Biography

Eric L. Cramer is Chairman of Berger Montague and Co-Chair of its antitrust department. He has a national practice in the field of complex litigation, primarily in the area of antitrust class actions. He is currently co-lead counsel in multiple significant antitrust class actions across the country in a variety of industries and is responsible for winning numerous significant settlements for his clients totaling well over $3 billion. Most recently, he has focused on representing workers claiming that anti-competitive practices have suppressed their pay, including cases on behalf of mixed-martial-arts fighters, healthcare and luxury retail workers, and chicken growers. Further, in late 2021, Mr. Cramer served as one of the main trial counsel in an antitrust class action relating to an alleged international cartel of capacitors’ suppliers, which was tried to a jury and settled after nearly three weeks of trial.

Mr. Cramer was named to “Distinguished Leaders” by the Legal Intelligencer in 2023. In 2022, he was named to “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers, Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, and Global Elite Thought Leader third year in a row. Mr. Cramer was also recognized as Chambers USA Band 1 Nationwide Attorney in the Antitrust: Plaintiff in the year 2021. In 2020, Law360 named Mr. Cramer a Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar, and Who’s Who Legal identified him as a Global Elite Thought Leader, stating that he “comes recommended by peers as a top name for antitrust class action proceedings.” In 2019, The National Law Journal awarded Mr. Cramer the Keith Givens Visionary Award, which was developed to honor an outstanding trial lawyer who has moved the industry forward through his or her work within the legal industry ecosystem, demonstrating excellence in all aspects of work from client advocacy to peer education and mentoring. In 2018, he was named Philadelphia antitrust “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers, and in 2017, he won the American Antitrust Institute’s Antitrust Enforcement Award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice for his work in Castro v. Sanofi Pasteur Inc., No. 11-cv-07178 (D.N.J.). In that case, Mr. Cramer represented a national class of physicians challenging Sanofi Pasteur with anticompetitive conduct in the market for meningitis vaccines, resulting in a settlement of more than $60 million for the class. He has also been identified as a top-tier antitrust lawyer by Chambers & Partners in Pennsylvania and nationally. In 2020, Chambers & Partners observed that Mr. Cramer is “a fantastic lawyer…He has real trial experience and is very capable and super smart.” He has been highlighted annually since 2011 by The Legal 500 as one of the country’s top lawyers in the field of complex antitrust litigation and has repeatedly been deemed one of the “Best Lawyers in America,” including for 2021.

Mr. Cramer is also a frequent speaker at antitrust and litigation-related conferences and a leader of multiple non-profit advocacy groups. He is a past President of the Board of Directors of Public Justice, a national public interest advocacy group and law firm; a former Vice President of the Board of Directors of the American Antitrust Institute; a past President of COSAL (Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws), a leading industry group; and a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Consumer Antitrust Studies of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

He has written widely in the fields of class certification and antitrust law. Among other writings, Mr. Cramer has co-authored Antitrust as Antiracism: Antitrust as a Partial Cure for Systemic Racism (and Other Systemic “Isms”), Vol. 66(3) The Antitrust Bulletin 359-393 (2021) and Antitrust, Class Certification, and the Politics of Procedure, 17 George Mason Law Review 4 (2010), the latter of which was cited by both the First Circuit in In re Nexium Antitrust Litig., 777 F.3d 9, 27 (1st Cir. 2015), and the Third Circuit in Behrend v. Comcast Corp., 655 F.3d 182, 200, n.10 (3d Cir. 2011), rev’d on other grounds, 133 S. Ct. 1426 (2013). He has also co-written a number of other pieces, including: Of Vulnerable Monopolists?: Questionable Innovation in the Standard for Class Certification in Antitrust Cases, 41 Rutgers Law Journal 355 (2009-2010); A Questionable New Standard for Class Certification in Antitrust Cases, published in the ABA’s Antitrust Magazine, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Fall 2011); a Chapter of American Antitrust Institute’s Private International Enforcement Handbook (2010), entitled “Who May Pursue a Private Claim?;” and a chapter of the American Bar Association’s Pharmaceutical Industry Handbook (July 2009), entitled “Assessing Market Power in the Prescription Pharmaceutical Industry.”

Mr. Cramer is a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University (1989), where he earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School with a J.D. in 1993.

