McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Regulators are placing greater scrutiny on transactions, pricing practices, and competitor conduct. Our antitrust lawyers partner with you to pursue strategic growth opportunities while navigating regulatory pressure across global markets – helping you reduce the risk of business disruption, financial exposure, and reputational damage.

Our antitrust lawyers provide coordinated guidance across US and international competition laws. From strategic transactions and government investigations to commercial counseling and competition disputes, we work with you to manage antitrust risk wherever it arises.

We represent companies and individuals in antitrust investigations, enforcement actions, and competition disputes across US and international markets. Our lawyers advise you on matters involving the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Federal Trade Commission (FTC), European Commission, EU Member State authorities, and other global competition agencies. We guide you through cartel investigations, class actions, civil antitrust litigation, and other regulatory proceedings tied to antitrust and competition law.

We also help you navigate merger clearance, foreign investment reviews, competition approvals, and regulatory filing strategies. We regularly serve as specialized antitrust counsel focused on merger clearance and competition approvals in complex domestic and cross-border transactions.

Competition laws influence your day-to-day business operations. To help you manage risk under evolving antitrust requirements, our lawyers advise you on pricing strategies, distribution structures, competitor collaborations, trade association conduct, exclusive arrangements, and compliance programs. By understanding how regulators evaluate competitive conduct, we guide you to make informed business decisions that reduce antitrust exposure.

Antitrust and competition issues frequently involve overlapping considerations. Our antitrust lawyers partner with you to manage competition risk across jurisdictions. Whether you are pursuing a transaction, structuring a commercial arrangement, or responding to a government investigation, we help you navigate regulatory scrutiny strategically while protecting your ability to compete and grow across global markets.

They got great results for us in our toughest litigation. In court, they are fierce competitors and well-prepared advocates.
– Client Testimonial

McDermott Will & Schulte lawyers have been on many of the landmark antitrust litigation cases of this century. From securing summary judgment in the precedent-setting price-fixing chocolate confectionary litigation to prevailing on behalf of several hospital systems in the first batch of wage-fixing class actions, we have successfully litigated and defended on appeal the full gamut of novel antitrust cases.

Clients turn to us for our enviable track record in cutting-edge matters and unparalleled experience as lead counsel on actions involving:

• Price-fixing
• Cartels
• Monopolization
• Tying
• Dealer terminations
• Group boycotts and refusals to deal
• Exclusive dealing
• Antitrust counterclaims in patent and trademark litigation
• Litigated challenges to mergers and acquisitions

Our antitrust class action defense lawyers are some of the most experienced in the United States, and we are on the pulse of litigating private competition law damages claims in Europe. We regularly represent clients before foreign and domestic regulatory agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US Department of Justice (DOJ), state attorneys general and the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Competition. We also represent clients in competition litigation in European Union and Member State courts.

Members of our team previously held key positions regulatory and law enforcement agencies, including the FTC, the DOJ and the EC.

Who We Represent

Understanding our clients’ industries is paramount to litigation success. Our experience encompasses most markets, and we regularly deliver results for clients from all sectors of the economy, including the following:

• Consumer products
• Food, beverage and agribusiness
• Healthcare
• Life sciences
• Financial services
• Insurance
• E-commerce
• Digital advertising
• Aerospace and defense
• Chemicals
• Energy
• Manufacturing
• Technology

The firm performs at a very high level.
– Client Testimonial, Chambers USA

McDermott Will & Schulte has extensive experience successfully defending antitrust criminal cartel investigations at every step, including those brought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). We recognize that targets of government cartel investigations and defendants in litigation need real-world options in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.

The team’s record of success speaks to the quality and efficiency of our representation. We help clients respond immediately to coordinated actions of regulatory and law enforcement officials around the world (including so-called “dawn raids”).

Our areas of focus

Drawing on our firsthand knowledge of agency priorities and investigative procedures, we develop compelling arguments that demonstrate the validity and legality of our clients’ business practices. Our all-encompassing capabilities include:

• Handling amnesty and leniency applications
• Defending grand jury investigations
• Conducting thorough internal investigations to determine the facts, secure documents, ensure forensic evidence preservation and develop compelling defenses
• Securing the lowest fines and reaching non-prosecutorial agreements and immune status for individuals
• Successfully defending criminal trials

Our antitrust team also represents clients in follow-on civil litigation proceedings, helping clients navigate complex antitrust challenges and deliver optimal results.

Based in our Brussels office, McDermott Will & Schulte’s EU Competition team provides end-to-end antitrust and competition representation before the European Commission, other EU institutions and the various national competition authorities.

Our multilingual, multinational team of competition lawyers counsels clients on the entire spectrum of competition issues, including:

• Merger clearance, including structuring and presenting transactions, managing notification processes for multinational transactions, and developing timely, cost-effective strategies for obtaining regulatory clearance
• Cartels, including providing coordinated advice in the EU, United States and elsewhere to defend international cartel investigations and prosecutions
• Horizontal and vertical agreements, including advising on joint research and development, standardization, and supply and distribution agreements
• Abuse of dominance, including defense of companies against regulatory allegations and private complaints of infringement, and pursuing redress on behalf of clients victimized by dominant competitors and suppliers
• State aid, including analyzing the legal situation and drafting documents
• Compliance, including performing competition law compliance audits and helping clients address related regulations involving commercial bribery, data protection, privacy, trade and intellectual property
• Competition litigation, including providing sophisticated defense of clients in national and EU courts in class actions and multi-jurisdictional proceedings.

