Daniel D. Birk is a Partner at Eimer Stahl LLP, where he focuses on complex commercial litigation and cross-border disputes and co-chairs the firm’s sovereign litigation and judgment enforcement practice. For the past decade, Dan has represented CITGO Petroleum Corporation and its affiliates in the Venezuela creditor litigation. He has secured notable victories in federal court in litigation involving the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, OFAC sanctions, and the enforcement of judgments and international arbitration awards against states and state-owned entities. His successful defense of a state-owned entity in a multi-billion-dollar veil-piercing action earned him recognition as a Law.com “Litigator of the Week.”
Dan also represents companies in complex commercial, antitrust, regulatory, and criminal matters and advises boards of directors and senior executives on sensitive governance and litigation challenges. He is known for developing innovative legal strategies and threshold arguments that reframe high-stakes actions, often leading to early dismissal in favor of his clients, efficient resolution, or appellate victories. Dan has been recognized as a Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigator in America and Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyer, and as an Illinois Super Lawyer. He also serves as General Counsel of the firm.
Dan writes and speaks frequently on topics including judgment enforcement, antitrust, international law, and artificial intelligence, and his scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Stanford Law Review, among other publications. Dan contributes to the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section and is a member of the International Bar Association’s Litigation and Asset Recovery Committees. Between 2018 and 2020, he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, where he taught Administrative Law, Federal Courts, and Legal Writing.
Before attending law school, Dan taught high school English in Brooklyn, New York, and Vienna, Austria.
Experience
Case Experience
- Representing CITGO Petroleum Corporation in the court-ordered sale of the stock of its parent corporation to satisfy the debts of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and its state-owned oil company PDVSA and in related sovereign debt judgment and international arbitration award enforcement proceedings.
- Obtaining summary judgment in favor of a state-owned entity in veil-piercing litigation brought by creditors of a foreign state.
- Representing state-owned entities in garnishment proceedings brought by creditors of a foreign state.
- Representing state-owned entities in asset discovery proceedings brought by creditors of a foreign state in federal and state courts in New York and Delaware.
- Obtaining dismissal of a commercial breach of contract action filed against an international airline conglomerate based in the United Kingdom on forum non conveniens grounds.
- Representing a U.S.-based state-owned entity in its successful efforts to recover assets pledged to a foreign counterparty.
- Representing the subsidiary of a UK-based tech company in navigating mass arbitration proceedings in the United States.
- Obtaining dismissal of Sherman Act claims in favor of a large auto insurer in multidistrict antitrust litigation alleging a conspiracy to suppress rates paid to body shops.
- Successfully compelling arbitration of a commercial breach of contract action against a healthcare management services provider seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
- Obtaining summary judgment in favor of a multinational dairy company in a multidistrict class action alleging an antitrust and commodity manipulation conspiracy.
- Representing a multinational agricultural cooperative in federal and state law antitrust class actions alleging that dairy farmers and cooperatives engaged in a conspiracy to limit the supply of milk.
- Obtaining dismissal of Sherman Act claims against a multinational electronics company in an antitrust class action alleging an employee no-poach conspiracy.
- Representing a multinational steel company in federal and state law antitrust class actions alleging that steel manufacturers engaged in a conspiracy to reduce steel production.
- Advising international tech and electronics companies on structuring their operations and assets in the United States.
- Representing an oil refiner in its successful appeal of a Clean Air Act prosecution; court of appeals reversed and directed the district court to enter a judgment of acquittal.
- Representing corporations and individuals in connection with grand jury and civil investigations by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, and State Attorneys General.
Recognitions
Honors & Recognitions
Illinois Super Lawyer in Antitrust Litigation - 2024, 2025
Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America - 2025
Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers - 2025