Antitrust

We help clients minimize antitrust risk through practical business counseling. Our attorneys routinely counsel clients on a full range of antitrust issues, including:

• Production, distribution and marketing programs
• Resale price maintenance and minimum advertised price programs
• Price discrimination
• Exclusive dealing
• Joint ventures and other competitor collaborations
• Non-compete and non-solicitation agreements
• Intellectual property
• Insurance
• Health care contracting and consolidation
• Antitrust exemptions and immunities, including government petitioning, state action, the McCarran-Ferguson Act and others

We assist our clients in developing and implementing carefully designed compliance programs that minimize the risk of exposure under antitrust laws and help prevent costly government investigations and litigation altogether. We provide counsel on programs ranging from formal compliance programs and full on-site audits of existing practices to less formal presentations designed to train key management and marketing personnel.

Company management can only make good decisions on important issues by knowing the facts, such as whether to report wrongdoing to the government, whether to discipline the employees involved and what remedial action may be appropriate in response. We know how to conduct a confidential, effective and efficient investigation to obtain credible results without unnecessarily disrupting your business.

Our goal is to help our clients avoid or minimize the risk of adverse consequences under antitrust laws while meeting their legitimate business needs in innovative ways.

Our antitrust attorneys, in close consultation with our government & white collar investigations practice, represent both individual and corporate clients in civil and criminal investigations by federal and state enforcers. We have the sophistication and sensitivity to assist clients facing the most serious of penalties under antitrust law.

Whether representing subjects of investigation, third-party witnesses, or complainants, we have the depth to provide counsel through the investigation and any ensuing prosecution and litigation. We also coordinate with local counsel when representing clients in multi-jurisdictional investigations, as needed, to ensure that our clients’ interests are adequately protected both in the U.S. and abroad.

Godfrey & Kahn has substantial experience advising companies in a broad range of industries on the antitrust implications of proposed mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and joint ventures.

Our antitrust practice advises on structuring deals to reduce antitrust risk. We also frequently advise on merger transactions involving multi-jurisdictional merger control issues, including merger filings and the defense of transactions in jurisdictions throughout the world. We help clients identify jurisdictions where merger filings are necessary and effectively navigate the merger clearance process, in coordination with local counsel abroad. We have the experience to handle second requests, negotiate remedies, and defend transactions in litigation and administrative proceedings.

Our antitrust practice is led by a former state prosecutor who was the top Wisconsin antitrust enforcer for 20 years and chaired the National Association of Attorneys General's (NAAG) Multistate Antitrust Task Force for more than three years. We leverage this specialized experience to advise a broad range of clients throughout the country in litigation and investigations involving state attorneys general. Understanding the ways in which state attorneys general conduct multistate merger investigations and litigations requires a comprehensive knowledge of how state enforcers work with each other and with the federal antitrust agencies.

We help clients and their national counsel navigate state antitrust and consumer protection enforcement.