Success in business requires a competitive edge. The antitrust practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP focuses on creating opportunities and limiting risks in all aspects of our clients’ businesses. Our antitrust practice group draws on Akin Gump’s diverse and wide-ranging assets and capabilities by combining lawyers who concentrate in the most complex areas of antitrust law with experienced trial lawyers, including former prosecutors and government officials; authorities in international trade regulation; respected figures in public law and policy; and sophisticated domestic and international transactional counsel.

Our focus is getting the best results for our clients. Our team has defended clients’ business practices in bet-the-company civil and criminal litigation; steered billion-dollar mergers through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ); handled massive, multi-jurisdictional intentional cartel investigations; and counseled clients on how to avoid antitrust problems before they arise.

Our Approach

Akin Gump’s antitrust group seeks practical solutions for significant and often complex problems. In all aspects of our practice—litigation, transactional, criminal defense and counseling—we strive to craft creative, and often multidisciplinary, strategies to help our clients achieve their competitive and regulatory goals. Our ability to deal with antitrust issues in multiple court venues while simultaneously managing agency and legislative arenas is a hallmark of our practice. We are well-known to the antitrust enforcement agencies for our integrity and candor—as well as our excellence. Finally, we are particularly proud of our successes in the courtroom.

Our Services

The firm’s antitrust lawyers provide full-service capabilities in all aspects of business competition, from fundamental policies and procedures to the most complex challenges. The group’s diverse experience includes—

• criminal cartel investigations – defending both companies and high-level executives in government criminal investigations and subsequent civil litigation
• competition litigation – representing both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of civil cases, class actions, and government investigations and prosecutions
• mergers and acquisitions – providing strategic counseling, structuring and negotiating deals, dealing with government enforcers and litigating challenges to combinations
• general counseling – rendering advice regarding company structure, distribution practices, compliance issues, audit procedures and other day-to-day matters
• competitive relief – advocating with respect to competitor practices
• legislative affairs – representing clients before Congress and state legislatures regarding trade policies and practices
• consumer protection – representing clients in private consumer litigation and state and federal government investigations of allegedly deceptive or unfair practices
• international competition – representing clients on competition issues across the European Union, former Soviet Union and around the world
• IP/antitrust – prosecuting and litigating complex issues at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law and policy.

Cartel Investigations and Prosecution

Few matters are more dangerous for companies and their high-level executives than a criminal cartel investigation and the possibility of indictments and prosecution. DOJ’s Antitrust Division ranks these matters among its highest priorities, and Congress recently increased both monetary penalties and jail sentences for companies and individuals prosecuted under the criminal antitrust laws.

Our lawyers have handled numerous criminal antitrust matters involving internal investigations, grand jury proceedings (including subpoenas for documents and testimony), representation of non-target witnesses, immunity negotiations, plea bargains, trials and sentencings. We understand how government investigations proceed and how to work closely with executives, company witnesses, joint defense groups and economists to develop a winning defense strategy. We also have applied for and obtained amnesty for clients. Our recent representations have involved cartel investigations involving semiconductors, transportation, telephony, printing, food products, beverages, restaurant supplies, agribusiness, water pipes, insurance, government contracts, cotton shipping, plastic wrapping, electrical contractors and industrial diamonds.

Major criminal cases inevitably are followed by consumer class actions filed by both direct and indirect purchasers. We have extensive experience in defending such cases and are skilled in positioning them procedurally to limit client exposure.

In Europe, criminal cartel cases can be brought by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading and the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. Non-criminal cartel cases are brought by the European Commission (EC), where the cartel covers a large part of the European Union (EU).

Litigation

Our broad-based antitrust litigation practice includes prosecuting and defending antitrust lawsuits in federal and state courts throughout the country. We have handled virtually every type of antitrust proceeding, including cases involving mergers, vertical restraints, horizontal restraints, monopolization, predatory pricing and price discrimination. We have assisted clients with competitor vs. competitor litigation, consumer class actions, government enforcement actions and antitrust counterclaims.

We also have extensive experience with the litigation aspects of governmental enforcement, including representing clients in governmental investigations, regulatory proceedings and agency litigation concerning both competition law and consumer protection issues. Part of our regulatory approach is to position clients to avoid litigation when that would be to their advantage.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Akin Gump’s antitrust practice includes a heavy focus on mergers and acquisitions, representing buyers, sellers, targets and financial institutions. Our experience encompasses all forms of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and divestitures, including negotiated transactions, hostile takeovers and freeze-out mergers. We have a deep understanding of the regulatory review processes employed by the FTC, DOJ and state attorneys general.

