JOHN F. KINNEY, Partner Publications · Professional Activities Chicago Office Office: (312) 923-2807 Fax: (312) 923-2907 Email: jkinney@jenner.com  Add to Outlook Contacts

John F. Kinney is a partner in the Firm's Litigation Department.  He is a member of the Antitrust Litigation and Bankruptcy Litigation Practices.

Mr. Kinney concentrates in antitrust, public utility, and general commercial litigation, and has taken the lead in many of the largest and most complex price-fixing cases of the last twenty-five years, including cases involving the vitamins, carbon dioxide, folding carton, corrugated container, and beef industries.  He has represented both respondents and third parties in several investigations conducted by the Federal Trade Commission.  Mr. Kinney has also represented a major rural electric cooperative, Wabash Valley Power Association, in a lengthy dispute concerning its participation in a canceled nuclear power plant, including confirmation of a reorganization plan that involved the successful presentation of novel theories regarding federal preemption of state rate regulation and the interpretation of the absolute priority rule in bankruptcy in three separate appeals to the Seventh Circuit by the Justice Department.

In the Vitamins Antitrust Litigation, Mr. Kinney and his colleagues represented several major purchasers who asserted claims against the leading global vitamins producers for overcharges stemming from a massive conspiracy to allocate market shares and customers and fix prices of vitamins manufactured and sold on a worldwide scale.  After obtaining successful rulings on a series of novel and complex legal and factual issues (e.g., establishing the right to conduct both jurisdictional and merits discovery of foreign-based defendants under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure rather than the much more restrictive Hague Convention, precluding discovery of plaintiffs' internal financial data regarding the sale of downstream vitamin-containing products, and requiring defendants to produce voluminous materials submitted to the European Commission which included detailed descriptions of the nature, scope and operation of the conspiracy), Mr. Kinney's clients were able to settle their claims on very favorable terms, including equal financial compensation for substantial volumes of vitamins purchased for delivery outside the United States.

More recently, Mr. Kinney helped defend a major U.S. financial exchange in an antitrust action brought by a European rival involving conspiracy and predatory pricing claims.  At the same time, Mr. Kinney was part of the legal team responsible for developing and presenting detailed submissions to the U.S. Department of Justice as part of its review of the proposed merger of major global financial exchanges.

Mr. Kinney has been a speaker at several seminars, including presentations at National Rural Electric Cooperative Association legal symposiums on antitrust issues affecting wholesale power transactions.  Mr. Kinney is a member of the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section and the Chicago Bar Association.  The Leading Lawyers Network has recognized Mr. Kinney as one of the top antitrust lawyers in Illinois, and he is named in the 2010 and 2011 editions of the Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Kinney graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Georgetown University and received his law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar.