Prominent Antitrust Lawyer Robert B. Bell Joins Hughes Hubbard’s Growing Antitrust and Competition Practice

New York, June 22, 2015 — Hughes Hubbard & Reed announced today that Robert B. Bell has joined the firm’s Antitrust and Competition practice as a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Bell was previously a partner at Kaye Scholer where he was co-head of that firm’s antitrust practice.

“Robert has a strong reputation and a practice that touches all major areas of antitrust, including criminal cartel investigations, civil merger and non-merger investigations and private litigation,” said William Kolasky, Co-Chair of Hughes Hubbard’s Antitrust and Competition Practice. “Our clients also will benefit from Robert’s deep experience in all other aspects of antitrust law, especially as it relates to clearance for mergers and acquisitions before Department of Justice and the FTC.”

Robert has wide experience both in representing parties in obtaining antitrust clearance for mergers and acquisitions from the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and in representing companies and individuals in criminal and civil antitrust matters. He also regularly counsels clients on issues ranging from competitor collaborations to vertical distribution arrangements. His experience covers a wide array of industry sectors, including communications, defense, entertainment, manufacturing, mining, chemicals, imaging and transportation.

“Hughes Hubbard is known throughout the legal community for its lawyers’ prowess in the courtroom and their collegiality with each other and their peers,” said Bell. “My clients will benefit from the firm’s extraordinary stand up trial experience as well as its premier transactional practice. On a personal level, I’m also delighted to once again be practicing with Bill Kolasky.”

Prior to joining Kaye Scholer, Bell worked with Hughes Hubbard Antitrust and Competition Practice co-chair William Kolasky at WilmerHale where they were partners and Kolasky was chair of that firm’s antitrust practice.

Bell has been recognized for exceptional standing in the legal community in the area of antitrust law in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business from 2005–2015. Chambers USA 2015 ranks Bell as a leading practitioner, noting his “wealth of knowledge.” Chambers USA 2014 cites clients commending Robert as “‘very talented’ and [a] ‘very smart’ lawyer, with formidable expertise in mergers and criminal antitrust work.”

A former clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White and U.S. District Court Judge Thomas A. Flannery, Bell received his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. He received his MA from the University of Cambridge and his B.A. summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society.

Earlier this year, Hughes Hubbard’s Antitrust and Competition Practice welcomed Elizabeth Prewitt to the firm from the Department of Justice where she was Assistant Chief of the Antitrust Division in the New York office.