Rakesh specializes in delivering favorable results to clients at every stage of litigation. He has helped deliver high-profile trial victories for Microsoft, Bayer, and the NCAA; obtained major summary judgment victories for Bayer and Georgia-Pacific; secured full dismissal of a groundbreaking enforcement action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before any discovery was taken; and defended trial court victories on appeal.
Clients routinely call on Rakesh to develop winning strategies in their most significant complex litigation matters. Since joining the firm in 2017, he has played a lead strategic role in 10 different class action or mass tort cases, doing everything from arguing dispositive motions to crossing expert witnesses at trial to arguing precedent-setting appeals.
Rakesh is also an accomplished antitrust litigator. Most recently, Rakesh was second-chair trial counsel for Microsoft in the FTC’s challenge to Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision. Rakesh directed the legal and expert strategy and handled several witnesses at trial, including Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella. Just days after the close of evidence, the district court issued a ruling denying the FTC’s request for a preliminary injunction, clearing the path in the U.S. for the deal to close. Rakesh also serves as co-lead counsel for the NFL and the NCAA in separate class action lawsuits involving billions of dollars in claimed damages, and has advised on several other confidential merger matters involving major transactions.
In recognition of his diverse practice, Rakesh has been named a “Rising Star” by the National Law Journal and by Law360 for Sports and Betting. He was chosen as one of Bloomberg Law’s “40 Under 40,” and Benchmark Litigation has identified Rakesh as a “Future Star” and selected him to its “40 & Under list” four years in a row. He has also appeared on Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America” and “500 Leading Litigators in America” lists for the last two consecutive years.
Before joining the firm, Rakesh was a Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel in the Office of White House Counsel, where he provided legal advice and strategic counseling to the Obama Administration on its domestic policy agenda. He also helped to develop and implement the government’s litigation strategy in cases arising under the Affordable Care Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. He is regularly consulted and quoted by the media as an expert on executive branch legal issues.
Rakesh began his career clerking for Justice Elena Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Rakesh is active in the legal community. He sits on the Boards of the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia and the Second Look Project, and is an editor of the Green Bag. He also serves on the Nominations Committee of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association-DC, and previously served as a Director of APABA-DC’s Education Fund.
Updated July 2023
