Securing Regulatory Clearances for Challenging, Strategic Deals
Transactions over a certain size require that companies and investors first obtain clearances from antitrust enforcement agencies around the world. Latham helps to secure those approvals while protecting clients’ commercial interests, with a team that fully understands their businesses, transactions and the antitrust review process.
As the United States and the European Union increasingly coordinate their global merger investigations, companies need a firm that is highly skilled in securing clearances on both sides of the Atlantic and in coordinating with other jurisdictions. With premier US and European teams working seamlessly together, the firm helps clients secure unconditional clearances for transactions receiving close regulatory scrutiny.
One-Stop Merger Shop
Latham’s Antitrust & Competition Practice provides clients with a tightly integrated, global platform for securing antitrust, competition and other regulatory clearances. The team works closely with clients and the firm’s M&A Practice and industry groups to develop and deploy a deep understanding of the structure and timing of the deal, the business case, the industry and the practical competitive impact. The team designs strategies to get the deal done and handles every aspect of the antitrust review process, including:
- Regulatory covenants and antitrust risk assessment and allocation
- Due diligence and integration planning
- “Gun-jumping” compliance
- Merger notification clearances
- Pre-notification meetings and advocacy before authorities
- Working with expert economists as appropriate
- Defending mergers in court when necessary
Effectively representing clients involved in merger clearances involves anticipating, preparing for and addressing any questions antitrust enforcers may raise about the deal. Skilled in dealing with enforcement authorities from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to the European Commission (EC) and other authorities in Member States, Latham lawyers negotiate creative solutions, and, when necessary, defend clients’ deals against decisions to block a transaction. For the few deals that require defense in court, the firm offers a deep, experienced bench with a track record that includes path-breaking victories after full trials on the merits against the FTC and DOJ.