Our clients include many of the premier international enterprises whose products are major household names, as well as many of the world’s top manufacturers, suppliers, distributors and service providers. We have firsthand experience and a deep understanding of the industries in which our clients operate, including life sciences, chemicals, energy, food and beverages, manufacturing, technology and networks.

[McDermott Will & Schulte] shines particularly in the defense of antitrust claims in the healthcare and pharmaceuticals space.
– The Legal 500 US

Grounded in McDermott Will & Schulte’s approach of providing practical advice and tailored solutions, our health antitrust lawyers address the healthcare industry’s unique challenges with business-friendly strategies. Clients in this heavily regulated, rapidly evolving space turn to us for our creative defense of deals, government investigations and litigation.

We use pragmatic yet innovative tactics to respond to antitrust claims and risks. Our clients include:

• Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers
• Medical wholesaler distributors and group purchasing organizations (GPOs)
• Health InsurTech companies
• Hospitals and providers
• Payors
• Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)
• Health private equity firms

Deals

With the weight of our top-ranked healthcare law firm behind them, clients rely on and trust us to navigate highly complex antitrust issues. We guide them through the antitrust implications of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.

Thanks to our advocacy and other strategic actions, we have handled dozens of major US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) healthcare investigations that we guided through to close while avoiding any challenge. On the pulse of the FTC’s and US Department of Justice (DOJ)’s increasing focus on health antitrust issues, our team also advises on vertical and conglomerate mergers, serial acquisitions (e.g., rollups) and platform deals.

Government Investigations

Government agencies are ramping up their scrutiny of potential anti-competitive activity in the healthcare industry. Our health antitrust team stands prepared to represent clients through resulting investigations.

On behalf of our clients, we regularly handle investigations into allegations ranging from market allocation to criminal wage-fixing brought by the FTC, DOJ and state attorneys general – working swiftly and effectively to resolve inquiries.

Litigation

When we’re called upon to defend them, our clients know they are in the capable hands of first-chair litigators. Our team has decades of experience defending antitrust claims before courts around the United States.

Our track record includes successfully defending some of the largest health organizations against antitrust violations and class action litigation. However, we don’t just copy and paste the playbook from our past victories. We offer each client a tailored strategy supported by our extensive knowledge and unparalleled litigation skills to achieve the optimal result for their business.

Just one example of our industry-leading experience is McDermott Will & Schulte’s representation of a former senior executive at DaVita. In this first-ever criminal “no poach” market allocation case, we served as lead counsel from the outset of a DOJ investigation through the not-guilty jury verdict.

The [firm’s] lawyers are sophisticated in their advice as well as thorough in their planning and solutions.
– Chambers USA

Antitrust authorities around the world have increasingly focused their attention on the interplay between competition law and intellectual property (IP) law. Indeed, the European Commission, the US Federal Trade Commission and other enforcement authorities have shown considerable willingness to investigate and challenge IP-driven transactions in IP-sensitive industries, often relying on completely new theories of harm which require careful analysis. Investigations and litigation in this context can result in severe penalties including fines, injunctive relief, (treble) damages and unenforceability of agreements and patent rights.

At McDermott Will & Schulte, we understand the business needs associated with the acquisition, licensing and restrictions on the use of IP rights. More importantly, we are aware of the strategic importance of IP and of the true commercial value of such assets. In helping our clients protect and capitalize on proprietary technologies, we focus on pragmatic and business-friendly advice, rather than providing theoretical assessments and opinions. Our antitrust and IP lawyers work hand-in-hand with a view to providing solution-oriented guidance on how to use IP most efficiently without risking competition law exposure. Likewise, we can advise on how clients may use antitrust laws to defend their businesses against anticompetitive use of intellectual property by others.

The apparent tension that exists between these two areas of the law stems from the fact that, while antitrust seeks to protect competition, IP laws grant time-limited statutory monopolies. Antitrust issues in IP cases most commonly arise in a variety of situations including concerns raised with respect to the licensing of technology, standard-setting and patent-pooling arrangements, fraudulent and bad faith patent enforcement, the exercising of patent holder rights in respect to an invention, and holders rights of standard-essential patents in their access to injunctive relief vis-à-vis parties.

We offer a unique international platform for the coordination of legal and technical efforts, and a one-stop shop for global antitrust counseling. Our lawyers are not only highly qualified and dedicated professionals, but also hold invaluable insights into the enforcement priorities of antitrust regulators across the world.

Private equity firms operate in high-stakes environments where speed, execution, and risk directly impact investment returns. Our private equity lawyers advise sponsors and their portfolio companies throughout the investment life cycle. We help you execute transactions, manage risk, and address the legal, commercial, and regulatory issues that impact how your investment performs.

Our private equity team includes more than 150 lawyers in 20+ offices worldwide. Working across disciplines including finance, tax, antitrust, investment funds, restructuring, and litigation, we provide integrated guidance to support domestic and cross-border investments across industries and asset classes.

We advise you on acquisitions, dispositions, recapitalizations, carve-outs, minority investments, joint ventures, and other strategic transactions. Our private equity lawyers structure deals and negotiate terms to help you manage risk, create value, and support performance across all stages of your investment – from fundraising to exit.

Competing stakeholder interests often lead to disputes. Disagreements over governance, deal terms, and post-closing obligations can create significant exposure for private equity firms and portfolio companies. Our litigators work alongside deal teams to help you navigate disputes while preserving enterprise value. We represent you through mediation, arbitration, and litigation in state and federal courts, including the Delaware Court of Chancery.

With one of the most active transactional practices in the US, we understand how complex deals are structured, negotiated, and executed. By combining deep market knowledge with cross-disciplinary capabilities, our private equity lawyers help you mitigate risk and advance your strategic goals throughout the life cycle of your investment.