Celeste C. Saravia

Vice President

Contact

  • San Francisco

Education

Celeste Saravia provides economic and statistical consulting, analysis, and expert testimony in complex business litigation. Dr. Saravia specializes in class certification, liability, and damages issues arising in antitrust and regulatory matters. She has particular expertise in the economics of distribution and franchising, vertical restraints, and other exclusionary conduct. She has worked on matters across a range of industries, including information technology, medical devices, aviation, energy, telecommunications, and media. Who’s Who Legal has recognized her as a leading competition economist.

Antitrust and competition

As an expert witness, Dr. Saravia has provided testimony on damages and liability issues in multiple antitrust cases. She testified at trial on liability issues in an alleged monopolization case, J&M Distributing Inc. v. Hearth and Home Technologies Inc. and Magnotti & Sons Inc. In addition, Dr. Saravia has submitted reports and provided deposition testimony in cases involving allegations of price fixing and exclusionary conduct, including an anticompetitive bundling case, Inline Packaging LLC v. Graphic Packaging International Inc.

As a consultant, Dr. Saravia has addressed class certification issues in numerous high-profile antitrust cases, including In re Flash Memory Antitrust Litigation, and Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System v. Hillenbrand Industries. She has also analyzed competitive effects issues in cases such as American Express Travel Related Services Company Inc. v. Visa USA Inc. et al. and Thales Avionics Inc. v. Matsushita Avionics Systems Corporation.

Dr. Saravia has significant experience conducting damages analyses in antitrust and competition cases, notably in a matter involving alleged anticompetitive bundling and exclusive contracts by a security technology vendor.

Dr. Saravia is experienced at consulting for the parties and agencies in mergers, as well as other antitrust regulatory investigations in the U.S. and abroad. She has analyzed competitive effects in a number of prominent proposed mergers, such as Sysco–US Foods and Thoratec–Heartware.

Energy and commodities

Dr. Saravia has developed analytical and statistical models to examine the competitiveness of deregulated electricity markets and modeled the competitive effects of a proposed merger of two electricity firms. In a matter related to an alleged monopsony by the largest purchaser of a natural resource, she provided a preliminary injunction analysis and addressed class certification, liability, and damages issues.

Intellectual property

Dr. Saravia has addressed general damages and intellectual property issues in a variety of matters. These cases include Verizon Services Corp. et al. v. Cox Fibernet Virginia Inc. et al., where she analyzed reasonable royalty rates, lost profits, and price erosion due to patent infringement. She also addressed reasonable royalty rates due to patent infringement in Brandeis University and GFA Brands, Inc. v. Keebler Co. et al. Dr. Saravia analyzed class certification, liability, and damages related to a breach of contract dispute in the hospitality industry.

Dr. Saravia currently serves as a vice chair of the Pricing Conduct Committee of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section. She is a frequent speaker on competition issues, and also publishes on related topics. In 2016, Dr. Saravia won an Antitrust Writing Award from Concurrences for her coauthored article, “Analyzing Incentives and Liability in ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Conspiracies.” She has published research in Global Competition Review, including “Horizontal Merger Guidelines and Market Definition in Monopolization Cases” and “Economics of Antitrust: The Current State of Law and Economics on Bundled Discounts.”

Prior to joining Cornerstone Research, Dr. Saravia worked at the University of California Energy Institute.

Case

In re China International Marine Containers Group and Maersk Container Industry

Press Release

WWL: Global Leader Competition—Economists 2022

Press Release

Cornerstone Research Recognized in GCR 2021 Behavioural Matter of the Year – Americas

Press Release

2021 Who’s Who Legal: Consulting Experts

Press Release

Who’s Who Legal: Competition 2021—Economists

Press Release

2021 Antitrust Writing Awards

Case

FTC v. Qualcomm

Case

Fresenius Kabi USA LLC v. Par Sterile Products LLC et al.

  • “Analyzing Incentives and Liability in ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ Conspiracies,” Distribution and Franchising Committee, American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, April 2015
  • “Standards for Assessing Bundled Discounts,” Global Competition Review, 2009
  • “Transatlantic Antitrust Class Actions,” 49th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law and Policy and Antitrust Economics Workshops, Fordham University School of Law, 14 September 2022
  • “Certifiable? Navigating Class Actions Today,” American Bar Association’s 70th Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 6 April 2022
  • “Think Tank on State and Federal Antitrust Initiatives: Commercial Considerations for Patent Settlements, Reverse Payments, and Emerging Legislation,” 12th Summit on Biosimilars & Innovator Biologics, American Conference Institute, 23 June 2021
  • “Big Tech Trial Juror Study,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, 18 May 2021
  • “Fundamentals—Economics,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 23 March 2021
  • “Women in Lead Roles: First Chairs and Expert Witnesses,” American Bar Association, 25 February 2021
  • “Tech Enforcement and Digital Competition Challenges,” Antitrust TX 2020, 28 October 2020
  • “Antitrust Counseling on Competitor Collaborations and Price Gouging during COVID-19,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, 1 April 2020
  • 20th Annual Berkeley-Stanford Advanced Patent Law Institute: Silicon Valley, 12 December 2019
  • “A Deep Dive into Spokeo: Including a Discussion of the Use of Experts and Statistical Sampling at Class Certification in Light of Spokeo and Tyson,” 2017 Class Action Litigation Conference, 8 September 2017
  • “What Is a Hub-and-Spoke Conspiracy and Who Benefits?,” webinar, 16 May 2017
  • “Fundamentals—Economics,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 29 March 2017
  • “Clarifying Liability in Hub-and-Spoke Conspiracies,” Antitrust Globally: American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 6 April 2016
  • “Trial Practice Fundamentals: Working with Your Expert,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, 19 May 2015
  • “Downloading the Future: Media Mergers and Content Distribution,” American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 17 April 2015
  • “Analyzing Conspiracies with Both Vertical and Horizontal Elements,” Agriculture & Food Committee and Distribution & Franchising Committee, American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, 7 January 2015