Claudia Higgins Explains Trends in Antitrust and Merger Enforcement by the FTC and DOJ

InsideCounsel examines the current climate for mergers and acquisitions, including whether parties are facing increased scrutiny from reviewing antitrust agencies under the recently installed new leadership.

According to Kaye Scholer Antitrust Partner Claudia Higgins, who was an antitrust litigator for two decades at the FTC and served as Assistant Director for Regional Litigation, “The agencies are always looking for the good case, so you have to be ready with good arguments to counter what they consider to be that good case.”

Higgins also recommends that companies consider increased agency scrutiny while negotiating their breakup fees. “It’s just one more way for the parties to allocate that antitrust risk back and forth. Breakup fees have been applied in lots of different circumstances when companies felt they had the leverage to shift the risk back to the buyer.”