John A. Herfort

John A. Herfort is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is a member of the Litigation Practice Group, and focuses on antitrust litigation and counseling, and complex commercial litigation.

Mr. Herfort joined the firm in 1984 as a partner.  He had previously practiced law in New York for 10 years, and prior to that he clerked for the U.S. Circuit Judge J. Skelly Wright of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.  Mr. Herfort also served as an assistant to U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson.

He is co-author of the ABA’s Antitrust Section Monograph, “Merger Standards under U.S. Antitrust Laws” (1981), a contributor to the ABA volume “Antitrust Law Developments” published in 1984, and co-author of articles on merger enforcement, predatory pricing and patent antitrust issues published in the 1990s and 2003.  Mr. Herfort has lectured on various antitrust issues at American Bar Association Antitrust Section annual meetings (on mergers and Robinson-Patman Act issues) and at the Practising Law Institute (on vertical restraints).  He recently spoke at the National CLE Antitrust program in Steamboat Springs on the Microsoft litigation.  Mr. Herfort is routinely ranked as one of New York’s leading Antitrust lawyers by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, and by The Best Lawyers in America®.  He is a member of the American and New York State Bar Associations, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Mr. Herfort graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1968 and cum laude from Harvard Law School  in 1972.  He served as the Supreme Court Note and Note Editor for the Harvard Law Review from 1971 to 1972.

Mr. Herfort has a significant practice in the area of antitrust and complex litigation, antitrust investigations, including merger investigations and grand jury investigations.

Mr. Herfort has represented and counseled such clients as Schlumberger Limited, CCC Holdings, Inc., Aetna, Unilever, Northrop Grumman Corp., BLDG Management Co., Inc., the Peninsula Hotel, Fidelity National Financial, First American Title Insurance, the Peninsula Hotel, Star Markets, Random House, Inc., Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns, Chase Manhattan Bank, Money Station Inc., First Interstate Bank of Hawaii, Central-National Gottesman Inc., Union Carbide, Veeco Instruments, Inc., the Title Insurance Rate Service Association (New York), St. Paul Travelers, Madison Avenue Leasehold LLC, MortgageIT, Inc., 3D Systems Corp., Yankee Candle and CRH plc. 

• A lengthy class action trial in 1997-98 on securities-law and ERISA issues on behalf of Northrop Grumman arising out of Northrop's takeover of Grumman that settled after trial on favorable terms.
• A complex antitrust case in the Northern District of California for Schlumberger that was won in 1997 before trial.
• Antitrust merger preliminary injunction trials on behalf of Pacific Resources, Inc. (now owned by Broken Hill Proprietary), Union Carbide, and in 2009, on behalf of CCC Holdings, Inc.
• Represented K&F Industries in Department of Justice and UK Office of Fair Trading investigations and decisions not to challenge aerospace acquisition by Meggitt PLC in 2007.
• Representing Schlumberger in the antitrust reviews of the Schlumberger-Smith International proposed merger (2010).
• Represented Schlumberger in Department of Justice investigation and decision not to challenge WesternGeco seismic joint venture.
• Consent decrees with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission resolving an favorable terms merger investigations of the First Interstate Bank of Hawaii/First Hawaiian Bank merger, the Pacific Resources/Shell acquisition, the Oldcastle/Northeast Tilcon acquisition, the Shaws/Star Markets supermarket acquisition, the Fidelity National Financial/Chicago Title acquisition, the 3D Systems/DTM Corp. acquisition, and the Itron/Schlumberger Electricity acquisition.
• Two successful appeals (in 2001 and 2003) for BLDG Management Co., Inc. in the Appellate Division, First Department and United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on real estate contract and federal fair housing issues, respectively.
• Represented Madison Avenue Leasehold LLC in environmental-law federal litigation that led to requested changes in Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s East Side Access Project building on East 50th Street.
• The Federal Trade Commission price-discrimination case in the 1990s against six major publishers (including his client Random House, Inc.), which the Commission dropped before trial.
• Represented Veeco Instruments, Inc. in defense and favorable settlement in 2007 of securities law class action in Southern District of New York.
• Consent decree with New York State resolving allegations of antitrust violations including "couponing" against Unilever.
• Represented Northrop Grumman in Department of Justice investigation of subsequently abandoned Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman merger.
• Two trials on real estate contract and fraud issues in the 1990s for the Peninsula Hotel in New York State Supreme Court, New York County.
• Represented Money Station in challenge in Federal Reserve Board and D.C. Circuit to Electronic Payment System's acquisition of National City Corporation's ATM business.
• Represented Merrill Lynch in recent successful defense of Friedman v. Salomon Smith Barney antitrust case (involving "flipping") in Southern District of New York and Second Circuit.
• Represented Bear Stearns in successful defense of Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC v. Billing antitrust case decided in the Supreme Court in 2007.
• Trial counsel for Texaco in successful Robinson-Patman Act jury trial in U.S. District Court for District of New Jersey.
• Trial counsel for defendants in United States v. Cooperative Theatres, a Section 1 criminal antitrust case in the Northern District of Ohio in which the lead client was acquitted.
• Representing Aetna Inc. in investigations of insurance industry.
• Representing Title Insurance Rate Service Association, Inc. in investigations of title insurance industry in New York.
• Counsel at arbitration hearings for MortgageIT, Inc. involving intellectual property and corporate-law contractual issues, in which the opposing party's claims were dismissed after trial-type hearings.
• Represents clients in antitrust grand jury investigations.