what does an antitrust and sales lawyer do

An antitrust attorney serves the client best by explaining the level of risk of a particular type of action, then describing how variations of that action will add or diminish the risk. To do this the antitrust lawyer must understand the client’s industry and business objectives—which is important for any antitrust and, frankly, legal task.

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What does the antitrust law prohibit?

Antitrust lawyers also participate in a variety of litigation activities like any other kind of lawyer. These activities include legal research, taking depositions, negotiating, arguing motions, and much more. Antitrust lawyers work with a lot of documents, so most of their time revolves around writing, editing, reviewing, and researching documents.

What do antitrust laws allow the government to do?

Jan 04, 2013 · Good judgment is acquired by experience, and by observing other people's mistakes. It is essential to work with more experienced lawyers—they essentially teach you how to use good judgment." Antitrust lawyers must have excellent interpersonal skills. "You do a lot of client counseling in this area," says Maxine .

What are the three main antitrust statutes?

Search more Antitrust and Competition Attorney Job. An Antitrust and Trade Regulation attorney handles legal matters involving antitrust and trade regulation issues. Antitrust laws regulate businesses in order to promote competition and competitive market practices. The goal of antitrust law is to prevent business monopolies from being able to dominate the market and …

What do antitrust laws protect consumers from?

May 28, 2020 · Antitrust law casts a long shadow over corporate conduct. At the abstract level, the law exists to protect consumers and businesses alike from companies that grow so large and powerful they can harm the markets—either by imposing artificially high prices, blocking competitors from offering better products, or both.

What do antitrust lawyers do?

What are antitrust laws and what do they do?

What is an antitrust law in simple terms?

What are the 3 antitrust laws?

Who do antitrust laws apply to?

What is illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act?

What is another word for antitrust?

What are examples of antitrust violations?

What is an antitrust statement?

Are antitrust laws good or bad?

Why is it called antitrust?

What is an antitrust violation?

What is Antitrust Law?

With their potential for multimillion dollar damage awards as well as their potential for restructuring entire industries (such as the telecommunic...

Where do antitrust lawyers work?

Antitrust lawyers work in both law firms and in government. Those who work in law firms generally work in mid-size to large law firms that have dep...

Who are their clients and what types of cases do they work on?

In an antitrust practice, attorneys generally represent businesses. Explains Ralph Lipshitz, of Carlton Fields in Tampa, Florida, My clients are, f...

What daily activities are involved in antitrust practice?

Ralph and Bill report that their antitrust litigation and client counseling activities vary from day to day. Explains Ralph, Every day I am working...

What do antitrust lawyers find rewarding about their practice?

The antitrust lawyers we talked to enjoy the role they play in helping their clients solve difficult problems. Explains Ralph, I like having the op...

How do people enter the field of antitrust law?

Some attorneys enter antitrust practice directly out of law school. Those attorneys generally work as summer associates at law firms with antitrust...

What skills are most important to antitrust lawyers?

Antitrust lawyers need exceptional writing skills. In this area of law, it's important to write well, says Maxine . You have to communicate clearly...

What classes and law school experiences do antitrust lawyers recommend?

Take an antitrust class in law school. An antitrust class is key, says Alex Morrisey. Antitrust is an area of law that is case driven. My law schoo...

What is antitrust law?

Antitrust law is what prevents unfair business acts such as: Price -fixing: When a rival business colludes with one another to keep prices at a certain level, it is known as price-fixing. This practice enables the companies concerned to achieve higher profit margins to the detriment of the consumer.

Why is antitrust important?

Antitrust ensures that the market will remain a fair place to conduct business where every business has a chance, and every consumer has choices. Because antitrust law deals with business and economic knowledge, knowing specific market details could benefit antitrust lawyers when building a case.

What is monopoly activity?

Monopoly activity: These are activities designed to give the company an unfair advantage by limiting the field of competition. In a free economy, companies have to ensure that they're competitive by producing a better product or offering a better price. This only works if they've got competition, though.

What was the Sherman Act?

The Sherman Act formed the basis of antitrust law. This act was passed in 1890 and was the first federal regulation to prevent monopolies and regulates competition among businesses by prohibiting activities and agreements that would monopolize the market.

What is the Clayton Antitrust Act?

The Clayton Antitrust Act is an expansion into an area the Sherman Act does not cover. This act explicitly prevents mergers and acquisitions that lessen competition that could lead to a monopoly. It also allows private parties to sue for damages and requires businesses to let the government know of mergers.

What is bid rigging?

Bid rigging is another behavior where two or more businesses who are bidding on something agree to bid low, so one business, in particular, wins the bid. Bid rigging can be broken down into:

What is price fixing?

Price fixing as you already know is where two companies collude to keep the price of a product at a set level. It is most commonly done as a way to increase their profit margins. Both companies will then increase their prices and keep them there, with neither trying to undercut the other.

What is antitrust law?

At the abstract level, the law exists to protect consumers and businesses alike from companies that grow so large and powerful they can harm the markets—either by imposing artificially high prices, blocking competitors from offering better products, or both.

What are some examples of antitrust laws?

What is an Example of an Antitrust Law? In the United States, federal antitrust legislation exists in three main laws: The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. The Clayton Act of 1914. The Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914.

