Williams, Gerald O

Mike's practice focuses on criminal and civil antitrust litigation. He has considerable experience advising companies responding to United States agency investigations as well as representing individual employees in government interviews.

In the civil context, Mike has defended against multijurisdictional lawsuits filed in response to those criminal investigations. Significantly, Mike has used his economics background to work with expert economists to oppose class certification applications and to develop complex settlement proposals for direct and indirect purchasers.

An illustrative example of the intertwined criminal and civil experience is Mike's representation of UPM-Kymmene, a Finnish corporation that is one of the world's leading printing paper companies. Mike played a key role in coordinating the company's response to Department of Justice investigations into anticompetitive conduct in the pressure-sensitive labelstock and publication paper industries. He then defended the company in state and federal court against civil class action lawsuits designed to mimic the government inquiries. In addition to his antitrust practice, Mike has advised companies involved in business disputes with private equity firms. He also has assisted in the formulation of litigation strategies to defend against federal securities and ERISA class actions related to those disputes.

Mike maintains an active pro bono practice to assist recent immigrants obtain legal status in the United States. He has argued removal cases before immigration judges and drafted petitions for asylum and protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. Mike supplements the work helping immigrants by assisting nonprofit entities in protecting the civil liberties of greater Washington, D.C. area residents.

Prior to joining Jones Day, Mike helped found and served as general counsel to Celeris Partners LLC, a management consultant company specializing in business continuity integration and survivable communication technologies.