Antitrust/Competition

Rob Katerberg is a partner in the firm’s litigation group. Mr. Katerberg focuses on class actions, appeals, constitutional and international law issues, and other cases with a significant regulatory or public policy component. He worked on two recent Supreme Court cases in which the firm obtained important victories for its clients: Sorrell v. IMS Health, involving a First Amendment challenge to a Vermont statute restricting pharmaceutical marketing, and Henderson v. Shinseki, involving equitable tolling in veterans’ benefits cases. He also represents FORTUNE 500 corporations in antitrust and toxic tort class action litigation, and has helped advise firm client the US Federal Housing Finance Agency  on litigation and regulatory issues in its role as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Mr. Katerberg has worked on numerous appeals, including matters in the Supreme Court as well as in the Second, Third, Sixth, Eighth, Ninth, and DC Circuits, and several state supreme courts. He recently argued in the DC Court of Appeals a criminal case of first impression involving the application of the fleeing-a-law-enforcement-officer statute to a passenger in a car, obtaining a reversal of his client’s conviction on that charge.

Before returning to Arnold & Porter LLP in 2008, Mr. Katerberg served in the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Civil Division, Federal Programs Branch for five years. At the DOJ, Mr. Katerberg represented the United States and its agencies and officials in constitutional challenges to federal statutes and other matters involving federal agency regulations and actions. This docket covered subject matter running from national security and foreign policy, to Medicare/Medicaid, to home mortgages and government benefit programs. In this capacity, Mr. Katerberg served as the lead attorney on high-profile matters in district courts across the US, often tackling weighty legal issues of first impression. For example, he successfully handled the district court phase of a constitutional challenge to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Free Enterprise Fund v. PCAOB, that later culminated in a 5-4 decision in the US Supreme Court. He also handled national security matters, such as defense of habeas corpus cases brought by detainees in the war on terrorism. He conducted numerous oral arguments, managed all aspects of complex cases, and advised senior government officials. For his service, he received the Attorney General ’s Distinguished Service Award in 2007 and a Special Commendation for Outstanding Service in the Civil Division in 2005.

Before his tenure at the DOJ, Mr. Katerberg was with Arnold & Porter from 1999 to 2003, during which he worked on litigation and antitrust matters, including an administrative trial in the US Securities and Exchange Commission, several antitrust class actions and investigations, and appeals. He also served as a law clerk to Judge R. Lanier Anderson III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit