues, and on high technology antitrust.
Mr. Wall began his career as a trial lawyer in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, where he was a member of the trial team in United States v. AT&T.