Anastasia Pastan
Anastasia Pastan is Counsel at Wilkinson Stekloff. Anastasia represents clients in a variety of areas including antitrust, product liability, environmental, and contract matters, and has experience across the spectrum of trial strategy and preparation. Recently, Anastasia managed the trial team that defeated the FTC's efforts to enjoin Microsoft's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. She was also a member of the trial team that won a complete defense verdict on behalf of Bayer in the third state-court bellwether trial involving the blood thinner Xarelto.
Anastasia maintains an active pro bono practice, representing clients in a variety of trial and post-conviction matters, including criminal and class action matters. Currently, she represents a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging abortion restrictions in Arizona.
Before joining the firm, Anastasia was a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Ann Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Honorable Vince Chhabria of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
Anastasia attended Harvard Law School, where she served as a Notes Editor for the Harvard Law Review. During law school, she interned for the Federal Defenders of New York and for the judges of the Suffolk County Juvenile Court. Anastasia also served as a Teaching Fellow to Professor David B. Wilkins.
Education
- Undergraduate: Columbia College, B.A., 2009, magna cum laude
- Graduate: Bank Street College of Education, M.S. Ed., 2012
- Law: Harvard Law School, J.D., 2015, cum laude; Notes Editor, Harvard Law Review
Clerkship
- Judge Vince Chhabria, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (2015–16)
- Judge Debra Ann Livingston, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2016–17)
Notable Matters
- Member of the trial team that secured a groundbreaking victory for Microsoft, defeating the FTC’s efforts to enjoin its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and winning the second-biggest merger trial in American history. Managed the litigation through all stages of discovery and the five-day bench trial, and cross-examined of one of the FTC’s witnesses. Following the trial, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the FTC’s motion for preliminary injunction, finding that the FTC failed to make its case that the acquisition would substantially lessen competition in the gaming industry.
- Served on the defense team in Northrup v. Covidien, litigation arising from claims that one of their hernia mesh products had design and manufacturing defects, and that the company provided inadequate warnings about the risks of hernia mesh. The U.S. District Court Judge handed down a decisive pretrial victory based on key admissions from Plaintiff’s expert that were quoted extensively in the Court’s opinion dismissing the case.
- Member of the legal team representing Bayer in coordinated trial proceedings over Essure, a permanent contraception device, in Alameda County, California.
- Represented a class of plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections and its private medical provider. Following a preliminary injunction hearing, the team obtained a settlement that provided access to life-saving medication for prisoners with hepatitis C.
- Member of the trial team for Bayer that won a complete defense verdict in Cooney v. Janssen, the third state-court bellwether trial involving Xarelto in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas.
Publications
- Case Comment, 128 Harv. L. Rev. 231 (2014) (discussing Navarette v. California, 134 S. Ct. 1683 (2014)).
- Recent Case, 127 Harv. L. Rev. 1839 (2014) (discussing United States v. McLaurin, 731 F.3d 258 (2d Cir. 2013)).