Photo of Attorney Bill Markovits

Bill Markovits

Bill Markovits
  • Founding Partner
  • Complex Civil Litigation

Founding partner Bill Markovits focuses his expertise on complex civil litigation, including securities, antitrust, RICO, False Claims Act, and consumer class actions.

Bill began his career as a trial lawyer at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C. After moving to Cincinnati his antitrust focus continued, including acting as an adjunct professor of antitrust at the University of Cincinnati Law School.

Bill’s notable case list includes the Choice Care securities, antitrust and RICO class action, in which the jury awarded more than $100 million to a class of physicians; a fraud/RICO case on behalf of The Procter & Gamble Co., which resulted in a settlement of $165 million; an 11-year antitrust and RICO class action against Humana, including appeals that reached the United States Supreme Court and that culminated in a multimillion-dollar settlement; and a national class action against Microsoft, in which he was chosen from among dozens of plaintiffs’ attorneys to depose Bill Gates.

More recently, Bill served as a lead counsel for plaintiffs in the Fannie Mae Securities Litigation that settled for $153 million; a lead counsel for plaintiffs in a class action against Duke Energy that settled for $80.75 million; a lead counsel for plaintiffs in a class action against Navistar that settled for benefits valued at $742 million; and lead counsel for plaintiff in Collins v. Eastman Kodak, where he successfully obtained a preliminary injunction against Kodak on an antitrust tying claim. Based on the result in Collins, Bill was named a 2015 finalist in the American Antitrust Institute’s Antitrust Enforcement Awards under the category “Outstanding Antitrust Litigation Achievement in Private Law Practice.”

  • Collins v. Eastman Kodak, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • Shy v. Navistar International Corporation, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • In re Federal National Mortgage Association Securities, Derivative, and “ERISA” Litigation, United States District Court, District of Columbia
  • Ohio Employees Retirement System v. Federal Home Loan Mortgage, aka Freddie Mac, et al., United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division
  • Williams v. Duke Energy et al., United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • In re Toyota Motor Corp. Unintended Acceleration Marketing, Sales Practices, and Products Liability Litigation, United States District Court, Central District of California
  • In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana
  • In re Microsoft Corp. Litigation, United States District Court, District of Maryland
  • Procter & Gamble v. Amway Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of Texas, at Houston; United States District Court, District of Utah, at Salt Lake City
  • United States ex rel. Brooks v. Pineville Hospital, United States District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky
  • Procter & Gamble v. Bankers’ Trust Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • United States ex rel. Watt v. Fluor Daniel, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio
  • Forsyth v. Humana, United States District Court, District of Nevada
  • In re Choice Care Litigation, United States District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Western Division
  • U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in Washington, D.C., Trial Lawyer
  • District of Columbia, 1981 (inactive) 
  • Ohio, 1983
  • U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio, 1983
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit, 1991
  • U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1995
  • U.S. Supreme Court, 1998
  • U.S. District Court Northern District of Ohio, 2008
  • American Association for Justice
  • American Bar Association
  • American Trial Lawyers Association
  • Cincinnati Bar Association
  • Ohio State Bar Association, former Chair of the Antitrust Section
  • Ohio Trial Lawyers Association
  • Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts
    • J.D. - 1981
    • Honors: cum laude
  • Washington University
    • A.B. - 1978
  • Adjunct Professor of Antitrust Law, University of Cincinnati Law School
  • Adjunct Professor, Teaching Trial Practice, University of Cincinnati College of Law
  • Mock trial coach, University of Cincinnati College of Law
  • “Implications of Sixth Circuit Collins Inkjet Corp. v. Eastman Kodak Co. Decision,” American Bar Association panel discussion, December 10, 2015
  • “Defining the Relevant Market in Antitrust Litigation,” Great Lakes Antitrust Seminar, October 29, 2010
  • “Beyond Compensatory Damages – Tread, RICO and The Criminal Law Implications,” HarrisMartin’s Toyota Recall Litigation Conference, Part II, May 12, 2010
  • “The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO),” HarrisMartin’s Toyota Recall Litigation Conference, March 24, 2010
  • “The False Claims Act: Are Healthcare Providers at Risk?,” presentation to Robert Morris College Second Annual Health Services Conferences, Integrating Health Services: Building a Bridge to the 21st Century, Moon Township, PA, October 9, 1997
  • “The Federal False Claims Act: Are Health Care Providers at Risk?,” (Co-Speaker), Ohio Hospital Association, April, 1996
  • Antitrust Law Update, National Health Lawyers Health Law Update and Annual Meeting (Featured Speaker), San Francisco, California, 1989
  • “A Focus on Reality in Antitrust,” Federal Bar News & Journal, Nov/Dec 1992
  • “Using Civil Rico and Avoiding its Abuse,” Ohio Trial, William H. Blessing, co-author, Summer 1992
  • “Antitrust in the Health Care Field,” a chapter published in Legal Aspects of Anesthesia, 2nd ed., William H. L. Dornette, J.D., M.D., editor
  • Phi Beta Kappa
Rated By Super Lawyers | Bill Markovits | Selected in 2025
Rated By SuperLawyers | Bill Markovits | 10 Years
Rated By SuperLawyers | Top 50 | Cincinnati | SuperLawyers.com
W.B. Markovits | Recognized By Best Lawyers | 2025
Best Lawyers | Lawyer of The Year | W.B. Markovits | Antitrust Law | Cincinnati | 2025