PRACTICE AREAS

Hughes Hubbard’s antitrust practice has been widely recognized for its innovation and thought leadership since the multi-year defense of the Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa), in what remains the longest trial and perhaps the most celebrated antitrust case in U.S. history.  Since then, the practice has evolved into a global presence, with deep and broad experience in business planning, corporate transactions, regulatory investigations, and all types of litigation.  The firm’s seasoned attorneys in the U.S. and Paris work seamlessly to counsel clients in their global antitrust and competition matters. 

We advise and represent clients in a wide variety of industries, including entertainment, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, industrial equipment, chemicals, publishing and professional services.  Clients turn to us for representation before the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S.  Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the European Commission and other regulators across the globe.  Our antitrust lawyers also work on significant cartel cases, leveraging Hughes Hubbard's leading expertise in class action litigation and white collar law.  We also represent parties to strategic mergers and joint ventures, design and implement antitrust compliance programs, and advise clients on a wide range of antitrust issues.  We are frequently engaged in matters involving the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law. 

Our lawyers frequently advise merging parties on whether their deal requires merger control approvals under the HSR Act, the EU Merger Regulation, and similar regulations in dozens of jurisdictions around the globe.  We then assist our clients in all phases of the transaction, from the negotiation and drafting of acquisition agreements, submission of relevant notifications, and, if necessary, the defense of the transaction before competition regulators worldwide.  Our lawyers have deep experience in complying with Second Requests in the U.S. and in defending transactions in Phase II investigations in Europe. 

We advise clients on how to deal with anti-competitive practices, illegal state aids, abuse of dominant position or economic dependence, or other restrictive practices (pricing policy, abusive termination of commercial relations, discriminatory practices) and we assist them in bringing or defending unfair competition claims.  We also advise our clients on setting up vertical arrangements (such as distribution, franchise, licensing, agency, cooperation agreements) and ensure that these contracts protect our clients’ essential interests while complying with global competition and antitrust law.  

Our lawyers provide global solutions to global problems, supplementing our expertise in U.S. and EU antitrust and competition law with a deep and well-established network of competition lawyers in every jurisdiction in the world.

Hughes Hubbard's antitrust group has been at the forefront of the development of antitrust law for more than seven decades.  We have written pioneering articles on issues such as intellectual property misuse, trial of patent-antitrust cases and collective licensing or standard setting involving patented technology, lectured extensively and taught advanced law school seminars on these subjects, and been asked by government officials to testify or consult on the relationships between antitrust and intellectual property law.  Our lawyers have been called upon to counsel emerging nations such as China in the development of their antitrust laws and have led ABA and corporate efforts to advise developed regimes, such as the European Commission and the United Kingdom, on the adoption of collective redress procedures for enforcing their established competition laws. 

While the depth and breadth of our services are highly valuable, our practice maintains a fiscally responsible budget through lean staffing and new technologies that help control the costs of everything from compliance programs to audits to litigation. For us, the focus is on helping our clients solve their problems and achieve their business goals.