Overview
McDermott has been ranked by Global Competition Review, in the GCR’s100 “Global Elite” list, which recognizes the 20 top antitrust and competition practices in the world. This is the third consecutive year McDermott has been included in the ‘Global Elite’ list, moving from the 20th spot to number 17, of particular note in the M&A Antitrust section McDermott ranked first in the “hired gun” category with 23 deals in which the firm did not also serve as corporate or M&A counsel.
The Firm also received six jurisdictional rankings: maintaining an “Elite” status in Illinois and “Highly Recommended” status in Washington, also maintaining “Recommended” status in France, Germany and Italy and receiving a new mention in Texas, Houston.
GCR’s Description of McDermott’s Global Practice
McDermott Will & Emery continues to be a quiet powerhouse, accumulating another Who’s Who Legal: Competition nominee and racking up both big deals for its clients and dismissals of litigations and investigations against them.
Take Mars, for example. The confectionary conglomerate gained antitrust clearance for its US$3 billion acquisition of Procter & Gamble’s pet food business in the United States thanks to McDermott, which coordinated reviews in Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Chile. The firm also won summary judgment for Mars in a seven-year-old chocolate confectionary class action that alleges manufacturers fixed prices on chocolate.
Others who benefited from the firm’s merger expertise include Martin Marietta Materials, whose US$2.7 billion acquisition of TXI was investigated by the DoJ and the state of Texas and was resolved with a small divestiture prior to compliance with the second request. In an even heftier deal, McDermott secured clearance for Amgen’s $10.4 billion purchase of Onyx Pharmaceuticals. The firm’s strength may be best indicated by the number of deals for which it is recruited to manage antitrust clearance, even though another firm with a competition practice is already working on the corporate aspects – a category that includes all three mergers noted above.
Its criminal work is less significant, but for two Japanese electronics makers threatened with cartel prosecution, McDermott obtained amnesty in the EU. It serves as global coordinating counsel for a car parts manufacturer investigated in the United States, EU, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and South Africa. Private litigations that claim a conspiracy abound in the firm’s list of matters, ranging from price fixing of steel to dairy and drywall.
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