Morality playwright. (Wall Street West).

With the Supreme Court telling the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider media ownership controls, and Microsoft Corp.'s successful war to avoid a breakup, one might think antitrust lawyers spend their days rearranging their offices.

Not so. Tom Nolan, managing partner in the L.A. offices of law firm Howrey Simon Arnold & White, has won more than $1 billion for private-sector clients in the last five years, by filing civil antitrust charges against some of the biggest outfits in the nation.

Recently, Nolan headed up a Howrey Simon team that won a $750 million settlement on behalf of Litton Industries (now part of Northrop Grumman Corp.) against Honeywell Inc. for controlling certain avionics markets. And along with fellow partner Joanne Caruso, he won $96 million for client Masonite Corp., now a part of International Paper.

"Juries don't like it when large corporations are seen as playing unfair ... the best way to view a trial is as a morality play, and I always represent my clients as the good guys' said Nolan.

Perhaps underappreciated is that software giant Microsoft is now vulnerable to costly civil settlements, said Nolan. True, an appeals court ruled that a break-up wasn't needed, but Microsoft was found guilty of trying, and effectively controlling markets.

"What seems to be forgotten is that they were found (by the court) to have engaged in monopolistic practices.... Ultimately, they are going to have to pony up" in civil trials brought by competitors, Nolan said. "It may be factored into their stock price - I am not an analyst - but I think it has been downplayed for now."

Contributing columnist Benjamin Mark Cole writes about the local investment community for the Los Angeles Business Journal. His new book is "The Pied Pipers of Wall Street: How Analysts Sell You Down the River;" published by Bloomberg Press. He can be reached at [e-mail].