Professional Leadership

  • Senior Fellow and Former Director of the American Antitrust Institute
  • Member of the Board of Directors and Past President of Public Justice (Formerly Trial Lawyers for Public Justice)
  • Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Consumer & Antitrust Studies at Loyola University Chicago School of Law
  • Frequent speaker at antitrust and class action conferences around the country

Business and Community Leadership

  • Business and Community Leadership.
  • Cramer is active in community affairs, specifically those involving public education:
  • Co-founder, and past President of the Board of Trustees of the Independence Charter School, for which he also acted as pro bono litigation counsel
  • Member of the Board of the Ayer Condominium Association
  • Board Member of the Economy League of Philadelphia
  • Former Member of the Board of the Center for Literacy (one of largest non-profit adult literacy organizations in the country)
  • Former Chair of the Board of EducationVotersPA, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting issues concerning public education in Pennsylvania

Prominent Judgments and Settlements

  • In re Domestic Drywall Antitrust Litig., 13-md-2437 (E.D. Pa.) (settled in 2018 for over $190 million)
  • Castro, et al. v. Sanofi Pasteur Inc., Civil Action No. 2:11-cv-07178-JMV-MAH (D.N.J.) (settled in 2017 for $61.5 million)
  • United States ex rel. Dr. Joseph Piacentile v. Amgen Inc., CA No. 04-2511(E.D.N.Y.) (qui tam matter settled in 2015 for an undisclosed amount)
  • Marchbanks Truck Service Inc., et al. v. Comdata Network, Inc. et al., No. 07-1078 (E.D. Pa.) (settled in 2014 for $130 million plus valuable prospective relief)
  • In re TriCor Antitrust Litig., No. 02‑1512 (D. Del.) (settled in 2009 for $250 million)
  • In re Ovcon 35 Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1747 (D.D.C.) (Settled in 2008 for $22 million)
  • In re Terazosin Hydrochloride Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 1317 (S.D. Fla. 2005) (settled in 2005 for $74.5 million)
  • In re Remeron Antitrust Litig., No.03‑0085 (D.N.J. 2003) (Settled in 2005 for $75 million)
  • In re Relafen Antitrust Litig., No. 01-12239-WGY (D. Mass. 2003) (Settled in 2004 for $175 million)
  • In re Buspirone Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 1410 (S.D.N.Y.) (Settled in 2003 for $220 million)
  • In re Cardizem CD Antitrust Litig., MDL No. 1278 (E.D. Mich.) (Settled in 2002 for $110 million)
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Honors & Awards

  • Named one of the Top 10 Influential Antitrust Plaintiffs Shaping US Law: Nation’s Legal Titans by Business Today 2023
  • “Distinguished Leaders” by The Legal Intelligencer 2023
  • 2022 “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers The Legal Intelligencer Class Action Litigation Department of the Year (Finalist) 2022
    Named a 2020-2022 Global Elite Thought Leader by Who’s Who Legal
  • Recognized by the 2022 Best Lawyers in Antitrust, Commercial Litigation, Consumer Protection, and Philadelphia “Lawyer of the Year”
  • Named a Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer (2019 – 2020), and 2022
  • Recipient of The National Law Journal‘s 2019 Keith Givens Visionary Award
  • Named 2018 Philadelphia Antitrust “Lawyer of the Year” by Best Lawyers
  • Named to The Legal 500‘s Leading Lawyers List for Antitrust – Civil Litigation/Class Actions in the United States annually since 2011
  • Repeatedly selected by Chambers USA to America’s Leading Business Lawyers as one of Pennsylvania’s top antitrust lawyers
  • Repeatedly deemed one of the “Best Lawyers in America”
  • Super Lawyers: 2005 – 2022
  • Named a 2020 Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar by Law360
  • Selected as one of the top 100 lawyers in Philadelphia by Philadelphia Magazine in 2018 and 2014
  • 2017 American Antitrust Institute’s Antitrust Enforcement Award for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice for Castro v. Sanofi Pasteur, Inc.
  • 2014 American Antitrust Institute Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Honorable Mention for Marchbanks Truck Service Inc. et al. v. Comdata Network, Inc. et al.
  • American Antitrust Institute Honorable Mention in 2014 for Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law
  • Selected by Lawdragon as a “Rising Star” and “Antitrust Ace”

Publications

Admissions

  • Member – Pennsylvania Bar
  • Member – New York Bar
  • Admitted – Eastern District of Pennsylvania
  • Admitted – Second Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Admitted – Third Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Admitted – Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Admitted – Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals
  • Admitted – Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals