AMERICAS
9
United States
New York’s competition bar New York is a global capital of corporate activity. Hand in hand with the activities of the most powerful companies in the world goes antitrust law, and Faaez Samadi takes a look at the best antitrust practices in the city.
Christine Varney
Shepard Goldfein
With an economy larger than most countries, New York needs antitrust lawyers. Some of the world’s largest companies are headquartered in Manhattan, and their activities are heavily scrutinised by regulators and antitrust enforcers alike. There is plenty of work to go around in such a hive of business activity, and many firms work closely with their counterparts across the country – primarily in Washington, DC – to share the workload. Observers say the nation’s capital is unsurprisingly the main hub for government antitrust matters, while New York is the nerve centre of US antitrust litigation and bigticket mergers. Bucking this trend is the US antitrust authorities’ foray into the financial services sector, with investigations of Libor, credit default swaps, municipal bonds and others taking place in New York where several major global banking institutions are based. The headline-grabbing mergers are shared among a handful of big New York firms that regularly appear on more than one deal. But the blockbuster investigations involve numerous companies and institutions, allowing several groups to get their hands on complex and interesting antitrust work. These are almost always followed by private follow-on antitrust litigation, which keeps law firms busy for years after a case first breaks. That’s not to forget the ream of stand-alone litigation, as well as an increase in merger challenges finding their way to court. The big picture is clear to see: it’s a good time to be a New York antitrust lawyer.
GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
Ilene Knable Gotts Elite
Kevin J Arquit
It’s been another successful year at Cravath Swaine & Moore, with the firm handling a swathe of big-ticket mergers and antitrust litigation matters. Practice head and Who’s Who Legal nominee Christine Varney is a former head of the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division, and partner Evan R Chesler is also a Who’s Who Legal entrant. The elite practice has deep expertise across the spectrum of antitrust work. An indication of the complex matters finding their way onto Cravath’s desks are the two merger litigations the team has worked on this year, something only a handful of firms experience. Varney is involved in both, advising Grupo Modelo in its US$20 billion tie-up with AB InBev, which the DoJ blocked and then approved after extracting significant remedies; and representing Saint-Gobain in the US$1.7 billion sale of its bottling business to Ardagh, which the US Federal Trade Commission has opposed. Cravath also advised Delta Airlines in acquiring a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Airlines and is counsel to Life Technologies in its US$13.6 billion merger with Thermo Fisher, to name but a few deals. Enforcement work has also been plentiful. Chesler and others are advising long-time client American Express in several antitrust litigation matters, including alleged arbitration provisions in its cardholder agreements between the customers and their banks. Partners Daniel Slifkin and Michael Paskin are counsel to Morgan Stanley in the credit default swap private
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AMERICAS
actions, and Yonatan Even is advising Qualcomm in several antitrust proceedings. Davis Polk & Wardwell continues to prove itself as one of New York’s elite antitrust practices. With four Who’s Who Legal nominees – Arthur F Golden, Ronan P Harty, Arthur J Burke and Joel M Cohen – the firm has a highly regarded group working on many high-profile matters. Mergers specialist Harty is advising packaged food company ConAgra in its US$6.8 billion buy-out of Ralcorp and, together with Burke, he represented long-time client Comcast in its US$18.1 billion acquisition of General Electric’s stake in NBC. Burke was also counsel to Comcast in its agreements with Verizon regarding the telecom’s company’s spectrum purchase. Davis Polk is heavily involved in matters at the intersection of antitrust law and foreign investment review, having advised China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC) in its US$15 billion purchase of Canadian rival Nexen; the deal was cleared with conditions. Harty and Sohn also represent stock exchange operator BATS Global Markets in its tie-up with Direct Edge. The litigation team is equally busy. Burke and partner Robert Wise are advising Bank of America in relation to the Libor investigation and were lead trial counsel for all the