Elizabeth Prewitt is a partner in the Litigation & Trial Department and a member of the Global Antitrust & Competition Practice. She focuses on managing responses to both civil and criminal government antitrust investigations.

Ms. Prewitt defends corporations and executives facing complex and often cross-border antitrust investigations initiated by US federal (DOJ), state, and foreign competition enforcement agencies. She is an experienced trial lawyer who represents companies in high-stakes antitrust litigation matters.

Prior to transitioning to private practice, Ms. Prewitt spent 16 years as a trial lawyer in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ). She served as Assistant Chief of the Antitrust Division in the New York office from 2012 to 2014 and as a Visiting International Enforcer to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition in Brussels. Ms. Prewitt is a first-chair trial counsel and two-time recipient of the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award (the DOJ’s second highest award) and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award. She was the lead prosecutor for the DOJ’s criminal antitrust cartel investigations into rigging of Libor and Forex rates and managed those investigations alongside parallel investigations by domestic and foreign competition and fraud enforcers and regulators.

Ms. Prewitt is known as a preeminent competition lawyer and has been recognized internationally by leading publications, including as a “leading lawyer” by Global Competition Review; Expert Guides: Business Law and Competition; Who’s Who Legal: Competition recognizing her as “one of the leading cartel lawyers in the US” who is praised as a “talented criminal antitrust lawyer with strong presence;” Lawdragon recognizes her as one of 500 Leading Litigators in America; The Legal 500, recognizing her for being “exceptionally knowledgeable, commercial, user-friendly and responsive;” and Chambers USA, with sources describing her as an “expert in antitrust law” and “very smart, very strategic and very user-friendly.” Most recently, Ms. Prewitt was the winner of the US Behavioral Matter of the Year award by GCR for successfully defending a poultry executive facing a criminal price fixing charge by the DOJ, serving as first-chair trial counsel over the course of 13 weeks prior to its dismissal with prejudice.

Ms. Prewitt is Co-Chair of the International Bar Association Antitrust Section’s Cartel Working Group and Vice-Chair of the Programs Committee of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section, and was elected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the David E. Rockefeller Foundation.

Ms. Prewitt’s experience includes representing a:

  • Poultry industry executive facing a criminal cartel conspiracy charge filed by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice for fixing prices and rigging bids for broiler-chicken products over an 8-year period. Throughout a seven-week trial in Denver in the fall of 2021, leading to a hung jury with nine votes to acquit, and then a six-week trial during the spring of 2022 resulting in another hung jury, the Latham team put up an aggressive defense to the government’s case and proved that our client had neither motive nor means to fix prices. The Antitrust Division then dropped the case against our client and four others with prejudice, earning our team top honors as AmLaw’s Litigator of the Week.
  • Global financial institution facing a European Commission cartel investigation into the trading of foreign exchange products
  • US pharmaceutical company facing antitrust cartel investigations by the DOJ and state’s Attorneys General and civil damages litigation in the generic pharmaceutical industry
  • US company facing DOJ investigations into hiring practices (no-poach)
  • Major European branded pharmaceutical company facing multiple state’s Attorneys General antitrust investigations and congressional inquiries into the pricing of its products
  • US company facing a DOJ criminal cartel investigation relating to hiring practices (no-poach/non-solicitation)
  • UK company facing cross-border cartel investigations by the DOJ and the CMA into price-fixing of products sold in e-commerce through algorithmic trading*
  • US entertainment services company facing a DOJ antitrust cartel and fraud investigation into bidding practices for advertising production contracts*
  • US financial institution and its foreign affiliate in cross-border DOJ and regulatory investigations of manipulation in bond markets*
  • Major financial institution facing US regulatory investigations by the CFTC and CME relating to trading practices in futures markets*

* Matter handled prior to joining Latham & Watkins

Thought Leadership

Ms. Prewitt regularly speaks and writes on regulatory trends and updates in international competition, including:

Speaking Engagements

  • Panelist, “Cartels: to file or not to file for leniency?” IBA Competition Mid-Year Conference, Tokyo (June 6, 2019)
  • Panelist, “Blunt Instrument or Surgical Blade: Is Section 2 of the Sherman Act the Right Tool to Address Financial Market Manipulation?” NYSBA Antitrust Section Conference, New York, New York (January 17, 2019)
  • Speaker, “Does Crime Pay? Cartel Fines and Damages,” ABA Antitrust Section Spring Meeting, Washington, D.C. (April 10, 2018)
  • Faculty, IBA/ABA 12th International Cartel Workshop, Paris, France (February 14, 2018)
  • Moderator, “Ears Burning? Information Sharing in Cartel Investigations,” ABA Antitrust Section Webinar (September 13, 2017)
  • Speaker, “Developments in Victim Recovery Litigation,” NYSBA International Section, Paris, France (October 20, 2016)  
  • Speaker, “Exploring Antitrust Law: Perspectives from US and International Practitioners,” ABA Antitrust Section Panel, New York, New York (October 18, 2016)
  • Panelist, “International Developments in Antitrust Litigation,” MLEX Competition Litigation Conference, London, England (September 28, 2016)
  • Faculty, International Cartel Workshop, IBA/ABA Antitrust Section Conference, Tokyo, Japan (February 3 – 5, 2016)
  • Speaker, “Financial Benchmarks, Competition and Antitrust Injury: Untying the Knot,” NYSBA Antitrust Section Conference, New York, New York (January 28, 2016)
  • Moderator, “Cartel Facilitators: When Vertical Conduct Crosses Over to Horizontal Liability,” ABA Webinar (November 30, 2015)
  • Moderator, “The Antitrust and Anti-Corruption Connection: Bid Rigging in Procurement,” TASA: TRACE Anti-Bribery Specialist Accreditation Webinar (October 14, 2015)
  • Moderator, “Global to Local and Back Again: Perspectives and Practices from the Front Lines of Compliance in Emerging Markets,” ABA Antitrust Section Webinar, (June 30, 2015)
  • Panelist, “Next Generation Cartels: New Tools for Enforcers’ Toolkits?,” ABA Antitrust Section Spring Meeting, Washington, D.C. (April 15, 2015)

Publications

  • Co-author, “New DOJ Guidance Increases Benefits for Robust Antitrust Compliance Programs – What Companies Need to Know,” Latham & Watkins Client Alert (July 2019)
  • Co-author, “US DOJ Weighs Reform Options for Antitrust Leniency Law Set to Expire,” Latham & Watkins Client Alert (April 2019)
  • Co-author, “To Hire or Not to Hire: US Cartel Enforcement Targeting Employment Practice,” Latham & Watkins Client Alert (September 2018)
  • Co-author, “Updated DOJ Leniency Program FAQs: Implications for Immunity Protections,” ABA, The Exchange, Insurance and Financial Services Developments, Section of Antitrust Law (Spring 2017)
  • Co-author, “Antitrust Compliance 2.0: The Use of Structural Analysis and Empirical Screens to Detect Collusion and Corruption in Bidding Procurement Processes,” Competition Policy International (CPI) Antitrust Chronicle (2015)
  • Co-author, “Indirect Information Exchanges to Hub-and-Spoke Cartels: Enforcement and Litigation Trends in the United States and Europe,” Competition Law & Policy Debate 2 (2015)

Bar Qualification

  • California
  • District of Columbia
  • New York

Education

  • JD, Loyola Law School, 1998
    cum laude
  • BA, Brown University, 1992