Rakesh Kilaru

Rakesh has substantial experience litigating high-stakes matters in trial and appellate courts throughout the country.

Over the past several years, Rakesh has successfully resolved some of the biggest antitrust cases in history. Those include obtaining a full judgment for the NFL in post-trial proceedings in a $21 billion challenge to the NFL’s media model, defeating the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and negotiating a groundbreaking and innovative settlement to end decades of litigation over the NCAA’s compensation rules.

Beyond antitrust, Rakesh has helped clients achieve successful outcomes in a wide array of industries and subject matter areas, including defamation, financial services, products liability, and trade secrets. He has served as lead or co-lead counsel in over a dozen class actions or MDLs.

Rakesh’s record of success is nationally recognized. He won Benchmark Litigation’s “Antitrust Litigator of the Year” award in 2026, is included among their elite “Top 100 Trial Lawyers,” has repeatedly been selected as a “Litigation Star,” and has received two national “Impact Case Awards” recognizing his work for Microsoft and the NCAA. He is ranked by Chambers and Partners and recommended by Legal 500 in both sports and antitrust law. He has also been distinguished as both a National Law Journal “Winning Litigator” and “Rising Star,” a Law360 “MVP” for Sports & Betting, and one of Bloomberg Law’s “40 Under 40.” He also regularly appears on Lawdragon’s top lawyers lists, including “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” “500 Leading Litigators in America,” and “500 Leading Global Entertainment, Sports & Media Lawyers.”

Before joining the firm, Rakesh was a Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel in the Office of White House Counsel, where he provided legal advice and strategic counseling to the Obama Administration on its domestic policy agenda. He also helped to develop and implement the government’s litigation strategy in cases arising under the Affordable Care Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Rakesh began his career by clerking for Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Before joining the firm, Rakesh was a Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel in the Office of White House Counsel, where he provided legal advice and strategic counseling to the Obama Administration on its domestic policy agenda. He also helped to develop and implement the government’s litigation strategy in cases arising under the Affordable Care Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Rakesh began his career by clerking for Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Rakesh is an elected member of The American Law Institute (ALI), and is active in the legal community. He sits on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia and on the Board of the Second Look Project and is an editor of the Green Bag. He also serves on the Nominations Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association-DC, and previously served as a Director of APABA-DC’s Education Fund.