Rory A.
Leraris

Ms. Leraris’s current and recent matters include:

Antitrust Litigation

• Obtained a major victory for AmEx before the U.S. Supreme Court in an antitrust lawsuit originally brought by the DOJ and 17 state attorneys general challenging certain provisions in AmEx’s merchant agreements. She also represented AmEx in obtaining the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ unanimous reversal of an adverse trial decision in this case, one of the most significant government antitrust enforcement actions in recent history.

• Represented AmEx in a series of putative class actions and individual lawsuits brought by large supermarket and pharmacy chains in New York federal court alleging that AmEx imposed rules that limited merchants from steering their customers to other payment methods. The matters settled following AmEx’s victory in the Supreme Court. Ms. Leraris won motions to compel arbitration and to dismiss similar claims brought by two additional putative classes of smaller merchant plaintiffs. The Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal.

• Represented Sabre in its successful appeal to the Second Circuit of an adverse jury verdict in a lawsuit brought by US Airways in New York federal court alleging that Sabre used its monopoly power to charge inflated fees to airlines for bookings made through its Global Distribution System, and impeded travel agents and others from using cheaper alternative platforms to book airline seats for customers. The Second Circuit vacated the jury verdict and remanded for further proceedings. 

• Represented Compagnie de Saint‑Gobain as U.S. counsel on antitrust issues—including litigation brought by the FTC—in connection with the $2.2 billion sale of its Verallia North America business to Ardagh Group. Ardagh and the FTC ultimately reached a settlement, and the transaction closed .

• Represented Viacom International and Black Entertainment Television in an antitrust lawsuit brought by Cablevision in New York federal court alleging that Viacom engaged in illegal tying and block booking by coercing Cablevision into agreeing to distribute certain of Viacom’s allegedly less popular cable channels along with other of its more popular, “commercially critical” networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, BET and MTV.

M&A Litigation

• Representing members of the special transaction committee of Viacom’s board of directors in consolidated putative class action litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery alleging, among other things, that those directors breached their fiduciary duties in connection with Viacom’s $30 billion merger with CBS.
• Represented Buckeye Partners, L.P. and its officers and directors in putative class action litigation relating to Buckeye’s $10.3 billion merger with IFM Global Infrastructure Fund. The Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed the last remaining action brought against Buckeye, and the dismissal was affirmed on appeal by the Delaware Supreme Court in October 2022.
• Represented DHT Holdings in securing the dismissal of lawsuits filed in New York and the Marshall Islands against the company related to the rejected offer made by Frontline, one of DHT’s largest shareholders, to acquire the company.

• Represented First Citizens BancShares and its board of directors in obtaining a precedent‑setting victory in actions filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery that challenged First Citizens BancShares’s merger with First Citizens Bancorporation and sought to invalidate First Citizens BancShares’s forum‑selection bylaw—adopted on the same day that it entered into a merger agreement—requiring that shareholder disputes be litigated in North Carolina. The Chancery Court dismissed both actions.

• Represented Zale Corporation and its board of directors in litigation relating to its $1.4 billion acquisition by Signet Jewelers. After defeating a motion for a preliminary injunction, the deal closed on schedule less than a week later. Claims against the Zale board were later dismissed, and the dismissal was affirmed on appeal.
• Represented Kraton Corporation (formerly Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc.) in securing the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by LCY Chemical and LCY Synthetic Rubber for a termination fee after Kraton’s board decided to withdraw support for a proposed merger with LCY.

Securities and Derivative Litigation

• Won summary judgment for Viatris (formerly Mylan) in a shareholder class action that asserted numerous violations of the federal securities laws, all premised on other allegations related to Mylan’s marketing, pricing and classification of EpiPen, as well as alleged conduct concerning generic drug price‑fixing and market allocation. The decision represents one of the few resolutions of a federal securities fraud litigation at summary judgment entirely in favor of defendants.
• Representing Blackstone as the pre‑IPO private equity sponsor and a principal stockholder of Bumble in putative class action stockholder litigation filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery challenging Bumble’s dual‑class voting structure.
• Represented Palantir Technologies in two actions filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery by a shareholder seeking inspection of Palantir’s books and records. One of the actions was tried and went up on appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court. 
• Represented the Founders of Palantir Technologies in securing a settlement in putative class action litigation filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, which challenged the company’s governance structure following Palantir’s direct listing.

• Represented Xerox Corporation in obtaining the affirmance of the summary judgment dismissal of a 13‑year‑old, $2 billion securities class action in Connecticut federal court alleging that Xerox violated federal securities laws by allegedly misrepresenting the success of Xerox’s 1998 global restructuring program.

• Represented Credit Suisse as national coordinating counsel in as many as 50 lawsuits filed in state and federal courts across the country relating to residential mortgage‑backed securities.

Other Commercial Litigation

• Represented A.J. Richard & Sons as plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in New York state court against Forest City Ratner Companies seeking to enforce Forest City Ratner’s obligations under an agreement relating to the Atlantic Yards redevelopment in Brooklyn, New York.

• Represented INEOS Bio USA LLC and INEOS Bio Ltd., a developer of groundbreaking technology to convert waste products into fuel‑grade ethanol, in an action for misappropriation of trade secrets and breach of contract against Coskata, Inc. The parties settled on terms favorable to INEOS.

• Represented Alcoa Inc. in an ERISA action filed in Tennessee federal court by a class of former Alcoa employees, seeking to undo portions of Alcoa’s Collective Bargaining Agreement with the United Steel Workers Union. Following a two‑week bench trial, a judgment was secured for Alcoa dismissing the case, which was affirmed by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ms. Leraris was named a Law360 “Rising Star” for Competition in 2019. In addition, she received Euromoney Legal Media Group’s 2019 Americas Rising Star Award for “Best in Antitrust/Competition,” as well as a “Case of the Year” award in recognition of her work on behalf of American Express in Ohio v. American Express. Ms. Leraris has repeatedly been named by Benchmark Litigation as a “Future Star” and included on its “40 & Under List.” She has also been named to Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Litigators in America” list. Ms. Leraris has additionally been recognized by The Legal 500 US for her work in antitrust, general commercial and M&A litigation, and by Super Lawyers for her litigation work.

Ms. Leraris was born in Boulder, Colorado. She received a B.A. magna cum laude in Psychology and Sociology from Amherst College in 2003 and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2008.

Ms. Leraris joined Cravath in 2008 and was elected a partner in 2016.