David C. Gustman

For decades David C. Gustman has served clients as lead trial counsel on a variety of complex business litigation matters involving antitrust, accounting, auto dealerships, banking, bankruptcy, construction, finance, insurance coverage and broker disputes, real estate, product liability, and securities. He is a “go to” lawyer for the Firm’s most challenging and difficult cases and is often called upon by clients to take over cases that have been previously handled by other counsel.

David also provides antitrust counsel to joint ventures, trade associations, research consortiums and companies involved in mergers and acquisitions, as well as those facing antitrust claims. He has also successfully defended clients in connection with criminal antitrust investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.

David has served as Head of the Litigation Practice, Co-head of the Firm’s Antitrust Practice Group and a member and former Chairman of the Firm’s Executive Committee.

David's Practice

Representative Matters

• Obtained a defense verdict in favor of our clients in a nationwide antitrust class action, in which plaintiffs sought $500 million in Also successfully argued and defended the judgment before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In re Sulfuric Acid Antitrust Litigation, 703 F.3d 1004 (7th Cir. 2012).
• Obtained a $36.4 million judgment against a governmental entity that wrongfully interfered with our client’s easement rights, delaying construction of The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Chicago, Magnificent Mile.
• Tried claims worth over $100 million to a federal jury arising out of defendant’s breach of a technology licensing agreement. The case settled before closing arguments, resulting in a recovery for our client of multiple millions of dollars (exact amount is confidential at the request of the defendant.)
• Following a two-week jury trial on behalf of a private equity fund client, obtained a multimillion-dollar jury verdict against the seller of a business for misrepresentations and omissions in connection with the sale of the business to our client.
• Obtained approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for the merger of a large international mining company after a second request for This resulted in one of the largest mergers in Canadian history.
• Handle multiple disputes between automobile dealers and manufactures in federal and state courts on behalf of automobile dealerships.