Antitrust & International Competition

Global and comprehensive service

With offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Middle East and Asia, our practice provides the full suite of antitrust & international competition-related services for more than 140 jurisdictions. With a leading public law and policy practice, our fingers are on the pulse of political, regulatory and legal competition-law related developments globally, enabling our team to anticipate doctrinal developments and provide cutting-edge advice.  Our significant experience working within the FTC, DOJ, and regulatory regimes in Europe enables us to provide comprehensive services related to global and national competition-related issues, including:

• The full-suite of antitrust-related services for transactions of all types, from allocating antitrust risk in definitive agreements, to preparing global pre-merger filings, to shepherding merging parties through increasingly aggressive regulatory clearance processes, to defending mergers in litigation against competition authorities, to foreign investment/national security approvals, and to settling regulatory concerns on favorable terms;

• Defending a panoply of civil class action lawsuits and other private suits (including multidistrict litigation, direct and indirect purchaser class actions and cases that follow government civil and criminal prosecutions) alleging the various state and federal antitrust claims such as joint conduct, monopolization, intellectual property, and vertical distribution issues;

• Strategically participating in antitrust-related merger investigations and litigation on behalf of third parties (e.g., customers, competitors, suppliers, investors, and other stakeholders) to ensure that their views receive due consideration, including as appropriate assisting regulatory efforts to block deals;

• Defending companies and individuals in civil and criminal investigations, including those involving related competition laws such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), False Claims Act (FCA) and consumer protection laws;

• Integrated substantive and legislative solutions with our leading public law and policy practice designed to understand, anticipate, and avoid (or at least mitigate) future antitrust risk; and

• Global antitrust compliance and training.

Representative matters

• Represented Kingston Technology, as a member of a consortium led by Bain Capital Private Equity, LP, in its $18 billion acquisition of Toshiba Memory Corporation, obtaining approvals in multiple jurisdictions including the EU, U.S., Japan and China.
• Secured clearance for 7-Eleven in two multibillion-dollar transactions—its $21-billion acquisition of Speedway and its $3.3-billion acquisition of Sunoco. Notably, we led the strategy that enabled closing despite certain FTC Commissioners’ efforts to scuttle a settlement and retract its terms at the 11th hour. 
• Represented Vitol in its $2.3 billion public takeover of Vivo Energy, a transaction that required merger control approvals in 12 jurisdictions in the EC and Africa.
• Secured a successful result for Antech Diagnostics (owned by Mars, Inc.) in a putative antitrust class action, spanning nearly three years, filed by a veterinarian and her practice in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asserting claims for violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, California’s Unfair Competition Law and breach of contract.
• Advised a selling shareholder in the context of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation’s acquisition of a large minority stake in chemicals specialist, Clariant, a transaction that required merger control approvals in 10 jurisdictions across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
• Served as co-counsel for Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company in the U.S., and litigated the first antitrust merger trial during the COVID-19 pandemic.  
• Represented Wilhelmsen, a global maritime company, in its acquisition of Drew Marine, a competitor in the supply of marine chemicals, a deal which we also litigated against the FTC.
• Secured District Court and Court of Appeals victories on behalf of Daimler Trucks in two related antitrust class actions brought by “direct” and “indirect” purchasers of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks, including dismissal for lack of standing on the purported direct purchaser class action because no consideration was paid for the assigned antitrust claims; denial of class certification on the indirect purchaser class action; and a Third Circuit ruling upholding the denial of class certification that ultimately applied to both purported classes.
• Served as lead antitrust counsel to AT&T for its pre-close integration planning efforts in connection with its mergers and acquisitions for all of its recent significant transactions, including its acquisitions of Time Warner and DIRECTV.
• Secured a multi-million-dollar settlement for our client Houchens Industries as well as a complete and favorable revision of a long-standing agreement in a long-running arbitration involving cross claims of alleged contractual breaches and claims against the other party that it violated the antitrust laws. 
• Represented U.S. Concrete in a class action brought by purchasers of ready-mix concrete and had U.S. Concrete dismissed from the case and the complaint limited to a two-year period for the remaining defendants.
• Served as antitrust counsel to a leading U.S. animal healthcare services company in a $9.1-billion highly scrutinized merger (including a Second Request) of the largest and second largest animal hospital owners in the United States.
• Secured District Court and Court of Appeals victories for the Methodist hospital system in long-running antitrust class action involving allegations of fixing nurse wages, including decisions denying class certification and denying motions to intervene as well as a ruling of first impression at the Sixth Circuit dismissing a third attempt at an appeal on jurisdictional grounds.