Rakesh Kilaru

Career

Rakesh specializes in delivering favorable results to clients at every stage of litigation. He has helped deliver high-profile trial victories for Microsoft, Bayer, and the NCAA; obtained major summary judgment victories for Bayer and Georgia-Pacific; secured full dismissal of a groundbreaking enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before any discovery was taken; and defended trial court victories on appeal.

Clients routinely call on Rakesh to develop winning strategies in their most significant complex litigation matters. Since joining the firm in 2017, he has played a lead strategic role in ten different class action or mass tort cases, doing everything from arguing dispositive motions to crossing expert witnesses at trial to arguing precedent-setting appeals.

Rakesh is also an accomplished antitrust litigator. Most recently, Rakesh was second-chair trial counsel for Microsoft in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision. Rakesh directed the legal and expert strategy and handled several witnesses at trial, including Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella. Just days after the close of evidence, the district court issued a ruling denying the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, clearing the path in the US for the deal to close in the U.S. for the deal to close.