Top Antitrust Lawyers Launch New Boutique Firm

Antitrust lawyers from two prominent law firms have joined forces to create a new boutique antitrust practice, just days after the Biden administration intensified its efforts to tackle monopolistic practices. According to Bloomberg, attorneys from Constantine Cannon and Robins Kaplan are launching the firm shortly after the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against Visa Inc. demonstrated the government’s continued scrutiny of corporate giants.

The new firm, Shinder Cantor Lerner, is being founded by former Constantine Cannon partners Matthew Cantor and Jeffrey Shinder, along with Kellie Lerner, the former co-chair of Robins Kaplan’s antitrust and trade regulation group. The firm will operate out of New York and Washington, D.C.

“We’re in a moment where antitrust has a resurrected profile, which had languished for 50 years,” Shinder said in an interview, per Bloomberg.

This move comes at a time when antitrust litigation has become a key focus for many law firms, driven by the Biden administration’s active enforcement of competition laws. The recent Justice Department lawsuit against Visa accuses the payment processor of monopolizing the debit card market by imposing penalties on merchants and paying off potential rivals. This is part of a larger trend, as both the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission set a record for merger challenges in fiscal year 2022.

Related: Antitrust Under Biden: Taking a Closer Look at the Numbers

Lerner noted that this antitrust momentum is unlikely to lose steam, regardless of the outcome of the upcoming U.S. presidential election. Whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump wins, the current direction of antitrust enforcement is too entrenched to reverse easily.

“You can’t unscramble the egg,” Lerner said. “What this administration has done to push forward antitrust is not something that can be pushed back in any easy way.”

Shinder Cantor Lerner will launch with 10 partners and plans to expand, hiring between 15 and 20 attorneys over the next year. According to Bloomberg, the firm will offer clients alternative fee arrangements, including hybrid payment models, and aims to serve both plaintiffs and defendants. It will focus on a broad range of antitrust issues, including anti-competitive mergers, market allocation, and monopolization, as well as newer areas like algorithmic price fixing.

Source: Bloomberg