As part of our practice, we engage in creative and effective antitrust counseling in all aspects of the merger planning process, including—

• analyzing prospective acquisition targets
• evaluating antitrust risks
• structuring transactions to minimize the prospect of an antitrust challenge
• complying with the pre-merger notification requirements under the Hart-Scott-Rodino
• Antitrust Improvements Act, as well as under the European Union Merger Control Regulation
• handling pre-acquisition or post-acquisition investigations by the U.S. government or the European Merger Control Task Force.

The firm has defended a large number of Hart-Scott-Rodino merger investigations through effective presentations to government antitrust enforcement lawyers and economists. In cases where opposition has been more intense, we have negotiated consent decrees to eliminate antitrust objections, and, where an acceptable settlement has not been reached, we have gone to trial.

General Counseling

Antitrust issues remain a concern over a company’s lifetime. Akin Gump provides ongoing advice and counsel in the form of—

• establishing and implementing antitrust compliance programs
• assessing the implications of particular pricing, marketing or distribution practices
• implementing avoidance and defense strategies
• presenting policy issues to congressional bodies and other interested government agencies.

Our assistance in developing and implementing antitrust compliance programs satisfies the requirements of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. We work with clients to develop written policies and procedures, as well as education and compliance programs, to prevent and detect antitrust problems. Our compliance programs include audiovisual presentations, written outlines and question-and-answer sessions. The firm also has substantial experience in conducting audits and internal investigations to ensure compliance with corporate antitrust and document retention policies.

Competitive Relief

When concerns arise about the possible economic consequences of competitors’ business practices or other activities, including pending mergers, acquisitions or joint ventures, such as those between a client’s primary competitors, we vigorously pursue competitive regulatory relief. Our efforts to bring these concerns to the attention of the appropriate government authorities involve—

• compiling a comprehensive analysis of the competitive conditions within the relevant industry
• assessing the impact of the proposed activities or transaction on the industry, from the
• legal and economic perspectives
• developing legal theories of liability in opposition to the business activity
• closely monitoring the investigations conducted by the staffs of these government agencies, often including making client representatives available for information interviews.

For many clients, our efforts have prompted government agencies to seek administrative or judicial relief, block the consummation of transactions or otherwise require restructuring of the transactions in ways that competitively benefit our clients. When necessary, we work with our firm’s public law and policy group to highlight the policy issues raised by competitor activities and bring them to the attention of appropriate government decision-makers.

Legislative Affairs

In competition and consumer protection disputes, we offer not only powerful traditional litigation talents, but also the capability to shape public policy debate that is often just as critical to achieving a favorable outcome. Through our interaction with the White House, executive branch agencies and Congress, we leverage our firm’s experience and contacts in the legislative and policy arenas to maximize our clients’ ability to achieve their business and strategic goals

Consumer Protection

Akin Gump has broad experience in private consumer litigation and consumer protection enforcement actions brought by the FTC and by state and local law enforcement officials, including the investigation of companies for deceptive or unfair acts or practices. At the FTC, the firm has defended a large number of companies under investigation in the areas of advertising and marketing practices, privacy, service industry practices and credit practices. Akin Gump also has represented clients involved in antitrust rulemaking proceedings

When state attorney generals investigate our clients in parallel or separate investigations, we handle the necessary factual investigation, advocacy before relevant decision makers, negotiation of consent decrees and defense of enforcement complaints if filed.

International Competition

Our competition law capabilities in the EU and the emerging economies of the former Soviet Union are key components of our antitrust practice. Our firm’s extensive network of contacts throughout Europe allows us to provide one-stop shopping should a client’s matter involve merger or antitrust issues in one of the 27 EU member states or the non-EU countries in Central or Eastern Europe.

From our Moscow office, we provide competition policy advice to officials at the highest levels of the Russian State Committee on Antimonopoly Policy and advise officials of the committee's central and regional offices. Our Moscow team includes both native Russian lawyers and Russian-speaking American lawyers. Clients doing business in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States also benefit from the firm’s public policy team in Washington, D.C., which includes a former U.S. ambassador to Russia and former high-ranking National Security Council and State Department officials with a wealth of experience in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and Eurasia. Around the globe Akin Gump has the far-reaching experience and relationships to promote and protect competition.