Competition

Expert Analysis

• Behind The Curtain: Technical Advisers In Complex Cases

  

  During complex litigation, litigants often retain consulting experts to help them understand any intricate aspects of social and natural sciences present in a case, but the federal rules provide no such mechanism for the presiding judge. That is where technical advisers come in, say attorneys at K&L; Gates LLP.

• Preventing Competitive Harm In AB InBev-SABMiller Merger

  

  Despite no geographic overlap in any local market, the U.S. Department of Justice required comprehensive behavioral conditions to prevent New Charter from engaging in future anti-competitive conduct against its smaller rivals. The DOJ should take the same tough and sophisticated approach to protecting consumers from the much larger Anheuser-Busch InBev-SABMiller merger, says Andre Barlow of Doyle Barlow & Mazard PLLC.

• 5 Tips For Negotiating And Drafting Joint E-Discovery Plans

  

  Courts often require parties to develop a joint e-discovery plan. But even when they are not court-imposed, parties should consider using joint e-discovery plans to promote transparency and streamline the discovery process, say Anthony Rospert and Jake Evans of Thompson Hine LLP.

• Who Won In High Court's Luis Decision?

  

  Obviously, the Sixth Amendment’s right to counsel was a big winner after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Luis v. United States. But practically speaking, there may be no winners, says James Bell of Paganelli Law Group LLC.

• Megamergers Under The Microscope

  

  If the failed Halliburton-Baker Hughes and Staples-Office Depot mergers collectively constitute a bellwether, we can expect to see fewer horizontal competitors propose mergers in markets that are already concentrated, says Randy Gordon of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP.

• Not So Fast, Ohio: FERC Weighs In On Wholesale Energy

  

  The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently affirmed its role in ensuring reasonable rates for wholesale sales of electric energy in Ohio. But state utilities seek to further their objectives without invoking FERC jurisdictional issues, and if other states aim to advance their public policy initiatives using similar methods, it could impose higher costs on captive retail customers, say Joseph Fagan and David Doot at Day Pitney LLP.

• Panama Papers: Reminders About Law Firm Cybersecurity

  

  Nowhere is the attractiveness of law firms as cybercrime targets more evident than the recent Mossack Fonseca hack, believed to be the most significant data theft event in history. Firms represent a treasure trove of information and historically have had dreadful cybersecurity practices. There has been some progress, but firms can also commit to better defending their information by taking a simple, three-step approach, says Sean D... (continued)

• New Corporate Offenses In UK: What US Cos. Should Know

  

  The U.K. government's intention to create new corporate offenses as part of the fight against corruption would be a very significant initiative, both from the perspective of the criminal exposure of corporate entities and from the perspective of the scale of the compliance programs that they must implement. U.S. practitioners will need to be aware of the likely extraterritorial scope of these offenses, say Susannah Cogman and James... (continued)

• OPINION: Sotomayor's Solution To Pro Bono Is Incomplete

  

  In calling for mandatory pro bono service, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is effectively using her bully pulpit to advance the cause of access to justice for the poor. Her courageous leadership is a clarion call to action that must be heeded. But bold as it may be, the pronouncement is incomplete, says David Lash, managing counsel for pro bono at O’Melveny & Myers LLP and a member of the Association of Pro Bono Counsel.

• Creating Barclay Damon: Lessons From A Law Firm Merger

  

  Joining two firms with long histories meant not only combining cultures, philosophies and deeply rooted ways of doing business, but also combining two IT systems, two accounting systems, and two ways of handling many other administrative functions. It didn't help that the firms had different fiscal year ends, says John Langan, managing partner of Barclay Damon LLP.