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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

  • work Practice Area

    Commercial Law

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Wednesday, February 16, 2022

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

$347.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will examine changes to antitrust enforcement under the Biden administration, recent enhancements to the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) merger review process, and how they will impact proposed M&A deals in the future. The panel will discuss how merger parties and their counsel should address potential antitrust issues associated with a proposed merger to get to a successful closing.

Faculty

Allen R. Bachman
Partner
K&L Gates, LLP

Mr. Bachman advises clients on all aspects of antitrust law, representing companies in merger clearance proceedings and other investigations conducted by the U.S. DOJ Antitrust Division and FTC, as well as in high-stakes antitrust litigation. He also regularly counsels clients regarding the impact of the antitrust laws on their day-to-day business activities, such as standard setting, compliance programs and audits, sales and marketing practices, and licensing, royalty and settlement agreements.

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Lauren N. Donahue
Partner
K&L Gates, LLP

Ms. Donahue practices in the firm’s antitrust, competition and trade regulation and investigations, enforcement and white collar practice groups. She focuses her practice on domestic and international internal investigations, corporate criminal defense, complex commercial litigation, and antitrust counseling. Ms. Donahue has extensive experience representing clients in international and domestic cartel and fraud investigations and related class actions. Her cases involve a wide range of issues, including price-fixing, market allocation, bid-rigging, no-poach agreements, monopolization, fraud, unfair competition and other restraints of trade. Ms. Donahue has conducted numerous domestic and global internal investigations for major corporations across a variety of industries. She regularly defends corporations and individuals who are subjects of federal and state grand jury subpoenas, cross-border investigations and enforcement proceedings.

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Andrew Mann
Counsel
K&L Gates, LLP

Mr. Mann is counsel at the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He is a member of the Antitrust, Competition, and Trade Regulation practice group. Mr. Mann is a former FTC attorney.

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Description

On Sept. 28, 2021, the FTC announced that its merger reviews will focus on "additional facets of market competition," including the impact of a transaction on labor markets and cross-market effects. This follows President Biden's executive order related to competition, which called for greater scrutiny of various economic impacts of proposed merger transactions.

Companies that receive second requests should prepare for more upfront disclosures and negotiations with FTC staff. Under this expanded scope for merger review, the FTC may still scrutinize companies contemplating mergers or acquisitions who previously only needed to demonstrate no price increase or other consumer harm.

The FTC will also require disclosures regarding employees involved in the merger process and those responsible for day-to-day business operations. This may add time and expense to the document collection process, with resulting delays to closing.

Listen as our authoritative panel discusses the philosophical shift in antitrust enforcement under the Biden administration, the resulting expansion of the FTC merger review process, and how deal counsel can best navigate those changes.

Outline

  1. New FTC leadership and the resulting change in antitrust analysis and enforcement priorities
  2. Expansion of the merger process: new requirements associated with second requests
  3. Addressing merger review in merger documents
  4. Best practices for responding to FTC inquiries
  5. Proposed legislation

Benefits

The panel will review these and other issues:

  • How have the Biden executive order promoting competition and recent changes in FTC leadership affected antitrust enforcement thus far?
  • What are the "additional facets of market competition" (besides the effect on consumers and prices) that the FTC intends to examine in the merger review process?
  • What steps can deal counsel take to address potential antitrust concerns upfront and reduce the time and expense of responding to second requests once the deal is underway?