Amy W Ray

Partner

Washington, D.C.

The leader of Orrick’s Antitrust & Competition practice, Amy Ray represents technology, financial services and fintech clients in high-profile U.S. and international matters. Her practice covers the full gamut of litigation, transactions, investigations, and counseling with a competition nexus.

Amy currently represents non-parties in multiple competition enforcement actions pending in federal district court, including in: U.S. v. Google, Colorado v. Google as well as FTC v. Facebook. A Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, she was also featured as one of Global Competition Review’s “40 Under 40 – Class of 2016” antitrust lawyers.

Among her notable transactional representations are matters at the intersection of antitrust and technology, such as her key role in Microsoft's acquisitions of LinkedIn and Skype.

Amy regularly advises both on strategic transactions as well as the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Additionally, she counsels on substantive antitrust issues that may arise in commercial relationships and compliance, such as vertical pricing and distribution.

The Legal 500 US 2020 rankings recently recognized Amy both for merger control and cartel investigations with a client testimonial:

“Amy Ray stands out as someone who has worked hard to understand our business and routinely brings her considerable experience and expertise to bear on important issues for us, always with a client-service focus. A true partner.”

Her pro bono matters include a case for which the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs recognized her team for its contribution to fair housing litigation. She also served for several years on the prestigious U.S. National Women's Law Center Leadership Advisory Committee.

Amy was an inaugural board member of the Law360 Competition Editorial Advisory Board and continues in that role today.

  • Representative Litigation Engagements

    • U.S. v. Google, Colorado v. Google, U.S. v. Facebook and N.Y. v. Facebook (all filed in 2020), representing non-parties.
    • U.S. v. Microsoft and N.Y. v. Microsoft, implementing the consent decree resulting from the landmark antitrust suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice and 20 State Attorneys General alleging antitrust violations under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
    • Microsoft in dismissing federal antitrust and state law counts in Marshall’s Locksmith Service, Inc., v. Google. This decision based on a defense using Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act was affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
    • The Royal Bank of Scotland in In re Credit Default Swaps Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 2476M, defending the bank against class allegations under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.
    • Represented Dexia, Assured Guaranty, Financial Security Assurance, Inc. and Financial Security Assurance Holdings, Ltd. in In re Municipal Derivatives Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1950 (S.D.N.Y.), defending against class action allegations and alleged bid-rigging under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.
    • Represented Bayer in federal multidistrict and state court putative class action litigation alleging price fixing in various chemical products

     

    Representative Transactional Engagements

    • Fisker’s $2.9 billion SPAC merger with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp.
    • Momentus in its $1.2 billion SPAC merger with Stable Road Acquisition Corporation.
    • Clover Health’s agreement to become publicly traded via a $3.7 billion SPAC merger with Social Capital Hedosophia.
    • Customer relationship management software provider ELEAD1ONE in its sale to fellow automotive commerce company CDK Global, Inc.
    • Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, the largest deal in Microsoft’s history, which was awarded 2017 Merger Control Matter of the Year – Europe by Global Competition Review.
    • Microsoft's $2.5 billion acquisition of Mojang and its Minecraft franchise.
    • Microsoft's $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, which was recognized as 2012 Merger Control Matter of the Year – Europe by Global Competition Review.
    • Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's handset business.
    • Microsoft's acquisition of Havok 3D physics video game technologies from Intel.
    • Microsoft's role in the acquisition of more than 6,000 patents from Nortel.
    • Microsoft's purchase from AOL of more than 800 patents and related patent applications as well as a non-exclusive license to AOL's retained patent portfolio for $1.1 billion, and in the subsequent assignment of a significant portion of those intellectual property assets to Facebook Inc. for $550 million.
    • In Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business and subsequent partnership agreements with Yahoo!
    • As counsel to non-parties in competition investigations by the U.S. federal antitrust agencies and State Attorneys General as well related cross-border advocacy.
    • As antitrust counsel providing advice and advocacy on behalf of concerned industry participants related to prospective transactions and conduct investigations.