William J. "Bill" Blechman

Experienced trial lawyer William Blechman concentrates on antitrust law. Predominately representing large public and private companies as plaintiffs in individual actions as opposed to handling class actions or mass actions, he also handles antitrust defense, making him one of the rare lawyers who represents both plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust cases.

Bill has represented individual companies and groups of companies, as plaintiffs, in numerous federal antitrust direct (i.e., non-class) actions. With a focus on dominant firm conduct and conspiracies (i.e., cartels) in restraint of trade, he has represented clients in a broad array of industries. These include airlines, beverages, construction, cruise lines, electronics, health care, insurance, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, retail, telecommunications, shipping, railroads, and wholesale grocery.

Bill has participated in the civil prosecution of more than 25 domestic or international conspiracies and has been lead counsel in nearly all of the firm’s cartel cases. He assists multinational corporations in formulating and implementing measured and principled strategies to maximize recoveries in these cases, which have spanned the United States, Europe, and Asia and involve proceedings incident to enforcement actions by the United States Department of Justice or foreign competition authorities.

His antitrust cases have involved wide-ranging products, including broiler chickens, cathode ray tubes, citric acid, consumer products, ethylene propylene diene monomer, ferrosilicon, graphite electrodes, hydrogen peroxide, monosodium glutamate, nitrile rubber, nucleotides, packaged seafood, pork, pharmaceuticals, polychloroprene, polyurethane foam, rubber-processing chemicals, sodium perborate, styrene-butadiene butadiene rubber, and vitamins. He also has handled cases involving antitrust allegations regarding currency exchanges, Jones Act shipping rates, and parcel tanker freight rates.

Bill has participated in many antitrust cases challenging conduct by the major credit and debit card networks and their banks that allegedly restrict price competition for merchants’ payment card volume.

In addition to antitrust cases, Bill defends companies in federal criminal grand jury investigations and civil investigations by the FTC and State Attorneys General. He also has represented parties in Federal False Claims Act cases involving the defense, health care, and education industries, which often require coordination with federal and state law enforcement agencies.

Throughout the years, Bill has taught pretrial procedure and practice at a law school, lectured and published papers on antitrust law, and taught seminars on various other topics in the law. His writings have been published in law reviews, legal textbooks, business newspapers, and other periodicals.

Following law school, Bill clerked for the Honorable Jose A. Gonzalez Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida and later served as a Special Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust, for the State of Michigan.