Competition

Expert Analysis

• Will Changes To Federal Rules Reduce Scope Of Discovery?

  

  Articles by commentators in recent months have indicated a great divide as to whether revisions to Rules 26(b)(1) and 37(e) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will cause a drop in discovery costs by reducing the scope of discovery and electronically stored information preservation efforts, say Daniel Braude and Marianna Codispoti at Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP.

• Takeaways From UK's 1st Deferred Prosecution Agreement

  

  The U.K. has developed a judge-led approach to deferred prosecution agreements. Standard Bank is the first, but it is clear from the judgment that it is an approach that will be encouraged and adopted by the judiciary in appropriate cases, most likely where the company’s criminality is limited to failing to prevent corruption, says Nicholas Burkill, co-leader of Dorsey & Whitney LLP's anti-corruption practice group.

• Antitrust Agencies' Capabilities On Full Display

  

  Failure of the Electrolux-General Electric merger and a move to block the proposed Staples-Office Depot deal highlight common threads between the Federal Trade Commission’s and the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent approaches to merger challenges. Both cases mark a departure from prior agency precedent for clearing deals in the same industries without conditions, say Matthew Hendrickson and John Seward of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

• The Art Of The Mock

  

  Who is the perfect juror? What is the most effective theme? What evidence is the most compelling in the eyes of the jury? These and many other questions haunt the minds of trial lawyers. Mock trials are beneficial for answering these questions before a case goes to trial and for obtaining information that trial lawyers simply cannot get any other way, say attorneys at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton.

• Fuller Picture Of FIFA Corruption Case Begins To Emerge

  

  With a new indictment last week, the U.S. Department of Justice made it clear that the May indictment was merely the tip of the FIFA corruption iceberg. There is one very interesting paragraph in the superseding indictment that did not appear in the original. It is in the description of the racketeering conspiracy and is titled “Embezzlement and Misappropriation,” says Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor.

• When Land Use And Antitrust Collide

  

  The Third Circuit's recent decision in Hanover 3201 Realty v. Village Supermarkets stands as a stark reminder that an aggressive campaign to use land use proceedings as a vehicle to gain a competitive advantage could, under some circumstances, result in potential liability under federal antitrust law, say Christopher Stracco and Paul Halasz of Day Pitney LLP.

• Strategies For Your Evolving Law Department

  

  Today’s law departments must deliver sustainable and transformative results, and doing so requires new thinking. Rather than continuing to convince themselves that “legal is different” from other departments, in-house counsel must learn to think like businesspeople and use data and analytics as well as creative delivery methods to ignite performance, says Joy Saphla of Morae Legal.

• DC Circ. FCA Ruling Is Important Setback For DOJ

  

  Recent district court decisions and the clarity and logic of the D.C. Circuit's U.S. v. MWI opinion should make it more difficult for the government and relators to allege and prove that a defendant acted recklessly where the underlying conduct rests on an interpretation of an ambiguous statute or regulation, say attorneys with Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

• Victory For Calif. Grid Operator In Rare Antitrust Suit

  

  An antitrust lawsuit filed by the Imperial Irrigation District against California Independent System Operator Corp. was a very unusual development. While aspects of the California federal court's recent ruling — granting in part and denying in part CAISO’s motion to dismiss — rest on dubious reasoning, the opinion should reinforce the disincentive for lawsuits against independent system operators, says Arthur Adelberg of Barclay Damon LLP.

• Where Common Law Litigation And Int'l Arbitration Divide

  

  Drawing on 40 years of experience as a litigator and trial lawyer, Crowell & Moring partner George Ruttinger offers an in-depth view of the differences between U.S.-style common law litigation/arbitration and international arbitration, particularly as those differences inform the approach to arguably the most important task in any trial — cross-examination of the opponent’s fact and expert witnesses.