Rob Katerberg represents clients in the complex litigation matters that have the highest stakes and most cutting-edge issues. Practicing in federal and state courts across the country, he focuses particularly on class actions, antitrust, and constitutional issues. Rob thrives on navigating complicated legal and factual thickets and developing innovative legal arguments and big picture strategies to achieve favorable resolutions for clients. He draws on years of experience as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division, where he served as lead counsel for federal agencies in landmark constitutional and statutory cases, to assist businesses with civil litigation against or involving the federal government. Rob served as a law clerk to The Honorable R. Lanier Anderson III on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit between law school and entering practice.
Experience
- Nucor Corporation, as lead counsel defending against $500 million antitrust group boycott lawsuit by competitor related to U.S. national security tariffs on imported steel, resulting in dismissal of all claims with prejudice on multiple grounds.
- Consumer products manufacturer, as lead counsel defending against consumer class action, false advertising, and products liability claims in multiple jurisdictions.
- Samsung Electronics America, as lead counsel in successful defense of array of consumer class actions relating to smartphones in six federal district courts, two courts of appeals, and the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. In over a dozen cases, no classes were certified.
- U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency, as lead counsel defending against series of separation-of-powers constitutional suits challenging agency's structure in seven different courts, including persuading the en banc Fifth Circuit to deny by a 9-7 margin the relief the plaintiffs sought – an outcome ultimately affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Altria Group, in U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust proceeding challenging the company's minority investment in Juul, including lead responsibility for third-party competitor witnesses at trial ending in a 263-page ALJ decision rejecting all FTC claims.
- Former U.S. FBI employee, in high-profile Privacy Act lawsuit seeking damages for Trump Administration's intentional media disclosure of government employees' personal information for political reasons.
- Nucor, in defending against multiple major antitrust litigations, including decade-long class actions alleging industry-wide collusion, $165 million group boycott lawsuit in which Nucor was fully exonerated on appeal while its four co-defendants all either settled or were adjudged liable, and Robinson-Patman price discrimination suit by disgruntled former distributor.
- D.C. tenants' association, as lead counsel in trailblazing pro bono litigation to vindicate tenants' rights under D.C. Tenants Opportunity to Purchase Act by challenging sham transactions by developers, culminating in landmark settlement providing for modified development favoring low and moderate income housing..
- Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as lead appellate counsel in Seventh Circuit appeals arising out of products liability litigation regarding testosterone replacement therapy products.
- BP and Atlantic Richfield Co. in U.S. Supreme Court appeal involving federal preemption of claims by property-owners in or around Superfund site.
- BP, as lead counsel in numerous Fifth Circuit appeals relating to claims by a wide spectrum of Gulf Coast businesses for economic losses in connection with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and settlement.
- Cable company, as lead antitrust counsel in development and assertion of Sherman Act counterclaims in patent infringement case relating to voice-over-internet protocol technology.
Perspectives
July 10, 2023
FTC Dismisses Complaint Against Altria and JLI and Sets Forth Views on Several Legal Issues
Advisory
Recognition
The Legal 500 US
General Commercial Disputes (2019-2021)
Antitrust: Civil Litigation/Class Actions (2018)
Antitrust: Civil Litigation/Class Actions (2018)
Credentials
Education
- J.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law, 1998
- B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994
Admissions
- District of Columbia
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Third, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits
- U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
Clerkships
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, The Honorable Lanier R. Anderson, III