Antitrust and Competition

O’Melveny offers seamless antitrust and competition representation in the United States, Europe and Asia. At any given moment, we are shepherding mergers through global clearance processes, designing antitrust-compliant licensing or distribution agreements, and vindicating our clients’ interests in the courtroom.

The Firm has extensive experience handling complex international mergers and obtaining clearance in challenging situations. Our merger practice is characterized by sophisticated antitrust strategy coupled with cutting-edge economic analysis and, for high-profile and controversial deals, adept handling of political issues―even under the tightest timeframes. For example, we recently successfully represented Graco Inc. in antitrust matters relating to its acquisition of Illinois Tool Works Inc.’s finishing businesses, which was the largest acquisition in Graco’s history and one that drew the attention of the entire finishing industry. If litigation of a high-stakes transaction becomes necessary, O’Melveny is among the few law firms with the courtroom experience necessary to litigate these complex cases successfully. For example, O’Melveny successfully defended Triton Coal’s acquisition by Arch Coal when the FTC sued to block the transaction.

O’Melveny’s antitrust lawyers possess unsurpassed trial and litigation skills. For instance, in what was widely hailed as the 2011 defense verdict of the year, we prevailed in a seven-and-a-half-year court battle brought by Rambus Inc. against our client SK Hynix when we obtained a complete defense verdict for SK Hynix following a five-month jury trial in which Rambus sought US$12 billion in damages. In addition, in October 2012, O’Melveny obtained a highly significant victory for Asiana Airlines in the In re: Air Cargo Shipping Services Antitrust Litigation when the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City affirmed the dismissal of all state law claims on the grounds those claims are preempted by federal antitrust law. Finally, by way of example, the firm successfully defended a Japanese company in precedent setting criminal antitrust case which marked the first time criminal charges had been brought against wholly foreign conduct (see United States v. Nippon Paper Indus. Co. Ltd., 62 F. Supp.2d 173 (D. Mass. 1999) (granting judgment of acquittal)).

Many of the Firm’s current antitrust litigation partners began their careers defending antitrust treble-damages cases for the banking, insurance, and airline industries in the 1980s, and handling the airline price-signaling litigation in the 1990s, often cited as a template for antitrust analysis for B2B e-commerce exchanges. The firm’s involvement in high-profile antitrust litigation continues today as shown by our successful representation of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. against Intel Corporation in the United States, Europe, and Asia in one of the largest antitrust and competition cases ever commenced. 

What Others Say About Us

• O'Melveny won "Competition Team of the Year" at The Lawyer Awards (2010). O'Melveny's Brussels team won the prestigious award on the basis of its tremendously successful work for Advanced Micro Devices in the Intel case.  In awarding O'Melveny, The Lawyer wrote, "Working on one of the biggest competition cases of the year was always going to be a feather in the cap for O'Melveny & Myers, but winning it against the odds and securing a record-breaking fine in the process shows what a remarkable job the team pulled off." One judge said the case "has the feel of a David taking on not one but two Goliaths - Intel and the European Commission." In addition to winning the team award, Partner Riccardo Celli was a finalist for the "Partner of the Year" award for his leadership during the case.
• Global Competition Review’s 2012 edition of GCR 100―its guide to the world’s leading competition practices―lists O’Melveny’s DC practice in its “Elite” section for the third consecutive year. GCR comments that the “strength of the firm’s [DC] antitrust team wins praise from rivals,” and lists our California antitrust practice in its “Highly Recommended” category, stating that O’Melveny “boasts one of California’s strongest antitrust practices.” GCR also highlights O’Melveny’s Brussels and New York practices in its “Recommended” section for each jurisdiction, writing that our Brussels team is “renowned on the Brussels circuit,” and our New York team “has made an impressive showing, especially in litigation matters.”
• Competition Law360 named O’Melveny a “Competition Group of the Year" in both 2011 and 2009.
• Chambers Global (2013) commends our global practice in the areas of Competition/European Law, China Competition/Antitrust (International Firms) and US Competition Law, stating that our team “has a high-profile Washington, DC practice and further impresses through its strength in Asia and presence in Brussels and London.”
• Chambers Europe (2013) quotes a client that states that the O'Melveny team is “always very responsive and provides advice that is up to date, pragmatic, and shows understanding of our industry."
• Chambers USA (2012) ranks O’Melveny’s antitrust practice as among the leading practices in California, DC, and Nationwide. Clients are quoted as stating, "their dedication to having subject matter expertise has been incredible," “their antitrust work has been outstanding; an ability to think outside the box and their persistence have produced incredible results for us,” and “they were so focused on our business objectives and knew how to target their legal advice so we achieved those."
• Chambers Asia (2012) ranks O'Melveny its Competition/Antitrust (International Firms): China category, quoting a client who states, “they always give us their immediate attention. High-quality work product."  
• Legal 500 USA (2012) recommends our national antitrust practice and notes that O'Melveny has “a well-rounded practice.”
• Legal 500 EMEA (2012) writes that O’Melveny’s Brussels team "is appreciated for its ‘solid understanding of client’s business.’"
• IFLR 1000 (2013) recommends our European Antitrust and Competition Practice for the fourth consecutive year. An earlier edition of the guide quotes one client who makes reference to the "very bright people" at O'Melveny and comments, "Their service is excellent and they are very knowledgeable. Nothing but praise for their competition practice." Partner Riccardo Celli is recognized by IFLR as a "leading lawyer" and partner Christian Riis-Madsen "comes well recommended."
• IFLR 1000 (2013) ranks our China Competition Practice in its 1st tier, and lists partner Nathan Bush as a "leading lawyer."

• US News & World Report / Best Lawyers ranked our National Antitrust and our DC Antitrust practices in Tier 1 in its "Best Law Firms" survey (2012).
  

• At the Legal Business Awards 2008, we received “Competition Team of the Year” honors for our representation of TUI AG in its acquisition of First Choice Holidays PLC, forming the leading travel group worldwide.  In addition, O’Melveny was shortlisted for “Competition Team of the Year” at the Legal Business Awards 2010 on the basis of its tremendously successful work for Advanced Micro Devices. In selecting O’Melveny, the Legal Business judges commented: “When O’Melveny took over AMD’s longstanding complaint of abuse of a dominant position against Intel, the case looked dead in the water. The input of Celli’s team led to a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for the client, and ultimately finished with the European Commission levying fines worth more than €1bn against Intel.” 
• O’Melveny’s Antitrust and Competition practice was shortlisted for Chambers USA Awards for Excellence in antitrust for 2010. In addition, practice co-chair Richard Parker was a finalist for the Award for Excellence in Antitrust in 2009.
• Our Washington, DC practice was chosen as Corporate Intl Magazine’s 2009/10 US Legal Awards’ “Best Law Firm in Washington DC for Antitrust Work 2009/10.”

Key Facts

Industry Reach

• Aviation

• Banking/financial services

• Consumer products

• Defense

• Energy

• Healthcare

• Information technology development and manufacturing, including hardware and software

• Manufacturing, including chemicals

• Media, entertainment, and publishing

• Pharmaceuticals

• Retailing

• Semiconductors and other computer components

• Shipping

• Telecommunications

Practice Strengths