Elizabeth Prewitt, a leading first-chair trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor, defends multinational companies and executives facing high-stakes government antitrust investigations and litigation.

Ms. Prewitt has a formidable track record of success leading her clients through government antitrust investigations, managing bet-the-company litigation, and leading the defense in the courtroom. She leverages her insight into the approaches of antitrust and competition enforcers globally to guide clients through:

  • Complex civil investigations initiated by the US DOJ and FTC, and state and foreign competition enforcement agencies
  • Civil and criminal litigation
  • Complex and cross-border cartel investigations

Before entering private practice, Ms. Prewitt spent 16 years as a trial lawyer in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ). She also served as Assistant Chief of the Antitrust Division in the New York office from 2012 to 2014. She was designated as a Visiting International Enforcer to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition in Brussels. Her work on both sides of the Atlantic uniquely positions her to navigate matters with multinational components and parallel investigations conducted by antitrust enforcers and regulators globally.

A two-time recipient of the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award, Ms. Prewitt led the DOJ’s criminal antitrust cartel investigations into some of its largest investigations at the time, including into Libor and Forex rate-rigging alongside parallel inquiries by global competition and fraud enforcers.

Ms. Prewitt is internationally recognized as a preeminent competition and trial lawyer by leading publications, including Global Competition Review, Expert Guides: Business Law and Competition, Who’s Who Legal: Competition, Lawdragon, The Legal 500, and Chambers USA.

In recognition of her exceptional experience and reputation globally, she has been selected to serve in senior leadership positions in the International, American and New York State Bar Associations. She is also 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 price-fixing and bid-rigging indictment that resulted in a complete dismissal with prejudice after 13 weeks in court over the course of two trials, during which Ms. Prewitt served as first-chair trial counsel throughout and garnered recognition for her defense victory in Am Law’s Litigator of the Week and GCR’s Americas Behavioural Matter of the Year, as well as in Law360 feature article “Their Heads Were Spinning
  • A global technology company in investigations and litigation by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division, state attorneys general, foreign competition authorities, and private plaintiffs into Google’s advertising technology businesses alleging unlawful monopolistic conduct
  • A multinational pharmaceutical manufacturer resulting in a negotiated resolution with the DOJ’s Antitrust Division amid ongoing criminal litigation relating to alleged price-fixing by several generic pharmaceutical companies
  • A US pharmaceutical company facing antitrust civil class-action litigation and cartel investigations by the DOJ and state’s attorneys general in the generic pharmaceutical industry
  • A global professional services company in multiple matters including an antitrust civil class action litigation and criminal no-poach investigations brought by the US DOJ. In one of the most significant and novel no-poach prosecutions to date, the judge dismissed the charge against the companies’ executives a month after the trial began
  • A global technology company in a criminal grand jury investigation by the DOJ’s Antitrust Division into suspected criminal no-poach agreements
  • A chief executive office of a major food supply company in a criminal antitrust investigation and related civil litigation
  • A major European branded pharmaceutical company facing multiple state’s attorneys general antitrust investigations and congressional inquiries into product pricing
  • A global financial institution facing a European Commission cartel investigation into the trading of foreign exchange products
  • A global technology company facing a European Commission cartel investigation into suspected anticompetitive hiring practices
  • A major US healthcare company in a DOJ criminal investigation into suspected no-poach agreements

Bar Qualification

  • California
  • District of Columbia
  • New York

Education

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