Mitigating Antitrust Risks in Mergers & Acquisitions Transactions: What Every Firm Needs to Know in 2015

Jessica Delbaum is a partner in Shearman & Sterling’s Antitrust Group in New York. Her practice focuses on defending multinational companies’ mergers and acquisitions before the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice as well as coordinating the multi-jurisdictional antitrust defense of transactions. Ms. Delbaum also counsels clients on an extensive array of antitrust issues such as competitor collaborations, cartel leniency applications, and Hart-Scott-Rodino Act compliance, including integration planning. Ms. Delbaum has defended substantive merger investigations involving a wide variety of industries, including health care, industrial gases, mining and finance. Prior to joining Shearman & Sterling, Ms. Delbaum was an Attorney General’s Honors Program Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. 

Francis M. Fryscak is a partner in the Antitrust & Competition practice group of Cooley LLP, working out of their San Francisco and Palo Alto offices.  He has been recognized by Chambers and GCR as a leading antitrust lawyer in California and has, for the last 20 years, concentrated chiefly on antitrust counseling involving mergers and acquisitions.  He has worked closely with clients in numerous high profile antitrust investigations brought by the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission and foreign antitrust regulatory agencies, including Adobe Systems Incorporated's acquisition of Macromedia, Siebel Systems, Inc.'s acquisition by Oracle, and InVision Technologies acquisition by GE.

He is a frequent author and participant in panels on antitrust matters, including last year’s IBC conference in Brussels on Competition Law & Regulation in the Telecoms & IT Sectors, the ABA’s presentation on Avoiding Common Issues That Arise in HSR Analysis, and Global Competition Review’s London conference on Telecoms, Media and Technology in 2013. 

Paul Jin is a partner in the firm's antitrust practice.  He advises clients on all antitrust aspects of merger matters, including negotiating terms of merger agreements, determining the applicability of merger clearance filing requirements in both U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, and advocating on behalf of clients before the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice in connection with informal merger inquiries, Second Requests, third-party subpoenas, and conduct investigations. He has assisted with hundreds of Hart-Scott-Rodino notification forms for mergers, minority and asset acquisitions, and corrective filings, and is considered a leading HSR practitioner. Paul's practice also includes antitrust counseling on issues such as diligence and pre-closing conduct procedures, internal compliance programs, and collaboration guidelines.

Paul served as a law clerk on the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights.

Kara Kuritz started in September 2014 as the Division’s Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act expert. Working with other members of the Legal Policy Section, Ms. Kuritz serves as an advisor to the Assistant Attorney General and Division staff on all HSR-related matters.  Prior to joining the Antitrust Division, Ms. Kuritz worked as an associate at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati. Ms. Kuritz also previously served as a law clerk in the Mergers IV Division at the Federal Trade Commission, where she worked on hospital mergers.