BIO:
Mr. McGahan is a Partner in Scott+Scott’s Connecticut and London offices and works closely with other members of the firm’s Antitrust and Competition Practice in counseling corporate and institutional clients, evaluating potential claims, and developing strategies to recover losses caused by anticompetitive conduct. Mr. McGahan specializes in antitrust and commodities litigation before United States and English courts. He has also acted for clients in a variety of securities litigation, arbitrations (both investment treaty and commercial), and pieces of general commercial litigation.
In the United States, Mr. McGahan has a strong agrictural focus. He presently leads the Scott+Scott team acting as co-lead counsel on behalf of cattle ranchers and futures traders alleging a conspiracy amongst nation’s meatpackers to suppress fed cattle prices. In re Cattle Antitrust Litigation, No. 22-md-03031 (D. Minn.). Mr. McGahan also serves as Court-appointed liaison counsel on behalf of the rancher plaintiffs. He separately acts on behalf of dairy-farmers accussing Dairy Farmers of America of anticompetive conduct in the South-West. Othart Dairy Farms, LLC. v. Dairy Farmers of America, Inc., No. 22-cv-00251-MIS-DLM (D. N.M.).
Outside of agriculture, Mr. McGahan is active in the intersection between antitrust and tech. He is currently part of the Scott+Scott leadership teams acting 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 amongst developer of AI/algorithmic pricing software and property managers in the multifamily rental housing markets); and
- Klein, et al. v. Meta Platforms, Inc., No. 5:20-cv-08570-LHK (N.D. Cal.) (alleging that Facebook monopolized the social advertising market).
Mr. McGahan has significant experience in the payments space, having litigated numerous suits in England on behalf of retailers (including Vodafone, Hermès, GrandVision, Michelin, Dunelm, Soho House, Grange Hotels) in their claims against Visa and Mastercard in relation to anti-competitive interchange fees. He is also acting for U.S. merchants in their claim that Apple’s agreement with Visa and Mastercard to lock-out competiting payment schemes from ApplePay was anticompetitive. Mirage Wine + Spirit’s, Inc. v. Apple Inc. et al., No. 3:23-cv-3942 (RJD) (S.D. Ill.).
Outside of antitrust, Mr. McGahan is active 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), In re Netshoes Sec. Litig., No. 157435/2018 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cnty.) ($8 million settlement on behalf of Netshoes’ investors), and Robinson v. Diana Containerships, No. 17-cv-6160 (E.D.N.Y) (alleging conspiracy between funder and various Greek shipping companies), among other matters. Mr. McGahan also presently serves as lead counsel in pieces of general commercial litigation, including breach of contract. Two Roads Shared Trust v. Wells Fargo Securities (N.Y. Sup. Ct.) (alleging breach of of Futures Clearing Merchant (FCM) 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 to joining Scott+Scott, Mr. McGahan spent four years in the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. During this time, he acted in many of the leading English competition damages cases, including National Grid Electricity Transmission Plc v. ABB Ltd. He also acted for 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 at work, 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.