The following is an excerpt from Practice Perspectives: Vault's Guide to Legal Practice Areas.
Kerry Jones is a partner in the Litigation Department with a focus on antitrust matters. Her practice includes supporting clients across the spectrum of antitrust and competition law matters, such as strategic counseling to manage antitrust risks, merger clearance advocacy, government investigations, and antitrust litigation. Kerry works with clients around the world on everything from “bet the company” transactions to antitrust compliance trainings.
Describe your practice area and what it entails.
My practice as an antitrust associate focuses on merger clearance. In the U.S. and most countries around the world, with transactions of a certain size, the government gets an opportunity to review the transaction before it is consummated to determine if it would be anticompetitive.
I help companies navigate that process, from evaluating the risk, to negotiating the merger agreement, to submitting the filing to the government agency, to conducting any advocacy needed with that agency. I also work on other types of antitrust cases, such as government investigations or civil litigation, and I advise clients on antitrust best practices.
What types of clients do you represent?
I represent companies from all across the economy and around the world, especially Japan. That is part of what makes my job so interesting. From tech startups to established industrial companies, I see it all.
What types of cases/deals do you work on?
There can be a whole range. In my merger clearance work, most of the time, it is simple—you work through a few issues and fill out the paperwork, and in a couple of months, you are done. Sometimes, you end up with something like T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint, where the government sues to block the transaction and you are in court arguing over the merits of the transaction. In addition, I am currently working on an investigation in response to inquiries from an Asian antitrust regulator, helping a client respond to requests as a third party in a large antitrust litigation, and working on a large litigation with a small antitrust piece.
How did you choose this practice area?
As a summer associate at MoFo, I was impressed by the lawyers I saw preparing witnesses in a merger investigation for their depositions. The lawyers seemed to know just as much about the business as some of the executives, if not more. Getting to work with a company’s executives to do a deep dive into their business looked fun, and it has been. I have learned so much about things like robots, autonomous vehicles, and smartphones from the people in the trenches.
What is a typical day like and/or what are some common tasks you perform?
I love my practice because every day is different, and I do such a wide variety of tasks. I spend a lot of time researching products to craft arguments about what products do and do not compete with each other. I work closely with clients, explaining the regulatory process to them and helping them navigate it. Some days my job looks more like a transactions associate, as I am revising and advising on contracts. Other days, I do more traditional litigation tasks, like preparing witnesses for depositions, document review, and discovery responses. This is the perfect practice for someone who gets bored easily! There is always something new and interesting.
What training, classes, experience, or skills development would you recommend to someone who wishes to enter your practice area?
Some people would say a strong background in economics is needed for antitrust. While it is certainly a plus, an academic background in economics is not necessary. Find an economic news source that you like, and that is a good start. Then I say learn as much as you can about how the world works. That sounds silly, but you never know what industry your next matter will touch, where all of a sudden that TV show you watched or NPR story you listened to or even the time you spent online shopping will become relevant.
What do you like best about your practice area?
I like looking back after six months or a year when my matter is over and reflecting on how much I now know about a random industry. It is also fun to see how the knowledge builds on itself and how expertise in one product area becomes relevant to your next matter in a related product area.
What are some typical tasks that a junior lawyer would perform in this practice area?
Junior associates are often the ones in the weeds on gathering the information needed for the merger filings or advocacy. This often means a lot of client contact early in their careers. Junior associates are also often the ones doing the initial analysis on the competitive landscape. There is some document review too, but it is always different.
How do you see this practice area evolving in the future?
AI is going to have a huge impact on antitrust, as with all other areas of the law. How things like pricing algorithms will be regulated is a big question in the field today. New technologies compete with each other in novel ways, and it will take work to explain that competitive landscape to a regulator or a judge.
Given the breadth of Antitrust, what must attorneys do to be successful in the practice?
Adapt to change. Things change with the priorities of new administrations, new technology, and world events. Every day you are working on something different, learning something different. Being able to take all of that in stride makes you a good antitrust lawyer.