Kristen O'Shaughnessy

Partner, New York

Biography

Overview

Kristen is a partner in the Global Competition and Antitrust Group, focusing on complex antitrust litigation and counseling. She has deep experience representing global pharmaceutical companies (including AbbVie, Allergan, Boehringer Ingelheim, Gilead, and Pfizer) in high-stakes litigation on the cutting edge of antitrust and intellectual property. In defending companies against reverse payment, product hopping, and generic delay claims, Kristen and her team have successfully obtained multiple precedent-setting rulings that shape the landscape of pharmaceutical antitrust litigation. Her practice also includes the health insurance, technology, automotive, and oil and gas industries, and she regularly authors, teaches, and presents about pharmaceutical antitrust law, antitrust developments in the technology space, and navigating antitrust risks in implementing ESG climate initiatives.

Kristen is dedicated to developing the next generation of lawyers, and is a firm leader devoted to mentoring, training, and empowering the firm's associates. She is also a member of the firm's Global Women's Initiative, involved in coordinating female mentoring, networking events, and community outreach.

Prior to joining White & Case, Kristen worked in Thailand advising clients on international intellectual property issues, including counseling the Thai Department of Intellectual Property on compliance with the Madrid Protocol and assisting a major pharmaceutical company with its global patent litigation strategy.

Kristen holds a degree in engineering from Northwestern University.

Bars and Courts
New York
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Education
JD
Georgetown University Law Center
BS
Northwestern University
Languages
English

Experience

Representing manufacturer in multiple class actions alleging price fixing conspiracy.

Lead counsel representing telecommunications company in a dispute involving supplier's anticompetitive use of upstream market power to systematically disadvantage downstream purchasers.

Representing pharmaceutical API supplier in action involving alleged exclusive dealing claims under federal and state antitrust laws.

Representing pharmaceutical company in lawsuit over patent licensing and patent ownership.

Representing telecommunications company in action involving claims of unfair competition and trade secret misappropriation.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving allegations of an anticompetitive scheme involving dozens of HIV products, relating to the company's development and launch of new treatments, its collaboration agreements to create new combination therapies, its licensing of patent rights protecting its products, and its settlement of patent infringement litigation.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving "reverse payment" and "product hopping" allegations, relating to the company's development and launch of new Alzheimer's treatments, its settlement of patent infringement litigation, and its manufacturing and supply agreements.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving "reverse payment" and "product hopping" allegations, relating to oral contraceptives.

Trial counsel for health insurer Anthem in its defense at an expedited merger trial and appeal against claims brought by the US Department of Justice as to Anthem's proposed US$54 billion acquisition of Cigna Corporation. Defended Anthem against Cigna in subsequent break-up fee litigation, in which the Delaware court relived Anthem of any break-up fee obligations based upon Cigna's conduct in opposition to the merger.

Representing an innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving "reverse payment" claims relating to stroke medication, challenging the settlement of patent infringement litigation and the entry of a co-promotion agreement.

Trial counsel representing a global pharmaceutical company in a preliminary injunction hearing in the Southern District of New York in an antitrust action challenging a new-product launch.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple class actions involving "reverse payment" allegations with respect to blockbuster cholesterol treatment.

Counseling Kenyan company for compliance with Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and representation in an anti-corruption audit.

Representing General Counsel in the automotive industry in criminal investigations by the US Department of Justice.

Representing executive in the oil and gas industry in criminal investigations by the US Department of Justice.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in antitrust action involving allegations of sham litigation and generic delay relating to epinephrine autoinjector.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving "reverse payment" allegations with respect to blockbuster cholesterol treatment.

Representing innovator pharmaceutical company in multiple antitrust class actions involving "reverse payment" allegations with respect to antidepressant treatment.

