Expertise
Protecting the Underdog & Taking on Giants.
We represent plaintiffs and defendants in the most consequential matters of market conduct. Our work begins where ordinary practice ends: at the threshold of complex antitrust, unfair competition, and multi-district litigation.
Founder
Joseph M. Alioto, Sr.
Joseph M. Alioto, Sr. is an award winning trial attorney with an unprecedented successful legacy of antitrust actions in the United States. He has represented plaintiffs in some of the largest monetary judgments in the history of the Antitrust Laws, and has broken the record for the largest judgement won in an antitrust case three times. He has tried more antitrust cases than any other attorney in the United States, having represented plaintiffs in the largest judgments in the history of the antitrust laws since the 1890s (William S. Boyd School of Law).
Mr. Alioto received his Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1968, was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of California in January 1969 and since that time has become a nationally acclaimed litigator. He has argued antitrust cases in front of the Supreme Court of the United States and is a member of, or was admitted pro hac vice to, all 12 circuits of the United States Courts of Appeal. He has prosecuted private antitrust actions in which he is either a member of, or was admitted pro hac vice to, over 40 United States District Courts and myriad of state courts.
In his distinguished career Mr. Alioto has represented independent companies and corporations of all sizes, farmers, inventors, patent holders, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors, unions, consumers, and entrepreneurs against foreign as well as domestic corporations. The cases that the Alioto Law Firm has tried have involved every major industry from manufacturing to service, trading to finance, supply to retail, transportation to mining, foreign and domestic.
No business is too small to go up against a giant and win.
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Practice Areas
Where our work is done.
Each engagement draws on a half century of trial experience across the full spectrum of competition law.
Antitrust Litigation
Prosecution and defense of price-fixing, monopolization, and Sherman Act claims in federal courts nationwide, including jury trials and Supreme Court advocacy.
Class Actions & MDLs
Lead and co-lead counsel in multi-district litigation and certified classes on behalf of consumers, end-payors, direct purchasers, and small enterprises.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Challenges to anticompetitive mergers and Clayton Act Section 7 actions, including injunctive relief to block consolidation that harms competition.
Unfair Competition
Tying arrangements, exclusive dealing, group boycotts, and predatory practices under federal and state unfair-competition statutes.
International & Cross-Border
Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act matters and cross-border conspiracies involving Pacific Rim and European manufacturers affecting U.S. commerce.
Counseling & Consulting
Strategic guidance for trial blueprints, settlement posture, and economic analysis — working alongside leading economists in each industry.
Principles
Four commitments that govern every mandate.
Intellectual Honesty
We tell clients what their case is worth, not what they want to hear. Strategy follows facts, never the reverse.
Adversarial Strength
We prepare every matter for trial from intake. Settlement leverage is a byproduct of credible trial threat.
Economic Literacy
Antitrust law is economics in lawyer's clothing. We work hand-in-hand with the leading economists in each industry.
Discretion
Our clients' affairs are confidential. We do not publicize matters, clients, or settlements without consent.
Public Service
Lectures, testimony, and debate.
Lectures on Antitrust
With over 20 invited lectures before the American Bar Association, state bar associations, law schools, and symposia — from practical instruction (How To Try An International Antitrust Case) to the philosophical underpinnings of competition law (Adam Smith, Antitrust, and the United States).
Congressional Testimony
- U.S. Senate, Judiciary Committee
- U.S. Congress, Judiciary & Maritime Committees
- California Senate, Judiciary Committee
- U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing — Consolidation in the Oil and Gas Industry: Raising Prices?
Televised Debates
Debated the Reagan/Bush Administration's chiefs of the DOJ Antitrust Division:
- William Baxter, Assistant Attorney General — CNN
- Charles Rule, Assistant Attorney General — FNN
Publications
Featured writing & profiles.
PDF / Published August 2020
2019 Antitrust Annual Report — University of San Francisco School of Law
A survey of the year's leading antitrust developments published by Mr. Alioto's alma mater, the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Read the ReportPDF / MLex Magazine — Issue 8, March 2012
MLex Profile — Joseph M. Alioto
An in-depth profile of Mr. Alioto's trial career and antitrust philosophy, published in MLex Magazine's global competition coverage.
Read the ProfileThe History
Five decades of trial work, originating in San Francisco.
From its founding in 1969, the Alioto Law Firm has stood at the leading edge of antitrust jurisprudence — first in domestic class actions, then in cross-border enforcement, now in the regulation of the digital economy.
1969
Founding
Established in San Francisco with a singular focus on antitrust enforcement on behalf of consumers and small enterprises.
1980s
Federal Class Actions
Lead and co-lead counsel in multi-district price-fixing actions across the industrial chemicals and electronics sectors.
1990s
Pacific Rim Practice
Expanded into cross-border matters involving Asian manufacturers and United States distribution channels.
2000s
Technology Era
Among the first plaintiff-side firms to litigate platform and standard-essential patent abuses against technology and computer companies and manufacturers.
2010s
Pharmaceutical Trust
Pay-for-delay and reverse-payment settlement challenges on behalf of pharmacists and end-payor classes.
Today
Global Mandate
Active across the United States prosecuting anticompetitive conduct impacting foreign and domestic trade and commerce of the United States.
From the Archive
Industries and matters that have shaped the firm's record.
