Dean M. Harvey

Dean M. Harvey represents workers, consumers, and small businesses in antitrust and intellectual property cases.

Dean is among the nation’s leading advocates for workers asserting antitrust claims, and leads Lieff Cabraser’s work on labor antitrust cases. He represented a nationwide class of over 64,000 high-tech workers against Google, Apple, Intel and other tech giants for conspiring to suppress the mobility and compensation of their technical employees. This landmark case resulted in the largest recovery (by far) of any class action asserting antitrust claims in the employment context: $435 million. The Daily Journal described the case as the “most significant antitrust employment case in recent history,” adding that it “has been widely recognized as a legal and public policy breakthrough.” The case is the subject of a documentary: When Rules Don’t Apply.

Dean was Lead Class Counsel of two classes of professors of Duke University and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, regarding an understanding between the schools not to compete for each other’s faculty. Those two cases resulted in settlements totaling $73.5 million and unprecedented injunctive relief, including an important enforcement role for the United States Department of Justice. Assistant Attorney General Delrahim remarked: “Permitting the United States to become part of this settlement agreement in this private antitrust case, and thereby to obtain all of the relief and protections it likely would have sought after a lengthy investigation, demonstrates the benefits that can be obtained efficiently for the American worker when public and private enforcement work in tandem.”

Dean was Co-Lead Class Counsel of a nationwide class of workers who alleged a conspiracy between the world’s two leading rail equipment suppliers to suppress the pay of their employees. That case led to total settlements of $48.95 million. He is also Interim Co-Lead Class Counsel regarding a nationwide class of skilled medical workers regarding agreements among the nation’s leading outpatient medical centers not to compete for each other’s workers.

Dean also represents consumers and small businesses in cases challenging price-fixing conspiracies, particularly regarding the exorbitant prices of prescription drugs. For example, the Cipro litigation led to a landmark (and unanimous) decision by the California Supreme Court upholding the rights of consumers to challenge backroom deals between brand name drug makers and generic manufacturers to eliminate competition for life-saving medications. That case led to total settlements of $399 million, nearly $68 million more than estimated damages. The trial court described the outcome as “extraordinary,” adding that it was “not aware of any case” that “has taken roughly 17 years,” where, net of fees, end-payor “claimants will get basically 100 cents on the dollar[.]” Currently, Dean represents a municipal public employee union and other proposed class members challenging a wide-ranging alleged conspiracy among generic drug makers to inflate the prices of many generic drugs. The conspiracy has been described as most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States.

Dean is also Lead Interim Class Counsel for a proposed class of purchasers of bail bonds in California. This first-of-its-kind case alleges a conspiracy among sureties and bail agents to inflate bail bond prices.

Dean was a Law Clerk to the Honorable James V. Selna of the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Dean has been recognized many times as among the leading antitrust litigators in California and the nation. In 2019, the American Antitrust Institute selected Dean for its “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Practice Award,” regarding his path-breaking work challenging a faculty no-poach agreement between Duke University and the University of North Carolina. The Daily Journal has twice named him as among the “Top Antitrust Lawyers in California,” and Dean was a 2016 California Lawyer “Attorney of the Year” because of his role in the Cipro antitrust litigation. In 2006, Dean received the first annual William E. Swope Antitrust Writing Award for his paper, “Anticompetitive Social Norms as Antitrust Violations,” published by the California Law Review.

Dean is a member of the American Antitrust Institute’s Advisory Board, serves as an Expert assisting the California Law Revision Commission in its assessment of California antitrust law, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the California Lawyers Association.  Dean previously served as Co-Chair of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, Competition Torts Committee, and as a member of the Law360 Competition Editorial Advisory Board.