Jarod Bona

Jarod M. Bona is the founder and CEO of Bona Law PC, an antitrust boutique law firm. He graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 2001, then clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit for Judge James B. Loken in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He then practiced law for a dozen years at DLA Piper and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, before founding Bona Law PC.

Mr. Bona lives in the San Diego area with his wife, son, and collie. He’s lived in many places, but considers Minnesota his second home and is loyal to their sport teams.

Mr. Bona has two roles with Bona Law: CEO and Attorney.

Chief Executive Officer

As CEO, Mr. Bona is ultimately responsible for assuring that Bona Law’s clients receive outstanding service that presents the best opportunity for return on their investment in Bona Law. Bona Law cannot promise any results, but instead focuses on the process of providing high-quality legal services and business-savvy decisions for their clients.

As someone that runs a business himself, Mr. Bona understands that from the largest Fortune 500 clients to the youngest technology start-ups, clients purchase legal services to achieve a business goal. Sometimes that means bringing or defending against litigation, but the law firm and client must both understand that the decision on how to proceed is a business decision in which cost may be an important factor. When helping clients evaluate options, Bona Law attorneys think about solutions by evaluating potential returns on investment.

Mr. Bona also has the ultimate responsibility to assure that each of Bona Law’s talented team members is best positioned to succeed, not only in offering service to clients in the short run, but also in developing their own talents and experience so they can provide the most value in the long run. Everyone on Bona Law’s team is either an All-Star or a potential All-Star, and Mr. Bona has the final responsibility to make sure the law firm will help each person reach their potential in a way that respects them as individuals. That is, each person has different talents, experiences, and interests, and Bona Law seeks to help them develop in ways that are true to each of these areas.

When a new client hires Bona Law or an existing client hires Bona Law for a new matter, Mr. Bona has the responsibility to create the right team to help solve that client’s problem. That decision includes Mr. Bona’s evaluation of the client’s needs, combined with each team member’s particular skills, experience level, and cost. But no matter how the team is structured, Mr. Bona is ultimately responsible and available.

As CEO, Mr. Bona also manages—with lots of help—the law firm’s three websites (www.businessjustice.com; www.TheAntitrustAttorney.com; and www.TitlesAndDeeds.com). He enjoys writing and views these websites as the law firm’s opportunity to offer helpful resources for those with various legal issues, from antitrust to litigation to appeals to real estate investing.

Attorney

Throughout Mr. Bona’s career, he’s focused his legal practice on antitrust and competition law, appellate litigation, and complex business litigation. Before starting Bona Law, he was an attorney with DLA Piper and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher for a dozen years. He loves challenging government conduct, and Bona Law is a leader in antitrust litigation against government entities, among other areas. Much of his practice throughout his career—which has carried forward into Bona Law—is defending companies in antitrust class action multi-district litigation.

Mr. Bona has represented global clients in a wide variety of antitrust and competition matters, including issues arising from intellectual property disputes or settlements, agreements among competitors (i.e. price fixing, market allocation, and group boycotts), exclusionary conduct (i.e. loyalty discounts, bundling, exclusive dealing, refusal-to-deal), merger and acquisition transactions, resale-price maintenance programs, Noerr-Pennington, state-action immunity, labor-exemption, Robinson-Patman Act, McCarran-Ferguson Act, real estate, and government investigations. Mr. Bona has also developed global antitrust policies for international trade associations and corporations, and has advised standard-setting organizations on antitrust and competition issues.

Mr. Bona has also represented clients in many business and real-estate litigation disputes, including, for example, cases involving trade secrets and intellectual property, breach-of-contract, fraud and misrepresentation, tortious interference, malicious prosecution, RICO, unfair and deceptive trade practices, securities, procurement disputes, constitutional law, Lanham Act, and other state and federal claims.

Mr. Bona also has substantial appellate experience. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Bona clerked for Judge James B. Loken in Minneapolis, Minnesota of the United States Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He then began his law-firm career with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s appellate and constitutional law practice in Washington, DC. Since then, he has maintained an active appellate practice, and has argued in both state and federal courts. He also filed amicus briefs in several United States Supreme Court antitrust cases, for example in FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc. and The North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission.

Mr. Bona frequently publishes and speaks on antitrust and competition developments, and is the author of The Antitrust Attorney Blog. He has also been a Non-Governmental Advisor for the Unilateral Conduct Working Group of the International Competition Network, which is an international body devoted exclusively to competition law enforcement with members representing national and multi-national competition authorities. As part of that role, Mr. Bona was an author of the Exclusive Dealing chapter of the group’s Unilateral Conduct Workbook for competition authorities, and debated the legality of loyalty discounts at a webinar to educate its members. He has also presented at the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting.

In 2010, his article, “The Diminishing Role of the Private Attorney General in Antitrust and Securities Class Action Cases Aided by the Supreme Court” was honored with the Burton Award for Legal Writing Achievement. The Burton Award is dedicated to the enrichment and refinement of writing in the legal profession and is presented by the Burton Foundation, a nonprofit cultural and academic organization devoted to promoting the legal profession. This article was also cited by Chief District Judge B. Lynn Winmill of the Federal District of Idaho in In re Micron Technology, Inc. Securities Litigation.

San Diego Super Lawyers Magazine consistently names Jarod Bona to its San Diego Super Lawyers lists. In 2014, the San Diego Daily Transcript named Mr. Bona a Top Attorney Finalist for Corporate Litigation in San Diego. Mr. Bona is also a Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society.

Mr. Bona and his firm are also longtime members of IR Global, which is a group of global law firms in several practice areas that were invited based upon their select qualifications. This membership allows Mr. Bona to work with some of the top attorneys in jurisdictions around the world, across many practice areas. For high-quality boutique firms, IR Global provides the same time of international reach that attorneys at large international firms tout.

Mr. Bona and his wife also invest in real estate and Mr. Bona has his California real-estate license (#01966480) (inactive). Mr. Bona also lifts weights, does cross-fit, and reads as much as he possibly can.