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The attorneys comprising Schulte Roth & Zabel’s Antitrust and Trade Practices Group have extensive and varied experience in all areas of federal and state antitrust and unfair competition law. When the firm’s business transactions lawyers structure a domestic or cross-border merger, acquisition or joint venture—and SRZ has represented both buyers and sellers in some of the most high-profile transactions of recent years—our antitrust lawyers are routinely brought in to evaluate the antitrust risk. The lawyers analyze any of a wide range of business practices with the goal of identifying and avoiding any potential antitrust challenges or unfair business practice charges.
For clients who find themselves the target of an antitrust investigation, the defendant in a civil or criminal enforcement action or a private civil suit, or who believe themselves to be the victim of an unfair business practice or a violation of antitrust laws, our antitrust litigators stand ready to represent them. Our antitrust lawyers have represented clients in connection with investigations by the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and state attorneys general, including assisting in responding to subpoenas and civil investigative demands, as well as to information and document requests, representing clients in all phases of grand jury matters, and appearing in numerous federal and state courts throughout the country, in both agency and private litigations, involving the full range of antitrust issues and a wide variety of industries.
Counseling and Advice
Representing clients in antitrust investigations and litigations is only part of what we do. Equally, if not more, important is the advice we provide clients on how to avoid antitrust problems before they arise. Bringing a “litigator’s perspective” to their analysis, our antitrust attorneys work side-by-side with our transactional lawyers to ensure that M&A deals are structured in such a way as to minimize any potential anticompetitive effects that might result in the transaction being challenged. Post-transaction, our antitrust lawyers remain in the picture, developing antitrust compliance policies and evaluating proposed business practices that might subject the client to governmental scrutiny or a private antitrust claim, and, if necessary, working with the client to modify the proposed practices.
Government Investigations
Together with lawyers from our white-collar criminal defense and regulatory groups, our antitrust lawyers defend clients subject to criminal or civil government investigations conducted by the FTC, the DOJ Antitrust Division and state attorneys general. We also represent clients in connection with the DOJ’s corporate leniency program, through which, if the client is the first conspirator to self-report, the client is eligible for amnesty from criminal penalties and a reduction in civil damages exposure from treble to single damages. Many of these matters are non-public.
Litigation
Although we strive to advise our clients on how to achieve their business goals without increasing their litigation risk, sometimes litigation is inevitable or a necessary tool. Our antitrust practitioners defend clients against claims such as monopolization, attempted monopolization, price-fixing, exclusive dealing, tying, refusals to deal and other challenges to product distribution practices, group boycotts and price discrimination.
In addition to defending clients against government claims in a civil, criminal, or administrative context, we also defend clients against private antitrust claims which frequently are filed in the aftermath of a government investigation. Even before an indictment or government lawsuit, public news of a governmental antitrust investigation often triggers private class action litigation. Working with lawyers from our white-collar, securities law regulatory enforcement and litigation groups, we have the depth and scope to defend companies from lawsuits brought by customers and consumers (individually and in class actions) in federal and state courts throughout the country.
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