"An up-and-comer noted for his work across both civil and criminal agency investigations."
Chambers USA 2024
"A strategic genius."
Chambers USA 2024
"Very good at client relations and putting complex antitrust concepts into easily understood terms."
Chambers USA 2024
Up-and-Coming – Antitrust
Chambers USA 2024
Profile
Alan Devlin, former Acting Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, represents world-leading clients in their most sophisticated antitrust and competition matters, with a particular focus on merger control.
Alan combines his understanding of economics with commercial pragmatism to advise on all aspects of antitrust law, including:
Global merger clearance
Antitrust litigation and appeals
Government investigations, including FTC 6(b) industry studies
Leveraging his extensive FTC experience, he infuses an awareness of agency priorities into the earliest stages of a client’s merger agreement and guides them through their most sophisticated antitrust matters.
A recognized thought leader, Alan has authored three books — Reforming Antitrust (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021), Antitrust & Patent Law (Oxford Univ. Press 2016), and Fundamental Principles of Law & Economics (Routledge 2014) — and over 30 law review articles, many of which have been cited in cases or have won awards.
Alan teaches antitrust as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and has previously taught courses on law and economics, innovation policy, competition, and intellectual property.
Alan received a doctorate (J.S.D.), focusing on antitrust law and economics, under the supervision of Judge Richard A. Posner. He subsequently clerked for the late Judge Richard D. Cudahy of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and for Judge Amy J. St. Eve of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (now of the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit).
Experience
Alan advises on all aspects of antitrust law, including merger clearance before the FTC and Department of Justice, as well as counseling and litigation.
His merger clearance and antitrust litigation experience includes representing:
Avadel Pharmaceuticals in its monopolization case against Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Frontier Airlines in its proposed acquisition of Spirit Airlines
Gulf Oil in its sale of oil terminals to Global Partners LP
Crimson Midstream in its acquisition of the San Pablo Bay oil pipeline from Shell in California
IPSCO in its US$1.2 billion acquisition by Tenaris in the oil country tubular goods industry
Qualifications
Bar Qualification
California
District of Columbia
Education
JD, Stanford Law School, 2007
JSD, University of Chicago Law School, 2006
LLM, University of Chicago Law School, 2005
BBLS (International), University College Dublin, 2004 First Class Honours
In the leading competition publication’s annual review of the strongest antitrust practices around the globe, the firm dominated in every category, ranking second across all specialties.
Effective mid-January 2025, the FTC’s new HSR notification process will significantly increase the time and content required to file M&A notifications under the HSR Act.
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