Refer the Problem, Not the Client.
Antitrust boutiques solve antitrust problems while litigation firms keep the relationship—and the matter.
Don’t Refer the Client, Refer the Problem…
Antitrust has become too specialized to approach casually—even for accomplished litigation firms. You may have the client relationship and the courtroom strength. What you may not have is antitrust expertise.
When an antitrust issue surfaces unexpectedly, the question isn't whether to get help—it’s how to get it without disrupting the relationship or losing control of the matter. (AI isn’t the answer here. A language model can surface doctrine, but antitrust litigation turns on judgement calls that come from having actually litigated cases—not pattern matching on prior text.)
The modern antitrust boutique is built for exactly this. It functions as an extension of your trial team, embedded for a discrete purpose, while you retain strategic control of the litigation and the client.
The Referral Problem—and Why a Boutique Solves It
Firms hesitate to bring in outside antitrust help for an obvious reason: the firm you call in today might be competing for your client tomorrow. That tension is real when you're calling a full-service firm that handles the same matters for overlapping clients.
A boutique avoids that tension. At Bona Law, we do antitrust. We’re not positioned to absorb your client's other work, because that's not what we do. The structural alignment is the point: we have every incentive to make you look good, and none to compete for what comes next.
The Business Case
The ability to credibly handle matters with antitrust dimensions expands your addressable market—without the cost of building an in-house antitrust practice. Matters you might have declined or referred you can now keep.
In Practice
A few scenarios we have actually handled:
- You file what looks like a straightforward commercial case. Your client is hit with an antitrust counterclaim.
- Your client is the defendant in a non-antitrust matter, but you spot a viable antitrust counterclaim.
- You lose your firm’s primary antitrust attorney mid-matter. Your client needs continuity.
- You want to pitch for a state AG's price-fixing case but lack the antitrust credentials to make it credible.
- An antitrust claim is dismissed without leave to amend, and you have less than 30 days to appeal.
And having sat on the client side overseeing outside counsel, we know what good integration looks like from that chair too.
Firms that have been through this before know where to turn. Antitrust boutiques were built for these moments.
By Pat Pascarella and Luke Hasskamp, Bona Law PC