Tad Lipsky retired from the partnership in February 2017. A member of the firm since 2002, Mr. Lipsky was internationally recognized for his work on both US and non-US antitrust and competition law and policy, and has handled antitrust matters throughout the world. Having served as chief antitrust lawyer for The Coca-Cola Company from 1992-2002, Mr. Lipsky has incomparable experience with antitrust in the US, EU, Canada, Japan and other established antitrust-law regimes, as well as in new and emerging antitrust-law regimes in scores of jurisdictions that adopted free-market policies following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. He has been closely associated with efforts to streamline antitrust enforcement around the world, advocating the reduction of compliance burdens and the harmonization of fundamental objectives of antitrust law.
From 1981-83 Mr. Lipsky served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under William F. Baxter, who sparked profound antitrust law changes while serving as President Reagan's chief antitrust official. In that position Mr. Lipsky supervised Supreme Court litigation in a series of groundbreaking antitrust cases, including among others National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, 468 US 85 (1984) (horizontal restraints), Jefferson Parish Hospital District No. 2 v. Hyde, 466 US 2 (1984) (tie-in doctrine), Monsanto Co. v. Spray-Rite Service Corp., 465 US 752 (1984) (vertical price maintenance) and Associated General Contractors, Inc. v. California State Council of Carpenters, 459 US 519 (1983) (antitrust standing). He supervised preparation of the Department of Justice "Merger Guidelines" (1982), which have since become the dominant model for antitrust analysis of mergers, acquisitions and other structural transactions throughout the world. He also organized and supervised the Antitrust Division's review of United States v. IBM Corp., which culminated in a joint stipulation of dismissal without prejudice of the marathon case in 1982.
Mr. Lipsky served as the first International Officer of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law from 2001-03. He served on the Editorial Board of Competition Laws Outside the United States (2001), the most ambitious annotated compilation of non-US competition laws yet produced. He has held a variety of senior positions among the officers and governing council of the Section of Antitrust Law and continues to serve as a Co-chair of the Section's International Task Force. He is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court and various federal appellate courts.
Mr. Lipsky has been acknowledged for distinguishing himself in his legal practice. Throughout his career, he was consistently recognized by Chambers USA, The Legal 500 US, Super Lawyers and The Best Lawyers in America. He is also listed as a top competition lawyer in the Who’s Who Legal: Competition 2014, 2015 and 2016 guide.
Mr. Lipsky's publications include:
- "China’s MOFCOM Announces First-Ever Gun-Jumping Penalty in a Transaction Not Involving a Chinese Company,” Client Alert (2017)
- "Private Antitrust Damage Actions in China: An Emerging Force?" LW White Paper (2016)
- "Narrowing the Gap for the Price-Cost Test: Lessons from Eisai v. Sanofi Aventis," Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report, Bloomberg BNA (2016)
- "DOJ Suit Against ValueAct Shines Spotlight on HSR Requirements for Shareholder Activists," LW Client Alert (2016)
- "Mexico's Tough New Approach To Antitrust Enforcement," Law360 (2011)
- "Is Soft Convergence Enough?" Concurrences (2011)
- "Impact of China’s Antitrust Law and Other Competition Policies on U.S. Companies: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy of the House Committee on the Judiciary," 111th Congress 20-26 (2010) (Statement)
- "Managing Antitrust Compliance Through the Continuing Surge in Global Enforcement," 75 Antitrust Law Journal 965 (2009)
- "Improving Competitive Analysis," 16 George Mason Law Review 805 (2009)
- "To the Edge: Maintaining Incentives for Innovation after the Global Antitrust Explosions," 35 Georgetown Journal of International Law 521 (2004)
- "Antitrust Economics - Making Progress, Avoiding Regression," 12 George Mason Law Review 163 (2003)
- "The Global Antitrust Explosion: Safeguarding Trade and Commerce or Runaway Regulation?," 26 Fletcher Forum of World Affairs 59 (2002)
- Co-author, "Essential Facilities," 51 Stanford Law Review 1187 (1999)
- Co-author, "Unilateral Refusals to Deal Under Section 2 of the Sherman Act," 63 Antitrust Law Journal 749 (1995)