David D. Cross

David Cross is a partner in Goodwin’s Antitrust & Competition practice and a member of the firm’s Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution group. He is a leading, first-chair trial lawyer with extensive experience representing both plaintiffs and defendants in antitrust and complex business litigation, including intellectual property and general commercial matters. Forbes recognized David as one of the top attorneys in the United States — across all practice areas — in its 2024 inaugural ranking of America’s Top 200 Lawyers, and he was one of only four finalists for The American Lawyer’s 2023 Attorney of the Year Award. David has represented some of the world’s leading companies, including CSX Transportation, DuPont, Etsy, John Deere, Nexstar, Oracle, Sumitomo Electric, Teradata, and Uber.

David brings a winning combination of creativity and passionate advocacy to every matter, moving cases to successful conclusions expeditiously and cost-effectively. He represents clients in all aspects of antitrust and competition-related matters, including government investigations relating to monopolization or alleged price fixing, and nationwide bet-the-company class actions seeking tens of billions of dollars in damages. Clients frequently turn to David for counseling regarding compliance with domestic and international competition laws, including issues involving multisided markets, network effects, pricing algorithms and other AI tools, digital markets, and online marketplaces. In addition to a robust defense practice, David has established a destination practice for businesses confronting anticompetitive attacks from entrenched, dominant competitors.

David represents clients across a broad range of industries, including software, transportation, electronics, genetic testing, data analytics and storage, automotive parts, online services, property management, synthetic fiber, computer products, home appliances, and other consumer products. David’s zealous pursuit of his clients’ interests includes recovering millions of dollars in fees and costs from opposing parties for litigation misconduct.

David also maintains a strong pro bono practice focused on civil rights work. Notably, David obtained a 2019 injunction that shuttered Georgia’s antiquated all-electronic election system and enabled the critical hand recount of paper ballots in the 2020 presidential election. After successfully defeating summary judgement, David led a team representing non-partisan voters, alongside The Coalition for Good Governance, in a month-long bench trial seeking better security for future elections for Georgia’s current electronic voting system, which the team showed is vulnerable to hackers and other bad actors (including those falsely disputing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election). That trial has spurred important legislative efforts in Georgia to shore up the security, transparency, and reliability of the state’s voting system.

• Provi. Lead counsel for Provi, provider of a major B2B alcohol marketplace for commercial retailers to order alcohol products from distributors. Provi asserts antitrust, unfair competition, and tort claims against two dominant alcohol distributors.*
• DNA Genotek. Lead counsel for DNA Genotek against antitrust counterclaims filed by the defendant in response to patent infringement claims that DNA Genotek had asserted relating to genetic collection devices for COVID-19 testing and other applications. The counterclaimant dismissed its claims in response to a Rule 11 motion at the close of discovery.*
• Matsuo Electric. Co-lead counsel for Matsuo Electric in defense of multidistrict litigation involving price-fixing claims by a nationwide class of nearly 1,800 direct purchasers of capacitors seeking approximately $1.3 billion in damages. After a mistrial in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, trial began anew in November 2021. Matsuo settled during trial for only $5 million.*
• Teradata. Lead counsel for Teradata on antitrust claims against the dominant provider of enterprise resource planning software, which competes with Teradata for enterprise data warehouse software customers.*
• Nexstar. Defending Nexstar against nationwide class-action antitrust claims alleging a conspiracy to fix prices for television spot ads in certain markets.*
• Entrata. Lead counsel for Entrata, a leading provider of software solutions for large institutional property owners and managers, pursuing monopolization (refusal to deal), tort, and contract claims against Yardi Systems. After jury selection, David obtained a favorable settlement that, among other substantial relief for the client, enabled customers to once again use Entrata’s leading software solutions with Yardi’s backend software system. Additionally, Yardi dismissed its counterclaims in response to a Rule 11 motion at the close of discovery.*
• Sumitomo Electric. Lead counsel for Sumitomo Electric in defense of price-fixing claims by Ford Motor Company as part of multidistrict class actions that resulted from the U.S. Department of Justice’s largest-ever criminal investigation involving allegations of price fixing for certain auto parts. David obtained a favorable settlement that maintained a valuable relationship with a major customer, one of the largest automotive makers in the world.*
• DuPont. Lead counsel for DuPont as a counterclaim defendant in a case alleging monopolization involving para-aramid (fiber) products. The case also involved DuPont’s affirmative claims for trade secret theft regarding its leading Kevlar® products. The court granted summary judgment for the client on all counterclaims on the eve of trial, and a jury returned a verdict of over $900 million for the client on the trade secret claims. The Fourth Circuit upheld summary judgment on appeal.*
• CSX. Defended CSX Transportation in a multidistrict class-action litigation alleging conspiracy to fix fuel surcharge prices. David obtained a denial of class certification after leading a week-long evidentiary hearing, including examination of defendants’ experts.*
• John Deere. Represented Deere & Company in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice’s court challenge to the proposed acquisition of Precision Planting LLC, a subsidiary of Monsanto, which decided not to pursue the sale shortly before trial.*
• Cedar AI. Represented Cedar AI in a matter involving antitrust counterclaims against the dominant provider of certain software for shortline railroads. The case settled favorably for the client after fact discovery.*
• Hyatt. Defended Hyatt Hotels in a multidistrict class-action litigation alleging conspiracy to fix hotel room rates. The court dismissed all claims against the client.*
• Uber. Defended Uber against class claims alleging unfair business practices regarding a competitor.*
• Daybreak Foods. Defended one of the largest egg producers in the United States in a multidistrict class action and related state litigation alleging conspiracy to fix egg prices.*
• General Electric. Represented plaintiff General Electric to recover damages resulting from conspiracy to fix prices of household appliance components.*
• Top-ranked university and professor. Special discovery counsel to a top-ranked university and professor in a dispute with a pharmaceutical company over control of a promising prostate cancer treatment drug. The client prevailed at trial.*
• Fortune 500 company. Special discovery counsel to a Fortune 500 company involving civil fraud claims. At trial, the jury returned a verdict for the client on all claims.*
• Oracle. Represented Oracle and other large commercial purchasers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) as opt-outs in multidistrict class-action litigation to recover damages resulting from a price-fixing cartel including certain DRAM suppliers. The litigation obtained favorable settlements before the trial.*
• Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation. Represented Enron Creditors Recovery Corporation (ECRC) in bankruptcy litigation against two international financial institutions arising from the collapse of Enron Corporation in 2001. The litigation settled on the eve of trial, with settlements for ECRC valued at nearly $6 billion.*
• Kodak. Represented the Fortune 500 imaging company in a patent infringement action involving a process for virtual proofing of digital print jobs. The case settled on confidential terms.*
• International biotechnology company. Counseled a large international biotechnology company on a dispute pertaining to the licensing of proprietary human genome data and technology. The case settled on confidential terms after trial began.*
• Disk-drive maker. Represented leading disk-drive maker in patent infringement action as a respondent before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and as a defendant in a parallel action in federal district court. The cases settled on confidential terms on the eve of trial.*
• International licensing companies. Represented international licensing companies as complainants in a patent infringement action before the ITC regarding color televisions and display monitors. The case settled on confidential terms after the trial.*
• Fortune 100 communications company. Represented a Fortune 100 communications company in a software licensing dispute. The case settled on confidential terms on the eve of trial.*

*Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin

Prior to joining Goodwin, David was a partner at Morrison Foerster and chair of the firm’s Antitrust Litigation practice.

• America’s Top 200 Lawyers, Forbes, 2024
• Winner, Antitrust Writing Awards: Business Articles, Procedure, Concurrences, 2024
• Pro Bono Publico Award, American Bar Association, 2023
• “Attorney of the Year” Finalist, The American Lawyer, 2023
• Recommended for Antitrust: Cartel, The Legal 500 US, 2023-2024
• Trailblazers: Litigation, National Law Journal, 2022
• Recommended for Antitrust – Civil Litigation/Class Action: Defense, The Legal 500 US, 2022-2024

• Author, “5 Steps to Mitigate Revenue Management Software Risks,” Multifamily Dive, March 2024*
• Author, “Disabled But Equal,” Bloomberg Law, May 2023*
• Co-Author, “How to Handle Experts Like an Expert in Antitrust Trials,” Law360, April 2023*
• Author, “Five Objectives for Success as a Litigator,” Law.com, March 2023*
• Co-Author, “Drawing the Line Between Collaboration and Collusion,” Corporate Compliance Insights, May 2020*

Press

• Quoted, “MultiPlan Defense Amid Price-Fixing Scrutiny Gets Boost in Court,” Bloomberg, August 2024
• Quoted, “In Georgia, the ‘Biggest Election Breach’ in History Has Gone Uninvestigated,” NOTUS, July 2024
• Mentioned, “Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs,” Law.com, June 2024* 
• Quoted, “Wine Distribution Giants Must Face Provi's Antitrust Suit,” Law360, May 2024*
• Quoted, “Voter Confidence In 2024 At Issue As Ga. Election Trial Wraps,” Law360, February 2024*
• Quoted, “Voters Say Ga. Voting Machines Are Unreliable As Trial Begins,” Law360, January 2024*
• Quoted, “Is Georgia’s election system constitutional? A federal judge will decide in an upcoming trial,” AP News, January 2024*
• Mentioned, “Security of Georgia's Dominion voting machines put on trial,” CBS News, January 2024*
• Quoted, “Coffee County Election Software Breach Takes Center Stage in Ga. Voting Rights Case,” Law.com, January 2024*
• Mentioned, “Meet The 2023 American Lawyer's Attorney of the Year Finalists,” Law.com, November 2023*
• Quoted, “Constitutional challenge to Georgia voting machines set for trial early next year,” AP News, November 2023*
• Mentioned, “Fed. Circ. Ships Teradata,” Law360, August 2023*
• Mentioned, “ABA announces honorees for this year’s top pro bono awards,” American Bar Association, June 2023*
• Quoted, “The Michigan lawyer pushing Trump’s voter-fraud fictions in U.S. court,” Reuters, December 2022*
• Quoted, “Video shows election deniers at Coffee County,” The Washington Post, September 2022*
• Mentioned, “Georgia Official Says County’s Voting Equipment Will Be Replaced,” New York Times, September 2022*
• Quoted, “Election Data Breach Attracts Georgia Investigators,” New York Times, August 2022*
• Mentioned, “Antitrust Suit Leaves Big Distributors Sweating,” Wine-Searcher, April 2022*
• Mentioned, “Judge Trims Teradata IP Case,” Law360, November 2021*
• Quoted, “The Cybersecurity 202: A fight over how Georgia votes comes to a head just weeks before Election Day,” The Washington Post, October 2020*

*Denotes publications prior to joining Goodwin

Speaking Engagements

• Panelist, “Big Tech on Trial,” ABA Litigation Section Annual Conference, May 2024
• Panelist, “Taking Antitrust Class Actions to Trial: New Developments and Strategies,” AAI Private Antitrust Enforcement Conference, November 2022

Podcasts

• “Spotlight on Disability Inclusion, with David Cross,” Chambers D&I Podcast, November 2023
• “The Delicate Dance of Joint Defense Groups,” Trust and Trade, ABA, July 2023