The Paul, Weiss Antitrust Practice advises clients on a full range of global antitrust matters, including antitrust regulatory clearance, government investigations, private litigation, and counseling and compliance. The firm represents clients before antitrust and competition authorities in the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other jurisdictions around the world.
Our Practice
Most firms are tapped for their merger clearance work or for their cartel and litigation defense or plaintiff work; our lawyers excel in all areas. With a deep bench of former antitrust officials and first-class trial lawyers, our powerhouse team is equipped to handle matters that carry the most significant reputational and financial exposure.
M&A clearance: We field one of the nation’s foremost antitrust regulatory clearance teams. Our lawyers have played leading roles in obtaining clearance for high-profile mergers for decades, including the most contested. Our advisory work for clients – including listed and private companies as well as private equity firms – often begins in the boardroom, where we provide counsel on mitigating antitrust risk. It may extend to managing invasive second requests, negotiating regulatory settlements or defending transactions in court. We also regularly advise clients on comprehensive strategies when their interests are implicated in another merger in their industry.
Litigation and trials: Our antitrust trial experience and record of favorable results are unparalleled. We have represented defendants in many of the most significant civil antitrust trials in recent years. Our top-tier antitrust litigators in New York, Washington, D.C. and California routinely handle the most complicated cases involving allegations of monopolization, price fixing, predatory pricing, bid rigging, exclusive dealing, and claims pertaining to resale price, maintenance and trade secrets. At the pretrial level, we focus on challenging standing, defeating class certification motions and obtaining dismissals. At the trial and appellate level, we are aggressive in developing the economic evidence and expertise that persuade courts to roll back certification and dismiss substantive claims.
Cartel and criminal defense: We handle multijurisdictional, high-stakes cartel actions, including civil and grand jury investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the European Commission. We have defended automotive, electronics, sports, media and entertainment companies and major financial institutions, among others, in connection with their most serious cartel matters, successfully narrowing the scope of price-fixing investigations, dissuading regulators from initiating actions, negotiating favorable outcomes and litigating, where necessary.
Deeply experienced team: For decades, our lawyers have played central roles in the development of antitrust jurisprudence in areas ranging from mergers to predatory pricing. Our team includes several trial lawyers with more than 30 years of courtroom experience; prominent former officials at the FTC and DOJ — including a former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Antitrust Division — and one of the nation’s foremost antitrust law professors. The practice regularly earns top-tier rankings in Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US and others.
Global coordination: As antitrust enforcement has become global, so, too, has our practice, with lawyers from our Washington, D.C., New York, California and London offices coordinating seamlessly to counsel clients in Asia, Canada and Europe on antitrust matters. Our attorneys have provided guidance to both U.S. companies operating in Asia, and Asian companies operating in the U.S. and Europe through the litany of antitrust and competition regimes.