banks in private actions consolidated in New York. The defendants successfully won a motion to dismiss all antitrust claims. Golden successfully defended AstraZeneca in a price-fixing cartel case in California brought by several pharmacies. Another heavyweight in the New York bar, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett continues to win a decent share of the prestigious matters on the antitrust circuit. The firm has three Who’s Who Legal nominees: practice leader Kevin J Arquit, Joseph Tringali and Aimee H Goldstein. Joseph Wayland briefly returned to the firm after being acting head of the DoJ’s antitrust division, but has since moved on to become general counsel at insurer ACE. Deals have been flowing, with Simpson Thacher advising Virgin Atlantic over Delta Air Lines’ acquisition of Singapore Airlines’ 49 per cent stake in the carrier. Arquit was also counsel to Palmyra Park Hospital in a headline-grabbing deal with Phoebe Putney, which the FTC took all the way to the Supreme Court before the parties came to a settlement. Goldstein represented software company Solera Holdings in the conditional clearance of its purchase of Actual Systems, and the firm is advising Office Depot in its three-to-two merger with Office Max. Litigation also continues apace, with partner Thomas Rice advising JP Morgan in the Libor matters, including the private lawsuit that was tossed by a New York federal court judge. He also advised the bank over its settlement agreement in the municipal bonds case. Simpson Thacher is also counsel in the online travel websites private litigation, which has been consolidated in Texas, and acted for Australian biotechnology company CSL in settling price-fixing allegations. Most of the high-profile antitrust matters in the last 18 months have more often than not involved the team at Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. The breadth of experience across the partnership means the firm is always challenging for the best
work. Group leader Shepard Goldfein is a Who’s Who Legal nominee alongside partners Clifford Aronson and James Keyte. To list but a few of Skadden’s merger matters, Matthew Hendrickson advised Sprint Nextel in its US$21.6 billion acquisition by Japan’s SoftBank, which was cleared in July, and Keyte is counsel to the AMR Unsecured Creditors Committee in the US Airways/American Airlines deal, which the DoJ has challenged. Several New York partners advised AB InBev in its US$20 billion merger with Grupo Modelo, which the DoJ also challenged but was cleared after the companies and the government struck a settlement deal. Skadden is also advising Nokia in the US$7.3 billion sale of its devices and services units to Microsoft, and is representing Ainsworth Lumber in its tie-up with Louisiana-Pacific. On the behavioural side, Goldfein and Aronson’s representation of publisher HarperCollins in the DoJ’s e-books case saw them win “Behavioural Matter of the Year – Americas” at this year’s GCR Awards. Maria Raptis advised Watson Pharmaceuticals – now Actavis – in the renowned reverse- payment case brought by the FTC, which went all the way to the Supreme Court. Skadden continues to advise JPMorgan Chase in the interchange fee antitrust litigation. As a leader in financial services, it is no surprise that Sullivan & Cromwell’s New York group remains exceptionally busy, both on the merger and antitrust investigations fronts. Who’s Who Legal nominee and practice leader Yvonne S Quinn says her team works very closely with the Washington, DC office and is never found wanting for high-stakes work. Steven L Holley, also in Who’s Who Legal, has particular expertise in mergers. Sullivan & Cromwell is the only firm representing two different banks in the Libor investigation, through its New York and DC practices. Quinn and partner David Braff in New York are advising Barclays. The firm is also defending Goldman Sachs over alleged anti-competitive activity in the aluminium warehousing market, and advised JP Morgan Chase in winning dismissal of a case alleging monopolisation of the silver futures market. Holley advised Intercontinental Exchange in gaining DoJ approval of its US$8.2 billion tie-up with NYSE Euronext. While the financial services industry is an obvious strength, the firm’s client base remains diverse. Holley acted for Apollo Tyres in its acquisition of Cooper Tire and semiconductor leader ASML in its US$2.6 billion purchase of rival Cymer. Sullivan & Cromwell is also regular counsel to Microsoft, and Holley acted alongside partners David Tulchin, Sharon Nelles and Adam Paris for the company in a long-running abuse of dominance complaint brought by Novell. The case was dismissed by a lower court, which Novell appealed against and lost in September at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Elite merger shop Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz remains at full tilt on some of the largest deals both in the US and internationally, according to practice head Ilene Knable Gotts. She is one of five Who’s Who Legal nominees – the most of any firm in this survey – together with Joseph D Larson, David A Schwartz, Michael H Byowitz and Nelson O Fitts. Gotts is counsel to Omnicom in its US$35 billion tie-up with rival Publicis, which would create the largest advertising company in the world and is one of the largest deals of the year GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
