With increased activism and cross-border cooperation between enforcement and regulatory agencies, clients rely on our cross-border team and their extensive experience in merger enforcement and national security reviews for hundreds of transactions reviewed in the U.S., as well as their experience navigating the global regulatory landscape. What really sets us apart is not simply the number of transactions on which we advise, but their complexity.
Our clients also appreciate our in-depth understanding of how the competition and regulatory authorities operate. Our bench includes former enforcement attorneys, prosecutors, and trial lawyers from the FTC and DOJ.
Merger Enforcement
Companies across every major industry, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, food and agricultural products, finance, telecommunications, insurance, media and entertainment, energy, utilities, heavy manufacturing, healthcare, semiconductors, software, transportation and defense, rely on our premier practice for every aspect of their global antitrust and competition needs.
Clients understand that having lawyers with both the willingness and the ability to litigate the antitrust aspects of proposed mergers and acquisitions, a signature strength of Simpson Thacher, is an increasingly important consideration in selecting competition counsel. In addition, clients seek our counsel on Second Request antitrust investigations by the FTC and the DOJ. We provide our clients with a team that has more than a decade of experience effectively and efficiently managing the e-discovery challenges of these investigations.
National Security Reviews
With consideration of the evolving landscape and increasingly expansive view of national security, clients specifically seek our advice on their most significant cross-border transactions. We represent clients in national security reviews of proposed transactions in the U.S. before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and related regulatory reviews by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA). Not only do we work with our clients to ensure that proposed transactions are approved by CFIUS with minimal or no conditions, we also proactively identify CFIUS risk and develop creative solutions to minimize that risk before a transaction comes under CFIUS review. Frequently in connection with CFIUS reviews, clients also ask us for guidance on export control issues under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the International Traffic in Arms (ITAR).
Economic Sanctions
We have extensive experience counseling financial institutions, private equity firms, and domestic and foreign issuers of securities on economic sanctions issues in connection with transactions with a non-U.S. target; the issuance of securities by a non-U.S. issuer; and contractual arrangements between creditors and borrowers.
Risk Management and Counseling
In addition to transactional, litigation and investigations work, we provide clients with risk management assessments and ongoing counseling—advice on antitrust concerns arising out of our clients’ supply chain (e.g., suppliers, customers, competitors, contracting, etc.); designing and implementing compliance programs; and proactively identifying issues and risks.