Wilkinson Stekloff achieved a major victory for the NFL and its 32 member teams when a California federal judge granted their post-trial motion for judgment as a matter of law, overturning a jury’s earlier verdict in the class action lawsuit that had challenged the League’s collective licensing of broadcast rights to NFL games, including the exclusive distributorship arrangement with DIRECTV for its Sunday Ticket subscription.
In his August 1 order, U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez excluded as “unreliable” the testimony of Plaintiffs’ key expert witnesses. Without their testimony, he noted, the Plaintiffs “failed to provide evidence from which a reasonable jury could make a finding of injury.”
Judge Gutierrez’ definitive ruling comes after nine years of litigation in which certain Sunday Ticket subscribers alleged that the league’s media rights model had violated U.S. antitrust law. Wilkinson Stekloff has served as the NFL’s lead counsel throughout the litigation.
Partners Beth Wilkinson, Brian Stekloff, and Rakesh Kilaru oversaw a weeks-long trial in the matter in June, with Stekloff delivering oral arguments in the post-trial motions in July. Partner Jeremy Barber and an elite team of counsel and associates also played key roles.
In setting aside a Los Angeles federal jury’s original $4.7 billion award to the plaintiffs, Judge Gutierrez noted that the jury “did not follow the Court’s instructions and instead relied on inputs not tied to the record” to generate a “nonsensical” damages calculation.
“We are grateful to Judge Gutierrez for his thoughtful oversight throughout the trial and his decisive ruling in its wake,” said Beth Wilkinson. “We are thrilled to be able to deliver this victory to our clients after almost a decade of litigation.”
The Wilkinson Stekloff team, long noted for its trial prowess, has emerged as a dominant force in bet-the-company antitrust cases. In 2023, the firm secured a groundbreaking victory for Microsoft in the second-biggest merger trial in American history, clearing the way for the company’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. And in May of this year, the firm led negotiations in a groundbreaking settlement of antitrust class actions brought by current and former student-athletes challenging NCAA rules that limit student-athlete compensation and benefits.
The NFL victory has been covered in several mainstream and legal news outlets, including Law.com.