|
Mazda K. Antia is a litigation partner resident in Cooley's San Diego office. Mr. Antia serves on the Firm's Hiring, Diversity and Risk Management Committees.
Mr. Antia's practice centers on health care litigation, complex business litigation and commercial class action litigation. Mr. Antia has both trial and appellate experience in representing numerous companies in general and complex business litigation, including consumer fraud class actions, ERISA, RICO, California's Unfair Competition and Advertising Law, California's Consumer Legal Remedies Act, intellectual property cases, and regulatory inquiries including internal corporate investigations.
As a member of the Firm's Commercial Class Action Litigation practice, Mr. Antia has represented clients in a wide variety of class actions throughout the United States (in both federal and state courts), including consumer class actions brought under California and other state consumer laws and complex multi-district litigation challenging industry-wide business practices.
Mr. Antia was recognized as one of 12 "Outstanding Young Healthcare Lawyers of 2009" by Nightingale's Healthcare News.
Representative matters include:
- Secured an arbitration verdict for a California health plan in a case involving allegations that the health plan had illegally engaged in "post claims underwriting" when it rescinded the plaintiff's coverage and engaged in bad faith claims denial. To date, this is the only case dealing with post-claims underwriting that has been successfully tried to verdict in favor of a health plan.
- Successfully defeated class certification in the District of Arizona in a case challenging the premium rating process used to determine renewal premium rates for individual health insurance polices. (266 F.R.D. 340).
- Successfully represented health plans in lawsuits brought by hospitals alleging breach of contract issues and statutory violations.
- In case of first impression, successfully removed case to federal court on theory that professional employer organization was employer for ERISA purposes and thus, all state claims were preempted by ERISA (554 F.Supp.2d 1132).
- Represent health insurance company in class actions regarding termination of insurance policies.
- Successfully represented company in California class action regarding the rebate practices of pharmacy benefits managers.
- Successfully defeated ERISA class action that would have prevented managed care organizations from recovering third-party liens.
- Member of team that obtained summary judgment on behalf of a managed care organization in major multi-district RICO class action consolidated in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and brought by physician providers seeking billions of dollars in damages against the managed care industry.
- As part of a firm-sponsored program, Mr. Antia served as a Deputy District Attorney for the County of San Diego, where he handled a number of jury trials and preliminary hearings.
Mr. Antia is also actively involved in Pro Bono matters, including:
- Successfully pursued Civil Rights and ADA claims brought by a former inmate against the California Department of Corrections. Scott v. Garcia, et al., 370 F.Supp.2d 1056 (S.D.Cal. 2005).
- Represented foreign national at sentencing and convinced Ninth Circuit that district court erred in its interpretation and application of the U.S. Sentencing guidelines. U.S. v. Lopez-Zamora, 392 F.3d 1087 (9th Cir. 2004).
- Successfully represented surety in overturning a forfeiture order sought by the government. U.S. v. Laura-Cota, 262 F.Supp.2d 1118 (S.D.Cal. 2003).
Prior to joining Cooley, Mr. Antia served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Hon. William J. Zloch, Chief Judge, of the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida.
Mr. Antia received his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, where he served as an articles editor for the Northwestern Law Review. Mr. Antia received his B.S. with Highest Honors, in Health Planning and Administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Prior to attending law school Mr. Antia was the Program Manager of the American Hospital Association's $8 million Community Care Network Demonstration Program which sought to reform the delivery of health care services through collaborative community partnerships.
Mr. Antia has published the following articles:
- Co-author of "Overcoming ERISA as an Obstacle: The Ninth Circuit's Approval of San Francisco's Fair Share Legislation." Journal of Health and Life Sciences Law (2009).
- Co-author of ERISA as an Obstacle to "Fair Share" Legislation and Potentially Other State Legislative Approaches to Medicaid Shortfalls and the Growing Number of Uninsured and Underinsured. Journal of Health & Life Sciences Law (2007).
- Co-author of Community Experiments In Action: Developing Community-Defined Models For Reconfiguring Health Care, 22 Journal of Health Politics. Policy and Law, 1051 (1997).
- Co-author of State Legislative Approaches to Medicaid Shortfalls and the Growing Number of Uninsured and Underinsured—The Preemption of Maryland's "Fair Share" Legislation Under ERISA." Published in American Health Lawyers Association Member Briefing (2006).
Mr. Antia is also active in the community and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Family Health Centers of San Diego and is a Past President of the South Asian Bar Association of San Diego.
Education- Northwestern University School of Law
JD - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
BS Health Planning & Administration
Court Admissions
- All California State Courts
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- United States Supreme Court
Admissions
|