Kirby McInerney LLP | Sawa Nagano

Of Counsel

snagano@kmllp.com

New York
250 Park Avenue
Suite 820
New York, NY 10177
212.371.6600

Sawa Nagano Of Counsel

snagano@kmllp.com

New York
250 Park Avenue
Suite 820
New York, NY 10177
212.371.6600

Biography

Sawa Nagano is Of Counsel to the firm. She focuses on the representation of clients in relation to price-fixing litigation under the Sherman Antitrust Act and other federal and state laws to recover overcharges caused by international price-fixing cartels.

Ms. Nagano joined the firm in 2013.

Prior to joining KM, Ms. Nagano worked with the law firms of both Orrick, Herrington, and Sutcliffe LLP and Crowell and Morning LLP, where she assisted in the investigation of conspiracies to engage in price-fixing and anticompetitive practices by manufacturers and multinational conglomerates, and she represented cable operators on matters arising before the Federal Communications Commission as well as in their relations with local and state franchising authorities. She also worked for the New York bureau of a major Japanese television network. Additionally, she interned with the Office of Commissioner Furchtgott-Roth at the Federal Communications Commission and worked as a student counsel at the Art, Sports, and Entertainment Law Clinic of the Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University.

Ms. Nagano is fluent in Japanese.

Antitrust

Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan (B.A. 1989)
New York University (M.A. 1992)
The Dickinson School of Law of the Pennsylvania State University (J.D. 2000)

New York State Bar
New Jersey State Bar
The District of Columbia Bar
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
United States District Court for the District of New Jersey

Experience

Some of Ms. Nagano's experience includes:

Representation of a class of purchasers in In re: Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assemblies Antitrust Litigation, a case alleging that defendants fixed the prices of suspension assemblies (a critical component of hard disk drives) which artificially increased the prices of computers throughout the U.S.
Representation of an end-user class of businesses and consumers in connection with In re Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation. In this case, the manufacturers of cathode ray tubes conspired to fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilize prices. Because of defendants’ alleged unlawful conduct, plaintiffs and other class members paid artificially inflated prices for CRT Products and have suffered financial harm.
Court-appointed executive committee member and class counsel in In re Digital Advertising Antitrust Litigation, representing publishers alleging that Google monopolized and suppressed competition in online display advertising.
Representation of a whistleblower who alleges that waste-to-energy plant operator Covanta violated environmental regulations by creating hazardous ash as a by-product of the burning of garbage from multiple Long Island towns in State of New York v. Covanta Hempstead Company et al. The case has been brought on behalf of New York State, certain local governments on Long Island, and the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Over the course of a decade, these local governments paid $890 million to Covanta to take their communities’ garbage in an environmentally safe way. As alleged, Covanta did not, in fact, abide by the necessary protocols to keep the ash that was dumped in the Brookhaven landfill from being hazardous.
Obtained an $8.5 million award – the largest-ever settlement in a declined New York State False Claims Act case – for a whistleblower in Anonymous, et ano. v. Moody's Corporation, et al., a groundbreaking case against Moody's and others under the New York State False Claims Act. The litigation brought to light a multi-year, multimillion-dollar tax fraud scheme executed by Moody’s and its consultants wherein the company repeatedly underpaid city and state taxes by maintaining a sham insurance corporation as a subsidiary. The KM team was successful both before the trial court as well as on appeal before the New York City First Department.
Representation of the exchange-based class in In re LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, an antitrust case alleging that defendant banks colluded to misreport and manipulate LIBOR. This litigation has already resulted in partial settlements totaling approximately $187 million, which collectively represent the largest historical class-wide recovery for a “futures only” settlement class.
Special fiduciary representation for the exchange-based class in In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation for a putative class of participants who traded futures and options in the FX market. The case has already resulted in partial settlements of more than $2.3 billion.

Cases & Investigations

Case / Company Name
Type
Status

Name In re Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assemblies Antitrust Litigation,
No. 19-md-02918 (N.D. Cal.).
Type Antitrust
Status Pending
Ongoing representation of a class of purchasers alleging that defendants fixed the prices of suspension assemblies, a critical component of hard disk drives, raising the prices of computers throughout the U.S.

Name In re Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation,
MDL No. 1917 (N.D. Cal.).
Type Antitrust
Status Settled
KM is one of the core firms in an indirect purchaser antitrust litigation. The case resulted in settlements on behalf of end payers totaling $576.75 million. Specifically, the Special Master in the CRT litigation noted that, “Kirby played an integral role in this case and assumed significant risk . . . Kirby’s work was at a very high level [and] Kirby’s work greatly benefited the Class.”

News

11/06/2019 | Articles and TV Recent Trends in U.S. Securities Litigation– ADR Litigation Risk
Part II: ADR Cases Involving Japanese Companies

Christopher Studebaker, Partner, and Sawa Nagano, Of Counsel, co-authored this article discussing recent trends in ADR issuances and post-Morrison cases involving ADRs. The article is published (in Japanese) in a leading Japanese legal news service.