Litigation

• Lead counsel to Florida Association of Realtors® in sprawling real estate agent commission cases.
• Successful defense of Tyson Foods in multiple class action and arbitration matters related to animal proteins.
• Representation of multiple defendants in the Auto Parts class-action MDL in Detroit, Michigan.
• Representation of a food care device manufacturer in Sherman Act Section 2 litigation in the District of New Jersey.
• Defeated a motion for preliminary injunction in a pharmaceutical industry dispute in the District Court for the District of Columbia. Within less than a week, the Axinn team successfully moved to intervene and submitted opposition papers, and Nick argued before U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle at the preliminary injunction hearing. The Court denied the motion three days later, allowing Axinn client Alvogen’s valuable generic version of the antibiotic Vancocin® to remain on the market.
• Completed a bench trial in a federal breach of contract action in the Southern District of New York, in which the Axinn team secured a judgment that defendant breached the contract at issue.
• Obtained dismissal of Sherman Act claims on behalf of a major building products manufacturer in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
• Represented a film exhibition industry client seeking damages and injunctive relief in a Sherman Act and Clayton Act matter in the Southern District of New York, ultimately securing several beneficial settlements.
• Worked on teams representing a pharmaceutical industry client in obtaining a temporary restraining order and seeking preliminary injunction in a Hatch-Waxman matter; defending a major retailer from patent and trademark infringement claims; seeking preliminary injunction on behalf of a specialty chemicals client in a Sherman Act and Clayton Act matter; and appealing a trade secrets matter in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Merger

• Lead antitrust counsel to Ball Corporation in its $5.6B sale of its aerospace business to BAE, helping to secure the fastest clearance of a defense deal in which a U.S. antitrust agency investigated and issued a Second Request. Importantly, Ball did not have to incur the burden of substantially complying with the Second Request in order for the Antitrust Division to resolve its investigation.
• Counseled and represented Centerbridge Partners and KIK Custom Products in the DOJ review and clearance of the sale of KIK Personal Care to its competitor, Voyant Beauty, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners.
• Counseled and represented Sagard Holdings, Fairfax Financial Holdings, and Peak Achievement Athletics in the DOJ review and clearance of the acquisition of Easton Diamond Sports by Rawlings Sporting Goods.
• Counseled and represented Stone Point Capital and Mitchell | Genex in DOJ review and clearance of the acquisition of Coventry’s Workers’ Comp Services.
• Served as global coordinating counsel to Ball Corporation in its $6.85 billion acquisition of Rexam PLC, which required filings in several international jurisdictions, including in particular, overseeing securing of antitrust approval by Brazil’s CADE. Also represented Ball in its $577 million acquisition of MCC assets from InBev.
• Represented H.I.G. Capital and its holding company, recycled paperboard manufacturer Caraustar Industries, Inc., before the DOJ in 6+-month investigation of their $362.5 million acquisition of The Newark Group, which was closed without remedy or enforcement action. Also represented Caraustar in its acquisition of industrial product manufacturer Summer Industries.
• Represented SunGard in DOJ’s litigated challenge to its acquisition of Comdisco in the District Court for the District of Columbia, in which the Court ruled for the merging parties, denying the DOJ’s preliminary injunction request.
• Represented Bauer Performance Sports, Ltd. as U.S. antitrust counsel in its $330 million asset acquisition of the Easton baseball, softball and lacrosse businesses from Easton-Bell Sports.
• Represented Bemis Company in its $1.2 billion acquisition of the Food Packaging America assets of Rio Tinto.
• Represented A&P in its acquisition of Pathmark Stores.
• Represented GameStop in its acquisition of Electronics Boutique.
• Represented Ecolab in its proposed acquisition of Permian Mud LLC and Optical Distributor Group in its acquisition by ABB Concise.
• Represented Matlin Paterson in private litigation in the Southern District of New York to prevent hostile acquisition of a holding company by a rival fund.
• Represented BellSouth in its $67 billion acquisition by AT&T.
• Represented Cingular in its $41 billion acquisition of AT&T wireless.