Paul M. Eckles

Paul Eckles represents a wide variety of clients across numerous industries in antitrust, unfair business practices, consumer fraud and other complex litigation matters at both the trial and appellate court levels. Mr. Eckles represents clients in connection with government investigations and provides general antitrust counseling.

Mr. Eckles has extensive experience in defending class actions. He is currently defending Allergan in reverse payment antitrust class actions and related litigation brought by the Federal Trade Commission; Bausch + Lomb in antitrust class actions related to the distribution of disposable contact lenses; Citigroup in antitrust class actions relating to U.S. Treasuries; and the Royal Bank of Scotland in antitrust class actions relating to the ISDAfix benchmark rate.

Among his recent representations, Mr. Eckles successfully defeated class certification in class actions against the National Hockey League relating to the league’s exclusive broadcast territories; and a class action against CEMEX relating to alleged price fixing of cement and concrete.

He has extensive experience in the financial services industry. In addition to his current matters, he defended Morgan Stanley in class actions and related investigations alleging bid-rigging relating to municipal derivatives. He also represented Merrill Lynch in a series of class actions related to purported naked short selling and in a class action relating to auction rate securities.

Mr. Eckles also has extensive experience representing professional sports leagues and teams in complex litigation and arbitration matters. He represented the National Hockey League in connection with the bankruptcy of the Phoenix Coyotes and in its successful defense against antitrust claims brought by MSG relating to the league’s new media practices.

He represented the Professional Cowboy Rodeo Association in successfully defeating a motion for a preliminary injunction brought by a competing rodeo association. Mr. Eckles was also part of the trial teams that successfully defended the National Football League in actions brought by the Oakland Raiders involving antitrust, contract and fiduciary duty claims, in which the Raiders sought more than $1 billion in damages.

He also successfully defended the National Basketball Association in actions involving intellectual property rights relating to NBA players.

Mr. Eckles also is involved in various pro bono matters. He recently successfully represented an individual in an appeal relating to the equitable distribution of pension benefits. He also was part of the team of Skadden lawyers who successfully represented Indian guest workers in one of the largest labor trafficking cases in U.S. history.

Education:

• J.D., University of California at Los Angeles, 1995 (Order of the Coif)
• B.A., University of Notre Dame, 1992 (cum laude)

Admissions:

• California
• New York
• District of Columbia