A Regulatory firm specializing in antitrust, international trade, and hospitality law
1350 I Street, N.W.
Suite 850
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 589-1834
Fax: (202) 589-1819
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We provide antitrust and regulatory advice and counseling to risk arbitrage managers of investment banking firms, private equity groups, hedge funds and institutional investors.  Such advice is crucial to managers considering strategic investments and sophisticated trading strategies in the securities of publicly traded companies that are parties to either hostile or friendly mergers, tender offers, or spin-off transactions, or re-capitalization participants.  The services that we provide to our arbitrage clients are especially useful because they embody perspectives that can only come from former senior government antitrust attorneys who have had direct responsibility for reviewing mergers with both national and international implications.  Our antitrust attorneys have held prominent positions at the FTC and the DOJ.  For example, Robert W. Doyle, Jr. is a former Deputy Assistant Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition and Andre P. Barlow is a former Honors Attorney of the DOJ's Antitrust Division. Both accumulated extensive experience in analyzing transactions while at their respective government agencies and acquired a unique understanding of how government attorneys review transactions.

A comprehensive compilation of industry and company data sources is an additional valuable asset available to our clients.  We maintain current files on all major corporations and have access to a number of electronic databases.  These databases cover a wide variety of subjects and publications and can provide general economic data, company profiles, and investment banking research reports, as well as abstracts of all significant information appearing in hundreds of newspapers, magazines, journals, and government reports.

In the course of our review of a particular transaction, we undertake one or more of the following activities:

  • Analyze public information regarding the parties to the transaction and the markets in which they compete, including company documents, various industry and trade data sources, past DOJ, FTC, Department of Defense, and foreign antitrust agency enforcement activities in the relevant product and geographic markets, and current antitrust agency enforcement policies;

  • Interview customers and competitors who complain about particular transactions and assess their credibility as potential government witnesses, interview other participants in the industry who also may be affected by the transaction;

  • Provide estimates of the likelihood of a government antitrust investigation and/or enforcement action, the likely outcome of such an action, and whether a consent order can be negotiated eliminating the necessity for litigation;

  • Evaluate the viability of a proposed buyer for the government's requirement that the parties divest certain assets, and provide estimates of the likelihood that a transaction will close within a certain amount of time considering a variety of factors including political pressure that may accompany the antitrust review at the particular agency;

  • Monitor litigation by the government and any private enforcement action and, in hostile transactions, analyze the viability on antitrust and regulatory grounds of possible white knight candidates;

  • Analyze the requirements and procedures of various federal and state regulatory approvals that may be required, depending upon the nature of the acquired company's business operations, as we are familiar with the various agencies that regulate the banking, communications, energy, transportation, and insurance industries; and,

  • Analyze the viability of various anti-takeover devices created by the target corporation in anticipation of, or in the course of, the unwanted takeover attempt and litigation arising from these defenses.
 
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