Areas of Practice

  • We help companies navigate complex antitrust laws and changing enforcement priorities to comply with the law while achieving their business objectives. We leverage our litigation and in-house experience to provide clear and practical advice on a wide array of issues, including:

    • Pricing policies, pricing algorithms and price-comparison tools

    • Bundled pricing, loyalty rebates and MFN provisions

    • Compliance with the Robinson-Patman Act (including meeting competition procedures)

    • Price advertising, including Minimum Advertised Price policies

    • Distribution strategies, including dual distribution, agency models and selective distribution

    • Exclusivity and non-competes

    • Trade associations, industry groups and industry standards

    • Analyst calls and investor presentations

    • Competitor collaborations

    • Purchasing, including purchases from competitors and joint purchasing

  • We help companies optimize their antitrust compliance programs to align with their culture and business environment and integrate with their overall compliance program. Our services span the gamut from designing complete programs to tweaking existing programs to address business changes, new legal issues, and emerging technologies. We provide:

    • Program documents (policies, procedures/guidelines, handbooks)

    • Controls to reduce risk, both of intentional and inadvertent violations

    • Customized training materials that inform and engage, from online courses to in-person training to quick reminders

    • Support for internal legal teams, including budgets, project planning, internal communications, vendor selection and strategies to encourage training completion

    • Audits (or less-formal “health checks”) and actionable recommendations for program enhancements (if needed)

  • We have experience helping clients with all aspects of M&A transactions in all contexts (merging parties, customers, suppliers and competitors). Our services include:

    • Educating in-house lawyers, corporate strategy teams and executives on antitrust risks and enforcement trends in the M&A space

    • Accurately documenting the pro-competitive aspects of potential transactions

    • Assessing the risk of objections to potential transactions, and options to address those risks

    • Determining where and when to file for regulatory approvals

    • Advising on antitrust-relevant provisions of deal documents

    • Training/procedures to ensure antitrust compliance (and avoid gun-jumping) during negotiations, due diligence and integration planning

    • Coordinating/managing local counsel in transactions involving multiple countries

    • Preparing clear, concise and timely deal updates for management

    • Responding to government information requests to merging parties (e.g., “second requests”) and third parties (e.g., subpoenas/interview requests to customers, suppliers and competitors)

    • Representing clients before antitrust agencies and other bodies

    We can provide these services ourselves or (for particularly large/unique matters) partner with a larger law firm. We are happy to work with clients’ existing firms (e.g., deal counsel) and also have strong working relationships with top antitrust lawyers at leading law firms in the U.S. and around the world.

  • We have extensive experience with internal compliance investigations as well as government investigations and international litigation, including matters in more than a dozen countries around the world. Our services include:

    • Compliance Investigations. Conducting antitrust and non-antitrust internal investigations, developing plans for remedial actions (when necessary), and reporting to senior management/auditors. We have addressed many sensitive issues and worked closely with senior executives to ensure compliance with the law while protecting the company’s reputational and financial interests.

    • Antitrust Investigations and Litigation. Although Pastroff Law does not practice law in foreign countries, we can help U.S.-based clients select and manage local counsel in other countries. We also can help clients when their existing U.S. litigation firm lacks significant antitrust expertise or the client wants another perspective on a particular issue. We also can leverage our years of senior in-house experience to help in-house counsel educate and update senior management (and auditors) about important cases and investigations.

    • International Litigation Support. We have significant experience with commercial litigation matters outside the U.S. and can help in-house counsel manage local counsel, make strategic decisions and report to management.

  • We have represented companies, joint ventures, standards organizations, trade associations and individuals in a wide variety of industries, including:

    • Consumer products

    • Retail

    • Agricultural products

    • Food & beverage

    • Pharmaceuticals and vaccines

    • Health care

    • Insurance

    • Real estate

    • Banking

    • Hotels

    • Restaurants

    • Automotive

    • Building products and construction

    • Technology

    • Media