We help clients navigate the world’s antitrust regimes with robust compliance counseling and training programs grounded in deep experience and a sophisticated understanding of clients’ businesses and the law.
We regularly conduct antitrust audits, prepare state-of-the-art antitrust compliance programs, and provide day-to-day counseling on all significant antitrust and competition issues, including distribution and pricing, intellectual property licensing strategies, and joint venture formation. We approach this work from a corporate perspective. Team members have extensive experience as in-house counsel for some of the world’s leading multinational companies, and utilize this hands-on experience in formulating and implementing practical compliance policies for companies operating in nearly every country in the world.
We have significant experience in creating “first-time” compliance programs in new antitrust jurisdictions as well as global compliance programs for multinational clients. Our approach is to draw on global antitrust principles derived from EU and US antitrust laws to create a foundation for the compliance program that can be effective across jurisdictions. We then adapt the basic framework to any particularities of the new antitrust jurisdiction or other jurisdictions where the client is active. Critically, we tailor the programs to the specific business of our clients including through interviews of key business people and by working closely with the in-house legal team.
Employee education and training is critical to developing a culture of compliance that diminishes the risk of antitrust violation. Latham lawyers design and implement employee education programs, which includes conducting in-person presentations, preparing and reviewing content for online antitrust and competition law courseware, and coordinating the delivery of face-to-face education programs via webinars.
Latham counsels clients regarding tools for monitoring, detecting and enforcing antitrust and compliance policies, including the use of hotlines and other mechanisms for reporting potential violations. The firm conducts antitrust and competition compliance audits, leveraging its internal investigation expertise in cartel and other government investigations to produce recommendations for improving a client’s compliance program.
We work with clients as they periodically reassess their compliance programs. The firm advises clients contemplating a significant change in their pricing policies, distribution systems or relationships with a major customer or supplier, as well as the impact of deregulation on their antitrust compliance risk.
Global elite Antitrust & Competition Practice wins three team awards and earns an additional nine finalist nods.
Won Firm of the Year: California for the second consecutive year and earned recognition for Latham’s antitrust, IP, and securities practices.
A Brussels and Düsseldorf-based Latham antitrust team, led by Sven Völcker and Dr. Michael Esser, successfully persuaded the European Commission to close without action or remedy, its interim measures investigation against Lufthansa.