Dina Older Aguilar

Vice President

Contact

  • San Francisco

Education

Dina Older Aguilar coheads Cornerstone Research’s healthcare practice. Ms. Older Aguilar specializes in economic analyses of class certification, liability, and damages issues, as well as merger evaluations. Her work spans antitrust and competition, consumer fraud, product liability, and intellectual property matters. In addition to healthcare, her industry expertise includes agriculture, biotechnology, financial services, high technology, and transportation. She has served as the head of Cornerstone Research’s San Francisco office.

Who’s Who Legal has recognized Ms. Older Aguilar as a leading competition economist. Women@Competition named her among forty notable women professionals in their forties, one of only four economists to be recognized.

Healthcare

Ms. Older Aguilar consults on competition matters involving healthcare payors and providers, including:

  • Claims of horizontal conspiracy
  • Alleged exclusionary behavior
  • Claims of unfair business practices
  • Healthcare organization mergers

She recently worked on USA v. Cabell Huntington Hospital Inc. and St. Mary’s Medical Center Inc., a hospital merger that culminated in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) dropping its challenge and allowing the transaction to proceed.

Ms. Older Aguilar has assessed issues of common impact at the class certification stage, and damages related to breach of contract, patent infringement, and other claims. She has also assessed hospital-billing practices, self-insurance plans, and drivers of healthcare expenditures.

Antitrust and competition

Ms. Older Aguilar assesses liability and damages in complex competition litigation, particularly in cases related to alleged price fixing, joint boycott and other cartel behavior, monopolization, exclusionary conduct, and unfair business practices. She has consulted on a number of high-profile antitrust cases, including:

  • In re Cigarette Antitrust Litigation
  • Carbon Black, Rubber Chemicals, and EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) Antitrust Matters
  • Rambus Inc. v. Micron Technology Inc. et al.
  • In re: Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) Antitrust Litigation
Merger reviews

Ms. Older Aguilar has assessed the competitive impact of mergers in agriculture, healthcare, media, and telecommunications markets. She consults to merging parties in prescreening transactions, and in preparing white paper analyses and expert report submissions to federal and state regulatory agencies. She has also provided economic consulting to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Consumer fraud and product liability class actions

Ms. Older Aguilar has expertise in assessments of consumer decision-making, purchasing behavior, and impact of alleged fraud on product pricing. These include analyses of sales and pricing data, content analysis of marketing communications, and consumer surveys. Ms. Older Aguilar has consulted on matters in the personal computing, consumer finance, and automotive industries.

Damages analyses and expert testimony

Ms. Older Aguilar assesses damages in a range of matters involving alleged unfair business practices, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), theft of trade secrets, and patent infringement. Her work in this area includes Monsanto Co. v. E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.

As an expert witness, Ms. Older Aguilar analyzed the potential anticompetitive effects of certain labor contract provisions, and damages due to an alleged breach of contract between a large manufacturer and its supplier.

Presentations and publications

Ms. Older Aguilar regularly speaks at ABA and other trade and academic sponsored events. She has written several articles and coauthored the chapter on economic expert testimony in Proof of Conspiracy under Federal Antitrust Laws.

Pro bono

Ms. Older Aguilar is involved with the firm’s pro bono initiatives. In 2019, she was a joint recipient of the Robert G. Sproul Jr. Award, which the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area presents annually for contributions to underrepresented communities.

Press Release

WWL: Global Leader Competition—Economists 2022

Case

Pro Bono: Criminal Record Expungement Policy

Article

Evolving Antitrust Analysis of Hospital Mergers

Case

Sidibe et al. v. Sutter Health

Press Release

2021 Who’s Who Legal: Consulting Experts

Press Release

Who’s Who Legal: Competition 2021—Economists

Article

Vertical Merger Guidelines Overlook Health Care Co. Issues

Case

Theft of Trade Secrets regarding Physician Networks

  • Let’s Make a Deal—Insurer-Provider Bargaining and Evolving Antitrust Analysis of Provider Mergers,” 20th Annual Washington Health Law Summit, 12 December 2022
  • “Antitrust Economics: Developments in Economics Theory and Analysis,” 32nd Annual Golden State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Institute & Antitrust Lawyer of the Year Reception and Dinner, 10 November 2022
  • “Mergers in the Health Sector,” Antitrust in Life Sciences – 3rd Annual Edition, 30 June 2022
  • “Is Competition in Agriculture Suffering a Drought?” American Bar Association’s 70th Antitrust Law Spring Meeting, 6 April 2022
  • “Hospital Mergers: Counseling Clients in Light of Appellate Cases,” 2018 Antitrust in Healthcare Conference, 17 May 2018
  • San Francisco Bay Area Women’s Forum 2017, Cornerstone Research, 5 October 2017