Joseph R. Saveri

  • Biography
  • Key Cases
  • Accolades & Awards

Joseph R. Saveri specializes in antitrust law and complex civil and class action litigation in state, federal, and international arenas. With 30 years of civil litigation experience, he has handled cases involving numerous industries, including: banking and financial services, insurance, energy, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, computer hardware, computer software, travel and transportation, paper products, cosmetics, and consumer electronics. He is one of the country's top litigators in the antitrust field, representing individuals, consumers, small business owners, public officials, and heads of corporations negatively affected by monopolistic business practices.

Joe has a well-established track record in the fields of antitrust law and complex litigation. In 1987, he started his career doing general litigation work at the San Francisco law firm of McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen. In 1992, he joined the plaintiffs’ firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein (LCHB), where he established and was the Managing Partner of the firm’s antitrust and intellectual property practice, which in 2012 was recognized as one of the top five practice groups in California.

During 20 years at LCHB, he handled numerous groundbreaking and landmark cases. This included litigation against Apple, Google, Intel, Adobe Systems, Pixar, Lucasfilm, and other tech companies for illegally agreeing not to poach each other’s employees; a class action representing direct purchasers in price-fixing claims against thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display manufacturers; a class action lawsuit on behalf of consumers and others against Bayer for exclusionary drug pricing agreements involving the generic version of the drug Cipro; and another landmark class action against diamond company De Beers SA for monopolizing the rough diamond trade. He also served as lead counsel in other state and federal trials involving brand-name prescription drug price-fixing and the pharmaceutical industry.

Joe continues this high-profile work at the Joseph Saveri Law Firm, which he founded in May 2012 to provide the highest quality legal work to clients throughout the United States. Since inception, courts across the United States have appointed him and the firm to leadership positions in important antitrust cases, class actions, and other complex litigation.

Joe is a frequent author of articles on antitrust and complex litigation issues, and lectures on a variety of matters, including antitrust, complex litigation, class action practice, generative artificial intelligence, and discovery. He also serves as an author of California Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law, the legal treatise published by the State Bar of California’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Section. He is on the Advisory Board of the American Antitrust Institute. He has recently chaired and participated in class action-related panel discussions held by International Comparative Legal Guides. In 2019, he was a featured speaker at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s public roundtable to discuss the Antitrust Criminal Penalty Enhancement & Reform Act. He also spoke at the University of Haifa’s (Israel) 3rd International Conference: Dispute Resolution of Consumer Mass Disputes, Collective Redress, Class Action, and ADR

From 2010 through 2013, Joe served as a Lawyer Representative for the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He continues to serve on several court committees charged with developing rules and programs regarding complex litigation, e-discovery, and a variety of other matters. He was chosen to serve as a member of the Northern District’s Civil Rules Advisory Committee from 2009-2012, the committee to establish rules and procedures for expedited trials (which the Court adopted as General Order No. 64, “Expedited Trial Procedures”), and the committee which crafted new e-discovery rules and procedures recently adopted by the Court.

Joe is a member of the American Bar Association (Antitrust Section), the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Italian Lawyers Club of San Francisco.

  • American Antitrust Institute: Honoree—Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice (2017, 2023); Finalist—Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice (2015) (both awards given to the firm)
  • Benchmark Litigation: Ranked as “National Practice Area Star” and “Local Litigation Star” for “Competition/Antitrust;” firm recognized as one of the best in California in "Competition/Antitrust" and "Dispute Resolution" practice areas (2020-present)
  • Best Lawyers: Best Lawyers in America (2012-present); Best Law Firms (2013-present)
  • Business Today: “Top 10 Influential Antitrust Plaintiffs Shaping U.S. Law: Nation’s Legal Titans” (2023)
  • Chambers USA: Band 1(top-ranked) plaintiffs’ antitrust attorney for California and nationwide (2014-present)
  • California Daily Journal: Top Plaintiff Lawyers (2018-present); Top 100 Lawyers in California (2016, 2018, 2019, 2021-present); Top Antitrust Lawyers (2020, 2022-present); CLAY award—California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (2016, 2022); Top Intellectual Property Lawyers (2024); Leading Commercial Litigators (2023-present); Leading Labor & Employment Lawyers (2014)
  • Global Competition Review: Lawyer of the Year (shortlisted) (2022)  
  • Law 360: Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar for his leadership and vision in extending the reach of antitrust cases into new areas such as pharmaceutical reverse payments and “no-poach” agreements by high-tech employers (2014)
  • Lawdragon: 500 Leading Lawyers in America (2022-present); 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers (2019-present); 500 Leading Litigators (2023-present); 100 AI & Legal Tech Advisors (2024); 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers (2024)  
  • Legal 500: Leading Lawyer – “United States Antitrust Civil Litigation/Class Actions: Plaintiff” category (2021-present)
  • Martindale-Hubbell: AV Preeminent Peer Rated Attorneys (2002-present)
  • National Law Journal: Elite Trial Lawyers of the Year Award: Plaintiff Attorney of the Year - finalist (2024); Trailblazers—Mergers & Acquisitions and Antitrust (2015)
  • Super Lawyers: Super Lawyers Northern California—Antitrust Litigation (2006-present); Super Lawyers Top 100 Northern California (2015-2016, 2019-present) 
  • Who’s Who Legal: Selected to and profiled in Who’s Who Legal’s Thought Leaders: Competition publication (2019-present) and from 2015-present ranked as one of the top plaintiffs’ attorneys worldwide via Who’s Who Legal: Competition, a publication of Who’s Who Legal and Global Competition Review

Awards

  • 2023 Chambers - Joe badge
  • Martindale Hubbell 2019
  • 8024 Joseph Saveri Law Firm (DJ 3-20-22 TOP CLAY) BADGE
  • Joseph R Saveri 2023 TOP PLAINTIFFS BADGE
  • Joseph Saveri 2023 TOP ANTITRUST BADGE-1
  • Joseph P Saveri 2024 TOP LEAD LITIGATORS BADGE
  • Joseph Saveri 2023 TOP 100 BADGE
  • 2023 Joe Super Lawyers
  • 2018 Saveri SL Top 100
  • 2023 Joe Super Lawyers 15 years
  • Whos Who Legal
  • LD_500_Leading_Lawyers_2024-1
  • LD_500 Plantiff Financial Lawyers 2023
  • Legal 500 2022 Leading Individual
  • 2024 Joseph Saveri Best Lawyers badge
  • LD_500_Leading_Litigators_2024-1
  • ai-tech-badge-2024