Antitrust and Competition

Businesses face a growing challenge navigating antitrust and competition laws around the world. Effective guidance in addressing these challenges can mean the difference between capitalizing on a strategic opportunity and risking criminal liability. At Orrick, our experienced antitrust and competition lawyers are on the ground in the key jurisdictions throughout the United States, Europe and Asia to help clients meet their goals in an increasingly global environment.

Orrick’s global Antitrust and Competition Group recently expanded with the addition of 15 antitrust partners from Heller Ehrman LLP in the United States and Europe. Our lawyers are at the forefront of the most important issues in antitrust and competition law, including dominant firm conduct, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, international cartel investigations, private damage actions, distribution restrictions and intellectual property licensing.

We have represented industry leaders around the world including 3M, adidas, Crane, DHL, Discovery Communications, Foundry Networks, General Motors, Heinz, Honda, Novia/Ineos, Konica Minolta Business Systems, Liggett Group, Microsoft, Nanya, NVIDIA, Novartis, PG&E, Texas Instruments, Total, Visa, Weyerhaeuser and Whole Foods Market, among others.

Our lawyers have helped shape modern antitrust law in groundbreaking decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate courts, dating back to our success in the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Continental TV v. GTE Sylvania (vertical non-price restraints), which is widely credited with having laid the framework for modern antitrust analysis in the United States.

More recently, we were counsel to Weyerhaeuser in a Supreme Court case that expanded the limits of predatory pricing law, and we authored amicus briefs in Supreme Court cases involving joint ventures (Dagher), the applicability of the antitrust laws (Credit Suisse) and minimum resale price maintenance (Leegin). In the European Union and in major national jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany, Orrick lawyers have played a major role in setting competition policy for mergers, dominant firm conduct and private damage actions.

With the dramatic increase in cross-border antitrust and competition issues in recent years, Orrick’s global reach allows us to provide clients with integrated, seamless representation. We bring to each matter a rich array of perspectives, including lawyers who have served inside the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as in the European Commission and national competition agencies in Europe, including the Office of Fair Trading (United Kingdom) and the Irish Competition Authority. Our lawyers have been recognized for many years in numerous ranking publications and leading directories.

Orrick’s global antitrust and competition lawyers provide antitrust advice in key jurisdictions in the United States, Europe and Asia, regularly appear before agencies worldwide, and have successfully represented clients in hundreds of government proceedings and enforcement actions, as well as in private litigation.