Patrick McGahan

Leading Agricultural and Chemicals Antitrust Cases.  In the United States, Mr. McGahan has established a distinguished reputation in agricultural and chemicals antitrust litigation.  He currently leads the Scott+Scott team serving as co-lead counsel on behalf of cattle ranchers and futures traders alleging a conspiracy among the nation’s meatpackers to suppress fed cattle prices in In re Cattle Antitrust Litigation, No. 22-md-03031 (D. Minn.).  He also serves as Court-appointed liaison counsel on behalf of the rancher plaintiffs, and has achieved a $83.5 million ice-breaker settlement with a single defendant to-date.  Additionally, he represents dairy farmers challenging Dairy Farmers of America of anticompetitive conduct in the Southwest in Othart Dairy Farms, LLC. v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., No. 22-cv-00251-MIS-DLM (D. N.M.) ($33.5 million in settlements preliminarily approved).

In the chemical sector, Mr. McGahan was instrumental in investigating and exposing a conspiracy amongst U.S. shale oil producers, and acts serves Court appointed co-lead counsel in In re Shale Oil Antitrust Litigation, No. 24-md-3119 (D.N.M.) on behalf of end-users of oil derivative products.  He is also part of the Scott+Scott team serving as co-lead counsel in challenging cartel and information exchange conduct in the PVC pipe market.  In re PVC Pipe Antitrust Litig., No. 1:24-cv-07639 (N.D. Ill.).

Technology and Antitrust.  Mr. McGahan operates at the forefront of antitrust and technology convergence. He currently serves on Scott+Scott leadership teams as Court-appointed co-lead counsel in:

• In re RealPage, Inc., Rental Software Antitrust Litigation, No. 3:23-md-03071 (M.D. Tenn.) (alleging price-fixing between developers of AI/algorithmic pricing software and property managers in the multifamily rental housing markets);
• Klein, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 5:20-cv-08570-LHK (N.D. Cal.) (alleging that Facebook monopolized the social advertising market); and
• Albert v. American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Inc., No. 8:25-cv-00673 (D. Md.) (alleging conspiracy to restrain and suppress competition for, and compensation to, pharmacy residents, through use of common recruiting software).

Payments Litigation.  Mr. McGahan brings substantial experience in the payments sector, having prosecuted numerous actions in England (where he helped establish the firm’s London office) on behalf of major retailers including Vodafone, Hermès, GrandVision, Michelin, Dunelm, Soho House, and Grange Hotels in their claims against Visa and Mastercard related to anticompetitive interchange fees.

Securities and Commodities Litigation.  Beyond antitrust, Mr. McGahan is actively engaged in commodities and securities manipulation cases, including Two Roads Shared Trust v. John Does, No. 20-cv-00831 (N.D. Ill.) (alleging manipulative trading of SPX Options in breach of the Commodities Exchange Act on behalf of a publicly traded investment vehicle in relation to losses exceeding $600 million), and In re Netshoes Sec. Litig., No. 157435/2018 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cnty.) ($8 million settlement on behalf of Netshoes’ investors), among other matters.  He also currently serves as lead counsel in general commercial litigation matters, including breach of contract cases such as Two Roads Shared Trust v. Wells Fargo Securities (N.Y. Sup. Ct.) (alleging breach of futures clearing contract) and Two Roads Shared Trust v. Wedbush Securities, Inc., Case No. 2023L009473 (Cook Cnty. Super. Ct. Ill.) (alleging breach of commodities give-up agreement).

Prior Experience.  Before joining Scott+Scott, Mr. McGahan spent four years in the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.  During this time, he worked on many of the leading English competition damages cases, including National Grid Electricity Transmission Plc v. ABB Ltd.  He also represented numerous clients in competition law investigations, both internal investigations and those brought by the Competition and Markets Authority, the European Commission, and other regulators.

HOBBIES

When not practicing law, Mr. McGahan enjoys cycling, hiking, and skiing with his three children.

ARTICLES

Mr. McGahan co-authored with Belinda Hollway, David Howe, and Devina Shah, Cartel Damages Settlements and the Damages Directive: The End of the Road for Contribution Claims, Global Competition Review (2017), Volume 10.

He also co-authored with David Howe and Cian Mansfield, Intel on Jurisdiction: An Intelligent Approach to Treating Anticompetitive Conduct across Global Supply Chains, Global Competition Review (2018), Volume 1.

CLERKSHIPS

Mr. McGahan clerked for the Honorable Justice Greenwood in the Federal Court of Australia in 2011.