On April 10, 2014, Judge William H. Pauley III of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed an antitrust class action against Cravath client American Express in Ross, et al. v. American Express Co., et al., No. 04-c-v-5723. This judgment followed a five-week bench trial in January and February 2013.

In their complaint, a class of consumers alleged that American Express had conspired with other credit card issuers, in violation of the Sherman Act, to adopt arbitration clauses barring class actions in card member agreements. Most of the card issuers settled the claims against them, but American Express and two others chose to proceed to trial. In his decision after trial, Judge Pauley held that plaintiffs did not prove the existence of an agreement among the issuers to adopt arbitration clauses, finding that “the record indicates that the final decision to adopt class-action-barring arbitration clauses was something the [card issuers] hashed out individually and internally.”

The Cravath team included partners Evan R. Chesler, Rowan D. Wilson and Gary A. Bornstein and associates Lillian S. Grossbard, Katherine A. Rocco, Brent M. Byars and Justin C. Clarke.