backOn September 25, 2025, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment in favor of our client NatWest in long-running multidistrict litigation relating to the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). King & Spalding led summary judgment and Daubert briefings on core issues on behalf of NatWest, which was alleged to have conspired with other banks to persistently suppress LIBOR.
In its decision, the Court accepted Defendants’ key arguments that the alleged antitrust conspiracy by 16 banks to suppress LIBOR for years was “economically senseless” given that the banks were both borrowers and lenders of LIBOR; found that there was no direct evidence of a conspiracy; and that no reasonable jury could conclude that the rate was in fact suppressed based on Plaintiffs’ facts and expert testimony. The Court thus dismissed all of the class and individual claims in the case, excluded the bulk of Plaintiffs’ proffered excerpt opinions, and denied class certification.
The King & Spalding team acting on behalf of NatWest is composed of David Lesser, Patrick Montgomery, Jamie Dycus, Jenny Pelaez, Brian Donovan, Paul Weeks, Diana Liu, Prachee Sawant, and Lilian Klatskin.