In a time of increased global business activity and expanding antitrust law enforcement, virtually every significant commercial transaction, business strategy and marketplace activity in some way implicates the competition laws of the United States or other jurisdiction. As noted in Chambers USA 2008, Baker Botts is a "mainstay for antitrust expertise," and our team is valued for its "superior insight, both when it comes to trial matters and transactional work." Baker Botts antitrust lawyers work hard to give each client practical advice on avoiding antitrust problems and efficiently resolving any that do arise.

Our antitrust lawyers have extensive trial experience and often draw on the strengths of other Baker Botts lawyers with particular experience in such areas as intellectual property, corporate, tax and finance, energy, environmental and appellate law. We help clients anticipate and avoid antitrust problems in mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures; distribution and franchise arrangements; standards setting; intellectual property acquisition and licensing; product and service pricing; advertising; trade association activity; and relationships with customers, competitors and employees.

In addition to counseling clients, Baker Botts antitrust lawyers handle litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts throughout the United States. We represent companies and individuals in civil and criminal investigations and adversary proceedings involving the entire spectrum of antitrust and competition issues. Our antitrust litigation docket includes grand jury investigations, class actions, parallel litigation in state and federal courts, multidistrict litigation, preliminary injunction hearings and other complex proceedings. Our lawyers have advocated clients' interests before, as well as against, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission, state attorneys general and a number of administrative and regulatory agencies.

Litigation

• We successfully defended Reliant Energy, Inc., in a suit seeking damages and injunctive relief for an alleged conspiracy to manipulate the wholesale price of electricity in Texas.
• We obtained a dismissal for defendant, affirmed on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, in a suit claiming $1.5 billion in trebled damages for alleged monopolization of various Spanish-language broadcasting markets (Spanish Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Clear Channel Communications, Inc., et al.).
• We obtained a jury verdict in defendant's favor on all claims in a suit seeking approximately $1 billion in trebled damages for alleged monopolization of airline transportation markets (Continental Airlines, Inc. and Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. American Airlines, Inc., et al.).
• We obtained a settlement on favorable terms in a class action seeking $15 billion in trebled damages for alleged conspiracy to depress wages and benefits paid to workers on offshore drilling rigs (Verdin et al. v. R&B Falcon Drilling, et al.).

• DOJ clearance of Transocean Sedco Forex's $9 billion acquisition of R&B Falcon to form the world's largest offshore drilling company
• DOJ and FERC clearance of Houston Industries' $2.9 billion acquisition of NorAm Energy
• FTC clearance of Norilsk Nickel's acquisition of Stillwater Mining, the largest acquisition by a Russian firm of a U.S. company as of the date of the transaction

Criminal Investigations
We have been involved in various internal and DOJ antitrust grand jury investigations including:

• DOJ antitrust grand jury investigation of business practices and pricing in the transportation industry
• DOJ antitrust grand jury investigation in the financial services industry
• Internal investigation and related DOJ antitrust grand jury investigation of military procurements