Paramount Gets New Judge in Warner Bros. Merger Antitrust

In a significant procedural move, Paramount has successfully secured a new judge to oversee the federal antitrust lawsuit brought by a coalition of 12 state attorneys general seeking to block its proposed $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. Late on July 15, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland took over the case, which had been initially assigned to Judge P. Casey Pitts in San Jose.

The change followed a motion filed by Paramount on July 15, arguing that Judge Pitts should be recused due to an appearance of bias. The company cited his previous work as a private attorney, during which he served as longstanding labor counsel for the Writers Guild of America. The WGA filed its own separate antitrust lawsuit against the merger on July 14 and has publicly supported the states' legal challenge. Paramount's legal team, led by attorney Jeffrey Kessler, contended that a reasonable person would question the judge's impartiality given his prior representation of a vocal opponent of the deal. Both sides agreed to the reassignment, a common practice for related cases.

Judge Martínez-Olguín is already presiding over a separate consumer lawsuit filed in late...