John F. Cove, Jr. is a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Litigation and Antitrust Groups and is based in the firm’s San Francisco office. Mr. Cove’s practice focuses on representing clients in antitrust matters, including price fixing, boycott, and monopolization cases, direct and indirect purchaser class actions, and unfair competition actions in federal and state courts across the nation. Mr. Cove has also represented clients in federal grand jury investigations of alleged cartel activity and other criminal offenses, in premerger reviews before federal and state antitrust authorities, and in investigations and proceedings by competition authorities outside the United States. Mr. Cove’s antitrust work spans a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, energy, software, semiconductors and related high-technology industries, financial services, airlines, chemicals, entertainment and other consumer products.
In addition to his antitrust work, Mr. Cove maintains an active securities and general commercial litigation practice, and has defended corporations and individuals in class and non-class actions alleging securities fraud and related offenses in federal and state courts, and in proceedings with the SEC.
Before joining Shearman & Sterling, Mr. Cove was a partner for 15 years at Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP, where he also concentrated on antitrust. Mr. Cove is a former trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, where he prosecuted criminal price fixing and bid rigging cases, conducted premerger reviews, litigated challenges to anticompetitive mergers, and served as a senior member of the trial team in United States v. Microsoft. He also served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of California.
In addition to his Government service with the Department of Justice, Mr. Cove spent two years as a clerk for the Hon. Edward D. Re, Chief Judge of the United States Court of International Trade, from 1984-1986.