AMERICAS
Firm
Head of competition
Size
Clients
Delta Air Lines, Saint-Gobain, Grupo Modelo, Archer Daniels Midland, Life Technologies, Crown Castle International, Unilever, Mondeléz International (formerly Kraft Foods)
11
Elite Cravath Swaine & Moore
Christine Varney
12p
Davis Polk & Wardwell
Christopher B Hockett
14p, 4c, 12a Heinz, Comcast, ConAgra, BATS Global Markets, (New York & Warner Chilcott, Maidenform, Bank of America, Washington, DC) CNOOC, LoopNet, AstraZeneca
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
Kevin J Arquit
17p, 1sc, 4c, 1oc, 31a (firm-wide)
Equitas, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Virgin Atlantic, Palmyra Park Hospital, Solera Holdings, JP Morgan, Office Depot
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom
Shepard Goldfein
11p, 6c, 24a
Sprint Nextel, AB InBev, AMR Unsecured Creditors Committee, HarperCollins, JP Morgan Chase, Mylan, Stryker, Actavis, Nokia, NHL, NBA
Sullivan & Cromwell
Yvonne S Quinn
17p
Intercontinental Exchange, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Barclays, Microsoft, Apollo, Skype
Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz
Ilene Knable Gotts
7p, 4a
Publicis, Mako Surgical, Saks, PPG, NYSE Euronext, United Technologies, McGraw-Hill, Ralcorp, El Paso
4p, 9a
American Airlines, Thomas H Lee Partners, Sirius XM Radio, Simon & Schuster, Panasonic, Meredith Corporation, The EW Scripps, Hoak Media, Calsonic Kansei
Weil Gotshal & Manges
Steven Reiss
Key: p = partner, c = counsel, oc = of counsel, sa = senior associate, a = associate
by value. The firm is also long-time merger counsel to United Technologies and recently secured its US$18.4 billion acquisition of Goodrich. Schwartz also advised UTC subsidiary Rocketdyne in a tieup with rival GenCorp, which the FTC argued would lead to a monopoly in the market for liquid rocket propulsion technology for missile systems and spacecraft. But it was overruled by the Department of Defense and the merger went ahead. Schwartz, who has particular expertise in financial services, also represented NYSE Euronext gain clearance for its US$8.2 billion acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange. Gotts is counsel to PPG in the US$1.7 billion sale of its stake in venture Transitions Optical to joint owner Essilor, while Larson is advising financial and publishing company McGraw-Hill in the US$2.5 billion sale of its education business to private equity firm Apollo Global Management. At Weil Gotshal & Manges, partner Steven Reiss says the team is busier than ever on high-profile litigation matters, with several lawyers from the firm’s New York litigation practice focusing almost entirely on antitrust cases. Reiss is joined in the partnership by Adam Hemlock and Eric Hochstadt. Among the firm’s litigation matters is its representation of GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
American Airlines in its lawsuits against Sabre and Travelport, the country’s two largest global ticket distribution systems. The airline claimed it was being excluded from the flight information market, in which a GDS provides travel agencies with information such as flight fares and timetables. American Airlines eventually settled with both companies October 2012 and March this year. Other notable work includes representing Simon & Schuster in the DoJ’s e-books case, which won “Behavioural Matter of the Year – Americas” at the 2013 GCR Awards; the publisher settled in February but private litigation matters continue. Hemlock continues to advise Panasonic in the multi-district cathode ray tube cartel private antitrust lawsuits, while he and Reiss are counsel to Calsonic Kansei Corporation in two private actions regarding the car parts cartel. Weil is also coordinating on class actions filed against Calsonic Kansei in Canada. Weil has particular expertise in the crossover between antitrust and music licensing, and is advising SiriusXM Radio against music copyright holders SoundExchange and A2IM, and several independent television broadcasters against performing rights body SESAC, over anti-competitive licensing practices.
