Jeffrey Kessler, a heavyweight in antitrust litigation who most recently secured a landmark win for states suing Live Nation, will defend Paramount‘s $110 billion megadeal for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The studio doesn’t expect legal challenges from the Justice Department, state prosecutors or foreign regulators, though Kessler would lead the studio’s defense if any are filed, according to a person familiar with the situation.
The addition of Kessler bolsters Paramount’s formidable legal team, led by Makan Delrahim, Trump’s former assistant attorney general for antitrust. Also representing the studio: David Gelfand, ex-deputy assistant attorney general for litigation in the antitrust division under former President Barack Obama, and lawyers at Latham & Watkins and Cravath, Swaine & Moore who have been seeking regulatory approval of the deal.
On Friday, a federal judge accepted Kessler’s application to represent the studio in a lawsuit filed by consumers challenging merger. The case is the opening salvo over the purchase that will reshape Hollywood.
In a statement, Kessler called the complaint “baseless” and said it “resorts to political scaremongering that is both inaccurate and irrelevant to the antitrust analysis.”
“What we do learn from the complaint is that there is no credible antitrust case to be brought against the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger,” he added. “In my many years of practice championing competition and the interests of consumers, athletes, and workers, I have rarely seen such a weak case seeking to block a transaction.”
Kessler, co-executive chair of Winston & Strawn, is known for taking on plaintiff-side work. He won in 2019 a first-of-its-kind antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association on behalf of student-athletes. The decision cracked open the door for them to profit off of their name, image and likeness, a seismic shift in college sports.
Last year, Kessler was brought in to represent a coalition of more than 30 states that objected to a last-minute settlement between the Justice Department and Live Nation. The case ended with a jury concluding that the company operated as a monopoly in violation of federal and state antitrust laws.
In 2023, he also secured dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit brought by Garth Drabinsky against Actors’ Equity Association after the Broadway producer was placed on the union’s “Do Not Work” list.
The lawsuit filed by Paramount subscribers last month claimed that the studio’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery will substantially reduce competition in streaming, news and theatrical distribution in violation of antitrust laws. Lawyers for the consumers on Wednesday moved for a preliminary injunction to block the deal.
Also representing Paramount in the case: Winston & Strawn partners Jeanifer Parsigian, Conor Reidy, Kevin Goldstein and Matt Huppert, all of whom have deep experience in antitrust litigation.
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