Do states have antitrust laws?

Individual U.S. states have their own antitrust laws for corporate misconduct that happens within their own borders. It isn’t unusual to see states and the Justice Department work together to bring one unified antitrust action against, especially large or high-profile offenders.

What is the Sherman Act?

The Sherman Act outlaws certain types of behavior that are anti-competitive, such as several companies conspiring to fix prices or divide a market. The Justice Department has the power to bring civil or criminal charges against the companies or the individual executives involved.

Can employees violate antitrust laws?

Clear, relevant policies. Employees (and third parties, such as res ellers) can violate antitrust law in any number of ways. A policy that only says, “Don’t collude with competitors” isn’t sufficient.

What is the FTC?

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency that can take enforcement action against “unfair methods of competition,” and publishes guidance about what those practices can be and how companies might avoid them. When the FTC believes a company has violated those rules, the agency can bring civil charges.

What is antitrust law?

Antitrust Law. Antitrust law is the broad category of federal and state laws that are meant to keep business operating honest and fairly. Antitrust laws regulate the way companies do business. The goal is to level the playing the field in the free market and prevent businesses from having too much power. For the purposes of antitrust law, ...

What does antitrust law prohibit?

What antitrust laws prohibit are acts intended to form a monopoly by using unfair tactics. The courts use what’s called the “rule of reason” test in order to determine if an act is unlawful. They consider the effect of the business decision on the market.

What is the Sherman Act?

In each case, the court has to look at exactly what happened and make a determination. The Sherman Act is the seminal law that prohibits antitrust behavior. Courts can pursue civil or criminal penalties that can include up to 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for each violation. Businesses can face a fine of up to $100 million.

What is the Clayton Act?

The Clayton Act is an antitrust law that followed soon after the Sherman Act and specifically identified certain prohibited behaviors. For example, the Clayton Act prohibits an intermingled directorship where one person makes business decisions for two or more competing companies.

What are some examples of antitrust violations?

Another example of an antitrust violation is collusion. For example, three companies manufacture and sell widgets.

What was the Federal Trade Commission?

Also in 1914, legislation created the Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission is a federal agency tasked with enforcing federal antitrust laws. As soon as they were in place, government officials quickly used antitrust laws to bring actions against companies they suspected acted in violation of the law.

What is the most famous antitrust case?

Perhaps the most famous antitrust case is the case against John D. Rockefellar’s Standard Oil Company. (Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey v. United States, 221 U.S. 1 (1911).) The courts agreed with U.S. officials that Standard Oil Company used secretive rebate offers in order to build a monopoly. They also agreed that the company threatened other competitors in order to push them out of the market. The antitrust litigation against Standard Oil Company broke the company into smaller businesses that are known today as ExxonMobil, Amoco and Chevron.

Why are antitrust laws important?

Antitrust laws also referred to as competition laws, are statutes developed by the U.S. government to protect consumers from predatory business practices. They ensure that fair competition exists in an open-market economy. These laws have evolved along with the market, vigilantly guarding against would-be monopolies and disruptions to ...

What is the goal of antitrust laws?

The goal of these laws is to provide an equal playing field for similar businesses that operate in a specific industry while preventing them from gaining too much power over their competition. Simply put, they stop businesses from playing dirty in order to make a profit. These are called antitrust laws.

What is market allocation?

Market allocation is a scheme devised by two entities to keep their business activities to specific geographic territories or types of customers. This scheme can also be called a regional monopoly.

What is it called when two or more parties collude to choose who will win a contract?

The illegal practice between two or more parties who collude to choose who will win a contract is called bid rigging. When making bids, the "losing" parties will purposely make lower bids in order to allow the "winner" to succeed in securing the deal. This practice is a felony in the U.S. and comes with fines—even jail time.

What is price fixing?

Price fixing occurs when the price of a product or service is set by a business intentionally rather than letting market forces determine it naturally. Several businesses may come together to fix prices to ensure profitability.

What are the three pieces of antitrust legislation?

antitrust legislation was created by three pieces of legislation: the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, 1  the Federal Trade Commission Act 2 —which also created the FTC—and the Clayton Antitrust Act. 3 .

Who is James Chen?

James Chen, CMT, is the former director of investing and trading content at Investopedia. He is an expert trader, investment adviser, and global market strategist. Robert Kelly is a graduate school lecturer and has been developing and investing in energy projects for more than 35 years.

There's a lot to like about antitrust practice, including the sheer diversity of this area

Ed. note: Welcome to the latest installment of Better Know A Practice Area, a series introducing readers to different practice areas. Each post is written by an editor at Practical Law who previously practiced in that area and currently writes about it.

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Definition of Antitrust and Trade Regulation Law

Antitrust law aims to protect trade and commerce from unfair restraints, monopolies and price fixing. Antitrust law is primarily governed by two federal laws: the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act. Most states also have their own antitrust laws patterned on federal laws.

Other Considerations When Hiring an Antitrust and Trade Regulation Lawyer

Most antitrust issues arise when the DOJ or FTC investigates large companies about to merge. The mergers are often in the same industry and may involve unfair business tactics or outcomes. In these cases, the antitrust lawyers involved are usually the company's corporate attorneys.