To the public dismay of AT&T’s chief executive Randall Stephenson and general counsel David McAtee, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has filed a lawsuit to block the company’s $85bn takeover of Time Warner, in a decision described by McAtee as an ‘inexplicable departure from decades of antitrust precedent’. The DoJ insists that the deal would be likely to harm competition. A court battle looms.
The Legal 500’s Who Represents Who data shows both companies have engaged a broad range of law firms on a host of instructions in recent years, though the would-be-combined media giants have little in common in terms of who they turn to for advice, with only Arent Fox issued instructions for both in 2015 and 2016 in the same sector (TMT).
While Time Warner’s recent antitrust work has involved White & Case and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, AT&T has well-established relationships with Sidley Austin, Sullivan & Cromwell and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, all three of which firms are highly ranked by The Legal 500 for merger control/antitrust work.
David Burgess, Publishing Director, The Legal 500
2014
AT&T
Time Warner
2015
AT&T
Time Warner
2016
AT&T
Time Warner
Key
Blue box= Law firm instructed that year by both companies in different sectors
Green box = Law firm instructed that year by both companies in the same sector
