Description of field of expertise

Monica focuses her antitrust practice on transaction advisory and merger clearance work for complex domestic and cross-border transactions.  Monica leads transaction risk assessments at the onset of a potential transaction and guides clients through the negotiation of antitrust-related deal terms that reflect the anticipated transaction risk.  She often negotiates regulatory risk-shifting mechanisms, obligations to remedy a transaction, and closing conditions related to regulatory approval, among other provisions, balancing legal risk with her client’s commercial priorities and risk appetite.

Monica has extensive experience in the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification regime in the United States and similar regimes in jurisdictions around the world.  When a transaction triggers an in-depth investigation, Monica works closely with her clients to analyze competitive effects, assess market definitions, and respond to extensive agency demands for client documents, data, and information, and, where needed, to identify and negotiate remedies to resolve outstanding concerns.  Monica’s advocacy is shaped by her strong command of ever-evolving theories of competitive harm, understanding of agency policy priorities, and familiarity with her clients’ businesses and industries, as well as her creativity and solution-oriented approach to the merger clearance process.

What advice would you offer to new attorneys interested in your field?

New attorneys interested in transactional advisory and merger clearance work should aim to develop a curiosity about businesses and industries, gain exposure to fundamentals of antitrust economics, and stay abreast of policy-related developments that influence how a particular transaction may be evaluated.

Much of the analytical work developed as an antitrust attorney draws on understandings of the client’s business and their broader industry, as supported by economic evidence.  Persuasiveness and effective advocacy benefit from a familiarity with the relevant products and marketplaces, and may be informed by economic work.  New attorneys should be versatile in both areas.  In addition, the merger clearance process in jurisdictions around the world are conducted by government agencies with their own enforcement priorities and policy perspectives.  Proposed transactions are often evaluated through those lenses, so new attorneys should also become aware of the policy positions that could have an effect on the outcome of transaction review.

Final thoughts…

One of the most appealing aspects of antitrust law is leveraging deep commercial knowledge with command of the law to advocate for the best outcome for clients.  Antitrust law is a dynamic field at the intersection of law, business, economics, and policy.