Paul Hewitt Provides an Overview of Global Antitrust and M&A to Metropolitan Corporate Counsel

In “Antitrust Considerations Affecting M&A,” The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel interviewed Akin Gump antitrust and unfair competition practice head Paul Hewitt on his practice and his view of the current M&A climate and the global impact of antitrust considerations.

Among the topics discussed:

• Trends in M&A antitrust review: “The DOJ’s antitrust division has become much more aggressive about bringing cases in court challenging mergers. As compared with the previous administration—or even the early years of the Obama administration—there is much more backbone at the DOJ to litigate if they don’t get an acceptable settlement.”
• Challenges in international antitrust law: “One of the complexities is simply trying to decide in what jurisdictions you need to file. It can be a daunting process because of the data needs and because jurisdictions change their rules over time.”
• Antitrust matters before the U.S. Supreme Court: “[T]he Supreme Court has issued plaintiff-friendly decisions that have surprised people, including Actavis, which overturned the law in a number of circuits and held that patent settlements that don’t restrict competition beyond the scope of the patent could nonetheless be attacked under the antitrust rule of reason.”
• Global implementation of antitrust laws: “There are more than 125 countries in the world that have antitrust or ‘competition’ laws of one kind or another. What is obviously legal in one jurisdiction may be looked at much harder in another jurisdiction.”

To read the full interview, please click here.