JONATHAN W. CUNEO is the founding member of Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP, and its predecessor firms (including the Cuneo Law Group, PC). Mr. Cuneo has over forty years of experience successfully representing a government agency and a Congressional Committee; as well as plaintiffs in complex antitrust, civil and human rights, consumer protection, corporate governance, and securities class actions before federal and state courts. He also has extensive experience representing a diverse array of clients (including professional associations, businesses, Members of Congress, unions, and individuals) with respect to public policy matters before courts, Congress, the Executive Branch, and independent federal agencies. Mr. Cuneo has argued cases in Federal and State trial courts and appellate courts across the country. Mr. Cuneo has represented Members of Congress as amici before the Supreme Court. Internationally, Mr. Cuneo’s advocacy helped secure the release of Kenyan civil rights statesman Koigi Wa Wamwere.

Mr. Cuneo brings to his private legal practice nearly a decade of prior government service—first as an attorney in the Office of the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (1978-1981) and then as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on the Judiciary (1981-1986). He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Edward Tamm of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1977-1978).

Mr. Cuneo has been recognized for his achievements as an attorney in private practice. The Trial Lawyers for Public Justice selected him as a finalist for its 2006 Trial Lawyer of the Year award. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and enjoys Martindale-Hubbell’s highest (AV) rating. Benchmark has rated Cuneo as a local litigation star, terming him a “titan” and giving Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP its “highly recommended” rating. He was recently elected as a fellow to the prestigious Litigation Counsel of America.

Mr. Cuneo has received many accolades for his work as a litigator. Representative Henry Waxman has called Mr. Cuneo a “real American hero,” with regard to his work exposing the true nature of the Joe Camel campaign, and a federal court judge has recognized him as a “leader” in the courtroom.

Mr. Cuneo has also been recognized for his contributions to the field of antitrust law. He was honored by the American Antitrust Institute with the Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement, previously awarded to distinguished individuals Joel Klein, Robert Pitofsky, F.M. Scherer, Mario Monti, and Donald I. Baker. The AAI lauded his efforts to defend the antitrust laws even when there existed immense external pressure to weaken them in the 1980s, stating, “Mr. Cuneo was the only person outside of the government to be a spokesperson, clearinghouse, and advocate for strong antitrust enforcement.”

Mr. Cuneo has lectured and published on antitrust law, class action litigation, and other legal subjects. His publications include articles in Class Action Reports, the Georgetown Law Journal, The George Washington Law Review, the Legal Times, and the Yale Human Rights & Development Law Journal.  With Albert A. Foer, Mr. Cuneo co-authored The International Handbook of Private Enforcement of Competition Law (Edward Elgar Publishing Inc., 2010).

He has been a member of the advisory board of the George Washington University School of Law.  He has served on numerous nonprofit boards, including the Appleseed Foundation, the Juvenile Law Center, the Violence Policy Center and Fighters Initiative for Support and Training. He was a founding member of the American Antitrust Institute and co-founder of the National Association of Shareholders and Consumer Attorneys.

Mr. Cuneo has served as counsel in cases that have recovered billions of dollars, including:

• the famous “Joe Camel” litigation, which revealed that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company had sought to market cigarettes to kids and led to the phase out of the “Joe Camel” campaign;
• the Enron securities litigation, which recovered over $7 billion for defrauded investors;
• the Hungarian Gold Train case, which led to $25.5 million settlement and a first-of-its-kind statement by the U.S. government acknowledging its part in the events surrounding the looting of Holocaust survivors’ property on the Gold Train in the final days of WWII;
• the “Kwikset, Made in the USA”, case which established the principle that “labels matter” under California’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising laws and is now a landmark of American law;
• the Entran II litigation, which resulted in one of the largest ever product defect recoveries for damage to property;
• the Metromail litigation, which resulted in an unprecedented class action privacy settlement granting both injunctive and monetary relief;
• the Prudential case in which the firm oversaw approximately 55,000 arbitration-like proceeding in a $4 billion settlement concerning Prudential’s deceptive sales practices;
• the natural gas litigation in which Mr. Cuneo represented the counties of Los Angeles and San Bernardino against major natural gas suppliers, achieving settlements of nearly $40 million for clients after alleging that the companies colluded to restrict supply; and
• the Visa/MasterCard case in which Mr. Cuneo served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of West Virginia, helping prosecute an action against Visa/MasterCard for alleged violations of West Virginia’s consumer and antitrust statutes.

Mr. Cuneo has also helped forge the way for future plaintiff recoveries. On behalf of the National Association of Shareholder and Consumer Attorneys, he led a coalition that successfully prevented the evisceration of private actions under the securities laws. This multi-pronged effort, including lobbying, grassroots organizing, media outreach and paid media, lasted a full year. As a result, since the PSLRA was enacted, investors have been able to make some of the biggest recoveries in history, including Enron, WorldCom and Tyco.

Mr. Cuneo has boxed recreationally for nearly two decades. In May of 2015, he entered the ring to fight Gerry Cooney for three rounds as part of a charitable benefit for Youth Consultation Services (YCS), an organization that provides group homes and in-home care for 1,500 of New Jersey’s at-risk children.

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