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Highly recommended
The promotion of Russell Steinthal to partner in February is an indication of Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider’s success. Led by John D Harkrider, a Who’s Who Legal nominee alongside fellow name partner Stephen M Axinn, the team punches significantly above its weight as a highly regarded antitrust boutique. The firm was once again listed in the GCR Awards, this time winning “Matter of the Year” for its efforts in the US Federal Trade Commission’s investigation of Google; it was closed with a consent order forcing the company to drop all its injunctions over alleged standard-essential patent infringement, which is the aspect Axinn Veltrop advised on. The firm continues to advise Google regularly on antitrust matters. Harkrider and Mark Alexander are counsel to Thermo Fisher in its US$13.6 billion merger with Life Technologies, and the firm represented Omnicare in its bid to buy PharMerica, but the deal was abandoned after US enforcers opposed it. Axinn Veltrop also advised Motorola Mobility, owned by Google, in the sale of its cable and internet business to Arris; it was closed after a second request. Harkrider is also defending Secalt in an antitrust and fraud claim brought by the State of Iraq against companies that participated in the UN Oil for Food programme; the antitrust claims were dismissed but are on appeal. Big-ticket merger work, criminal cartel investigations and civil antitrust litigation are the three pillars of Crowell & Moring’s workload, say co-practice leaders Olivier Antoine and Dan Zelenko. The firm has been very successful in keeping to these aims, with a presence on several recent high-profile competition matters. Crowell is representing AT&T over its proposed US$4 billion acquisition of Leap Wireless, a case that’s firmly in the spotlight given AT&T’s failure to tie-up with T-Mobile last year. Antoine advised Veolia in obtaining conditional clearance for the US$1.9 billion sale of its solid waste management unit to Highstar, and was counsel to DuPont in the US$4.9 billion acquisition of its automotive coatings business by Carlyle Group. On the behavioural side, Crowell is advising clients in some of the DoJ’s major investigations: car parts, Libor and municipal bonds. Zelenko focuses his practice on litigation, and he says the firm is busy in its defence of Amazon over alleged monopolisation of the e-books market through its agreements with the six major publishing houses. He is also defending medical products distributor Owens & Minor in two federal lawsuits challenging company’s pricing model; in the first lawsuit the claims were dismissed. That the antitrust team at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher wins most of the high-profile work it carries out organically, as opposed to being fed primarily by its corporate practice, is one of the team’s biggest strengths, says Who’s Who Legal nominee and practice head Peter Sullivan. The method certainly seems to be working. Top of the list is the firm’s representation of Apple in the DoJ’s e-books trial, which grabbed headlines after the publishers settled and Apple appealed its loss at trial to the Second Circuit. Gibson Dunn litigation partner Orin Snyder led the
Apple defence in court. Apple filed its appeal at the beginning of the month. Sullivan is counsel to UBS in the ongoing Libor cases, of which there are more than 40. The bank paid fines to various agencies totalling US$1.5 billion, but was also part of the group of banks against whom private antitrust damages lawsuits were dismissed. The firm continues to act in the car parts investigation and several other financial matters. Partner John Herfort is regular counsel to oilfield services company Schlumberger, and is counsel to CareCore National over alleged refusal to supply. On the merger front, Gibson Dunn is counsel to paper company Georgia-Pacific in its US$1.5 billion acquisition of Buckeye Technologies. The clear succession plan at Jones Day, says New York practice leader and Who’s Who Legal nominee Fiona A Schaeffer, is a significant part of the firm’s success as younger partners are involved on the biggest matters. The firm continues to benefit from its expansive global network. The New York team has a balanced diet of antitrust matters. Mergers are flowing, with Schaeffer acting for Essilor in its US$1.7 billion acquisition of rival PPG’s stake in venture Transitions Optical and medical equipment maker Baxter in its US$2.8 billion worldwide takeover of Gambro. Jones Day is also regular counsel to Nasdaq, and represented the company in two acquisitions: buying certain assets from Thomson Reuters for US$390 million and acquiring trading platform eSpeed for US$1.2 billion. On the behavioural side, Jones Day is acting for Deutsche Bank in the ongoing credit default swap case, which includes the DoJ investigation and follow-on class action lawsuits filed in district court in Illinois. The New York group also provides crucial support to Jones Day’s Latin America practice, and is advising several international clients in cartel investigations in Brazil. Kaye Scholer continues to be a highly regarded New York antitrust practice. Led by partner Saul Morgenstern, who has three other partners in his team, the firm maintains its expertise in the pharmaceutical sector, advising on some of the highest profile recent matters. Morgenstern is regular counsel to Novartis, and he won first-phase approval of the company’s US$1.5 billion acquisition of rival Fougera Pharmaceutical. Kaye Scholer also defended Novartis in a seven-year price-fixing litigation in California, which was dismissed in August 2012 by the state appeals court for having no merit. Morgenstern is also advising King Pharmaceuticals in several alleged reverse-payment class actions over the branded drug Skelaxin. Other significant matters include representing the world’s largest publisher, Penguin Random House, in the e-books investigation – Kaye Scholer had been regular counsel to Random House before the merger with Penguin and continues to defend the company in litigation regarding alleged anti-competitive e-book agreements with Amazon. The firm is also involved in the car parts cartel probe and is acting for Norfolk Southern, one of the largest rail companies in the US, in a class action alleging the company conspired with rivals to fix prices.
GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
AMERICAS
Firm
Head of competition
Size
Clients
13
Highly recommended Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider
John D Harkrider
6p, 16a
Google, Thermo Fischer, SunGard, Red Hat, Omnicare, Ball Corporation, Telus, Matlin Patterson
Crowell & Moring
Olivier Antoine, Dan Zelenko
27p, 10c, 27a (firm-wide)
Flowers Foods, DuPont, Goldman Sachs, United Technologies, Veolia, AT&T, Amazon, Owens & Minor
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher
Peter Sullivan
11p, 14a
Apple, Coty, UBS, Schlumberger, CareCore National, Georgia-Pacific, Hewlett-Packard, Brother, Teijin Holdings
Jones Day
Fiona A Schaeffer
4p, 3a
MasterCard, Deutsche Bank, Nasdaq, Baxter International, Bombardier, Connell Limited Partnership, Warner Music Group
Kaye Scholer
Saul Morgenstern
11p, 10c, 14a (firm-wide)
Novartis, King Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Penguin Random House, MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates, ExxonMobil
O’Melveny & Myers
Andrew Frackman
4p, 1c, 2a
US Airways, Apple, Capital One, Honeywell, Bank of America
Shearman & Sterling
Beau W Buffier
7p, 3c, 20a
Ardagh, Barclays, BASF, ICE, Nokia, JTEKT, Rhodia, Sony, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Thomson Reuters, Viacom
White & Case
Robert Milne, Joseph Angland
9p, 35a
Toshiba, Pfizer, BPC Chicago, JSC Belarusian Potash, Wyeth, Warner Chilcott, Novartis, Saudi Aramco
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Jonathan Jacobson
4p, 10a
Google, Bazaarvoice, Live Nation, HTC, Transitions Optical, Netflix, Plantronics, Mylan
Winston & Strawn
Jeffrey L Kessler, A Paul Victor
10p, 25a
Panasonic, Nippon Seiki, NTN Bearing, Discover, NEC, Uralkalim, Silvermet
Key: p = partner, c = counsel, a = associate
There’s plenty of litigation work going on at O’Melveny & Myers. Andrew Frackman and his four-partner team have been busy handling both the civil and criminal sides of antitrust matters. Of these cases, US Airways/American Airlines is perhaps the most significant. The deal has been blocked by the DoJ and looks to be heading to trial. While the Washington, DC practice is spearheading O’Melveny’s representation of US Airways, New York partner Mark Racanelli is also heavily involved. The GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
same goes for the e-books case, where Frackman worked closely with DC partner Richard G Parker in advising Apple before the DoJ. Frackman continues to advise Capital One in the interchange fee litigation against Visa and MasterCard, and the firm also advised US Airways in litigation against Sabre. O’Melveny is involved in the Libor and car parts investigations, and also represents several individuals in criminal antitrust matters. The firm handled one of the more interesting cases in recent
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times when defending Honeywell over allegations of price fixing on automotive oil filters. The case was based on testimony from a whistle-blower, who was then discovered to have forged the incriminating documents. The criminal investigation was dropped, the whistle-blower prosecuted and the matter settled. Shearman & Sterling continue to be successful in New York. While working very closely with its practices across the globe, the New York team specifically is handling an impressive amount of big-ticket work. That four of its members are nominated to Who’s Who Legal – practice leader Beau W Buffier, Wayne D Collins, Kenneth S Prince and Lisl J Dunlop – i llustrates the strength of the practice. Merger work has been prevalent, with Collins, Richard Schwed and Alan Goudiss advising Ardgah in its US$1.7 billion acquisition of Saint-Gobain’s bottling business. The FTC challenged the deal on grounds that it combined the second and third-largest glass bottlers in the US, and the case is before an administrative law judge. The FTC is also heavily scrutinising a merger between the country’s two largest funeral home owners, in which Shearman is advising Service Corporation International. Collins also helped Singapore Airlines gain global clearance for the sale of its 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic to Delta Airlines, and he and partner Jessica Delbaum advised Citigroup in the sale of parts of record label EMI to Sony and Universal Music Group. On the investigations side, Shearman represented Credit Suisse in the Libor cartel class actions, which were gutted by a New York federal judge in April. The firm is also involved in the car parts matter and several other undisclosed investigations. White & Case remains extremely busy, with practice co-head Robert Milne saying the team is focused on three areas: cartel litigation, pharmaceutical antitrust issues and merger work. He shares the practice leadership with Who’s Who Legal nominee Joseph Angland. The firm’s long-running work defending Toshiba in the liquid crystal display cartel matters is well documented. Most recently, a San Francisco jury cleared Toshiba of price-fixing allegations a year after another jury found the company guilty of the same crime – a verdict which was later vacated. Two partners from White & Case’s New York office worked with their Washington, DC, counterparts on these matters. In the pharmaceutical sector, the firm remains very strong. It is advising Pfizer in the Effexor litigation and numerous class actions regarding Lipitor, the best-selling drug of all time. Milne and partner Michael Gallagher are also counsel to Warner Chilcott over allegedly unfairly raising the price of oral contraceptive Loestrin. Other matters include advising JSC Belarusian Potash, one of the world’s largest potash producers, in agreeing a settlement with plaintiffs over an alleged pricefixing cartel. Led by Jonathan Jacobson, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati’s renowned expertise in the high-tech markets continues to provide big-ticket work. Jacobson, Charles E Biggio and Chul Pak are all Who’s Who Legal nominees and Lucy Yen was promoted to partner in January.