Speaking Engagements

"Economic Issues in Healthcare", 51st Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy (September 2024)

"Managing the Continued Fallout of the Inflation Reduction Act: Reexamining Drug Pricing, Innovation, and Commercialization Strategies in the Wake of the IRA", Women Leaders in Life Sciences Law Conference (July 2024)

"Competition", 31st Annual Intellectual Property Law & Policy Conference (April 2024)

"Class Action Damages: The Economic Disputes", 50th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy (September 2023)

"Pharmacy Benefit Managers: Economics and Enforcement Interest", 49th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy (September 2022)

"Pharmaceutical Antitrust Updates: Latest Court Decisions, Congressional Bills, and Price Scrutiny", American Health Law Association (February 2022)

"Recent Antitrust Developments: March and April 2015", ABA Section of Antitrust Law, Health Care and Pharmaceuticals Committee (May 2015)

Publications

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2023, Global Competition Review, Oct 2022, (co-author with Adam Acosta, Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, and Eugene Hutchinson)

"Jury Verdict in In re Opana ER Antitrust Litigation," American Health Law Association, August 2022 (co-author with Jaclyn Phillips)

"Big Data, Little Chance of Success: Why Precedent Does Not Support Anti-Data Theories of Harm," Competition Policy International, July 2022 (co-author with D. Daniel Sokol, Jaclyn Phillips, and Nathan Swire)

"Big Data and Data-Related Abuses of Market Power," P. Akman, O. Brook, K. Stylianou (eds). Research Handbook on Abuse of Dominance and Monopolization (Edward Elgar Publishing), Forthcoming (co-author with Tilman Kuhn, Tobias Pesch, Jaclyn Phillips, and D. Daniel Sokol)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2022, Global Competition Review, Oct 2021, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Adam Acosta, Kevin Adam, and Ada Yue Wang)

"House Bill Mandating User Data Portability and Platform Interoperability Could Impact Digital Companies of All Sizes" (co-author with Earl Comstock and Andres Liivak)

"FTC Encouraged to Ban or Limit Non-Compete Agreements in July 9, 2021 Executive Order; Breaks With Tradition, And Follows Trend of Heightened Antitrust Focus on Labor Markets" (co-author with J. Mark Gidley, Kathryn Mims, Erin McNamee, Kevin C. Adam, Jaclyn Phillips, Abdul M. Hafiz, and Tal Marnin)

"What Does President Biden's July 9, 2021 Executive Order on Competition Mean for the Pharma Industry?" (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Kathryn Mims, Kevin C. Adam, Jaclyn Phillips)

"Sweeping US Order on 'Promoting Competition'", July 2021 (co-author with J. Mark Gidley, George L. Paul, Jack Pace, Kathryn Mims, Erin McNamee, Kevin C. Adam, Jaclyn Phillips, Abdul M. Hafiz)

"What's Next for Drug Pricing in the US?" (co-author with J. Mark Gidley, Michael Gallagher, Peter Carney, Robert Milne, Jack Pace, Kevin C. Adam)

"US antitrust spotlight on the technology industry" (co-author with J. Mark Gidley, Kathryn Mims, Jaclyn Phillips, Kevin C. Adam)

"Senator Josh Hawley Joins Growing Number in Congress Proposing Sweeping Antitrust Reform Legislation", April 2021 (co-author with Jaclyn Phillips and Michael Kucharski)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2021, Global Competition Review, Oct. 2020, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Adam Acosta, and Kevin Adam)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2020, Global Competition Review, Sept. 2019, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Adam Acosta, and Kevin Adam)

"California's New Reverse Payment Law Departs from Supreme Court Standard in FTC v. Actavis", October 2019 (co-author with Daniel Grossbaum, Jack Pace, Bryan Gant and J. Mark Gidley)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2019, Global Competition Review, Sept. 2018, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Kevin Adam, Adam Acosta, and Trisha Grant)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2018, Global Competition Review, Sept. 2017, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Kevin Adam, Adam Acosta, and Trisha Grant)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2017, Global Competition Review, Sept. 2016, (co-author with Michael Gallagher, Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Kevin Adam, Adam Acosta, and Trisha Grant)

United States: Pharmaceutical Antitrust 2016, Global Competition Review, Sept. 2015, (co-author with Eric Grannon, Heather McDevitt, Adam Acosta, and Trisha Grant)

Awards and Recognition

Recommended for Antitrust Civil – Civil Litigation/Class Actions: Defense, Legal 500 US 2023

Best Antitrust Business Article – Intellectual Property Category, Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards (2018)

Pro Bono Honor Roll, White & Case, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2018

National Law Journal "Brief of the Week" (July 25, 2012) - Amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, cited by the Supreme Court in support of its landmark decision that the "first sale" doctrine applies to foreign-manufactured goods.

Pro Bono Award for Outstanding Legal Service, White & Case, 2012