Although the matter was led by Wilson Sonsini’s Washington, DC, practice, Jacobson says the New York group was heavily involved in the firm’s representation of Google in the FTC’s investigation of its search practices, which ended without fines or changes to Google’s algorithm. The case won “Matter of the Year” at this year’s GCR Awards. Jacobson is also representing product ratings and review platform Bazaarvoice in a merger trial in San Francisco; the DoJ claims Bazaarvoice’s merger with rival PowerReviews was essentially a two-to-one deal that ended all competition in the market. The firm is defending LiveNation in a monopolisation case, and also acting for smartphone maker HTC in a patent infringement case brought by patent assertion entity Cascades Ventures. Wilson Sonsini continues to act for generic drug maker Mylan in litigation regarding the drugs Lorazepan, Clorazepate, and in a so-called “product-hopping” case regarding the drug Doryx. High-profile antitrust litigation is the bread and butter of the 10 partners that make up Winston & Strawn’s New York antitrust practice. Headed by former Dewey & Leboeuf heavyweights Jeffrey L Kessler and A Paul Victor, the group is dealing with around 10 major cartel investigations and their ensuing private lawsuits. An example is the sprawling car parts probe; Winston & Strawn is acting in five different multidistrict litigations for three companies: Panasonic, Nippon Seiki and MTN & Bearings. The firm is also involved in the cathode ray tube and optical disk drive matters for more than one party, and is representing almost half of the defendants in the batteries cartel case. There are also the compressor, power cables and potash litigations being run out of the New York office, the list goes on. Winston & Strawn also acted in a full bench trial regarding credit card companies’ use of arbitration clauses to hinder competition, one of only two major civil trials this year. Recommended
The team at Baker & McKenzie spend the majority of their time handling antitrust investigations and litigation work. Group head Darrell Prescott works on the civil side of cases, while Douglas Tween works almost exclusively on criminal matters. Tween is also head of the firm’s white collar practice, and spent 15 years at the DoJ’s antitrust division. Among the many cases Baker & McKenzie is working on, the one with the highest profile is the Chinese Vitamin C trial, in which Prescott and partner Charles Critchlow represented Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical. After years of legal wrangling and the Chinese government intervening, the Chinese companies were fined US$162 million, which is likely to be appealed against. Prescott is also counsel to Baldwin Filters in the DoJ’s ongoing car parts cartel investigation. Tween has his hands full with follow-on actions from criminal cases, and is acting for clients in the freight forwarding, air cargo, tax liens and refrigerator parts matters. The firm is also regular antitrust counsel to Canpotex, the world’s largest potash exporter.
GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
AMERICAS
Firm
15
Head of competition
Size
Clients
Baker & McKenzie
Darrell Prescott
3p, 4a
Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical, Canpotex, Prada, Baldwin Filters
Greenberg Traurig
James Serota
11p, 2c, 8a
Northeast Pharmaceutical Group, Lorillard, Catchplay, Hearst Corporation, VF Corporation, GSK Healthcare, BSH
Hogan Lovells
Sanford M Litvack
6p, 8a
Air Canada, American Express, Blue Cross Blue Shield Group, Long Island Health Network, Ford, SDV Logistique, Home City Ice, United Healthcare
Linklaters
Thomas McGrath
2p, 1c
Glencore, BP, Lixil, Siemens, Actavis, Thyssenkrupp, Air France/KLM
Mayer Brown
Richard Steuer
5p, 6a
Société Générale, Temple-Inland, BASF, ITWAL
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison
Aidan Synnott
7p, 4c, 25a
Sumitomo, Nielsen, Becton Dickinson, Pfizer, Deutsche Bank, MasterCard, News Corp, Encana
recommended
Key: p = partner, c = counsel, a = associate
James Serota leads the antitrust practice at Greenberg Traurig, which has had a lot of litigation on its books lately. Who’s Who Legal nominees Scott Martin and Irving Scher say they are working on many “difference-making cases”. The most renowned of these is Serota and Martin’s counselling of Chinese Vitamin C manufacturer Northeast Pharmaceutical Group over colluding with rivals to fix prices for US consumers. The saga came to trial in February after years of pre-trial motions and intervention from the Chinese government. A US$162 million fine was handed down, but Northeast settled with plaintiffs for US$1 million post-trial. The firm is also advising long-time client Lorillard in a class action over alleged price fixing on tobacco, and is active in several other litigations taking in the media, insurance, construction and telecoms sectors. On the merger side, counsel Mary Marks is advising Volvo in the sale of its aerospace business to GKN. Hogan Lovells continues to serve its major client list in New York on a range of antitrust issues, though with a focus on litigation. Headed by Who’s Who Legal nominee Sandford M Litvack, the partnership lost the services of rising star Eric Stock, who left to become head of the antitrust bureau at the New York attorney general’s office. The firm continues to act for Air Canada in the ongoing air cargo cartel litigations, as well as for SDV Logistique in the freight forwarding matter. It is also heavily involved in the ocean GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
shipping cartel lawsuits, in which there are 24 class actions. Partner Steve Edwards is handling several cases in the healthcare sector, including representing AvMed against Sheridan Healthcare in Florida. Hogan Lovells continues to provide regular antitrust advice to the likes of IBM and American Express, and is acting in the Libor investigation. Who’s Who Legal nominee Thomas McGrath runs a small but impressive practice at Linklaters in New York. Fellow Who’s Who Legal entrant Jeffrey Schmidt now splits his time between New York and Washington, DC, but the group continues to be busy in New York on several matters. The firm lost two litigation partners to Reed Smith in September, both of whom handled their fair share of antitrust work. The mergers side is particularly busy, with McGrath advising on Glencore’s US$39 billion acquisition of Xstrata, which the DoJ eventually cleared. He was also counsel to Actavis in its US$4.3 billion merger with Watson Pharmaceuticals and is representing Siemens in its acquisition of technology company Invensys. The firm also regularly represents BP, and recently advised it on the sale of a southern California refinery to Tesoro. On the behavioural side, Linklaters continues to advise Air France/KLM in the air cargo cartel litigations, and is involved in several other undisclosed matters. Richard Steuer leads the New York antitrust practice at Mayer Brown. The group covers the full spectrum of antitrust work,
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AMERICAS
with Steuer mentioning the financial services as a particular area of focus. Among other ongoing financial services cases, Mayer Brown is counsel to Société Générale in litigation relating to the municipal bonds investigation. The firm is also advising Temple-Inland in a lawsuit regarding corrugated products and advising in the car parts investigation. Class actions make up a large part of the practice’s workload, Steuer says. Mayer Brown also has expertise in the pharmaceutical sector, and the New York office works closely with the Washington, DC, practice in advising major clients in this area. Aidan Synnott, Who’s Who Legal nominee and practice head at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison, says the antitrust team has been so busy of late that a raft of partners from the litigation practice have been drafted in to help.
Moses Silverman, another Who’s Who Legal entrant, successfully represented Deutsche Bank in having the Libor private antitrust lawsuits thrown out by a New York federal judge in April. Partner Gary Carney is working closely with the Washington, DC, office in advising MasterCard in the ongoing interchange fee litigations, while the firm also represented News America Marketing, a unit of News Corp, in having a monopolisation lawsuit regarding in-store coupons dismissed. On the mergers side, Synnott is advising Nielsen in its tieup with Arbitron. Both companies measure television audiences and the FTC is scrutinising the deal because of a future market post-merger for cross-platform audience measuring.
GCR Volume 16 Issue 10
