The High-Powered Lawyers Fighting Over AT&T’s Future
The High-Powered Lawyers Fighting Over AT&T's Future
(Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc.’s fight to save its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Inc. moves to the federal courthouse in Washington Thursday, where a cast of lawyers for the companies and the government will face off for the first time before U.S. District Judge Richard Leon.
The stakes are high and the personalities high-powered. President Donald Trump’s new antitrust chief — a former lobbyist and Capitol Hill staffer — upended expectations the deal would sail through when he sued to block the merger just two months into his new job. Then there’s the defense lawyer from Hollywood who represented former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling; the woman who led the antitrust division under President Barack Obama and is now defending Time Warner; and a career Justice Department litigator fresh off a court victory blocking a merger between two of the biggest U.S. health insurers. Overseeing it all is Leon, a maverick known for infusing drama into his courtroom.
Here’s a look at who’s who as the litigation unfolds:
Judge Richard Leon
- Appointed to the bench in 2002 by President George W. Bush
- Gave final approval to the merger of Comcast Corp. and NBCUniversal — a marriage of content delivery and production, similar to AT&T-Time Warner — despite initial misgivings about the settlement
- Reputation as unpredictable and outspoken on the bench
- Called the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records “almost Orwellian,” and said it should stop — a decision that was reversed on appeal
- Overseeing a lawsuit brought by the U.S. House intelligence committee seeking banking records belonging to Fusion GPS, the political opposition research firm that produced what’s come to be known as the Trump Dossier
Makan Delrahim, DOJ Antitrust Chief
- Appointed by Trump and confirmed in September
- Former deputy counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office, who managed the confirmation process of Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch
- Made decision to sue to block the Time Warner takeover, marking the first time in decades antitrust enforcers have gone to court to stop a deal uniting two companies that don’t compete directly
- Tossed out antitrust playbook on these so-called vertical deals, saying settlements that impose conditions on how companies operate don’t work
- Former antitrust lawyer at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck LLP, where he represented companies on mergers
Craig Conrath, DOJ Trial Lawyer
- Lead trial attorney for the government
- Justice Department litigator who started his career with the antitrust division in 1975 right out of law school
- Represented the U.S. in the antitrust trial against American Express, which the government won in 2015 before losing on appeal
- Led trial team in Justice Department’s successful lawsuit to block Aetna Inc.’s proposed takeover of rival health insurer Humana Inc.
- Served as resident adviser to Poland’s Anti-Monopoly Office in early 1990s as part of a U.S. effort to advise formerly communist countries on markets and competition law
Daniel Petrocelli, AT&T and Time Warner
- Defended Trump against thousands of former students who claimed his real-estate school was a scam
- A partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP in Los Angeles and a seasoned litigator who has represented a range of clients in entertainment and business
- Defended Enron’s Skilling against fraud charges following the energy company’s collapse
- Represented Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in fighting off sexual assault claims, according to the New York Times
- Brought a successful wrongful death suit against OJ Simpson on behalf of Ronald Goldman’s family
Christine Varney, Time Warner
- Led the antitrust division from 2009 to 2011 under Obama and was a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission from 1994 to 1997
- During her tenure at the Justice Department, the division filed an antitrust case against American Express Co. over rules imposed on merchants and successfully sued H&R Block Inc. to stop its acquisition of TaxAct
- Approved Comcast Corp.’s purchase of NBCUniversal with behavioral conditions that put restrictions on how the companies operated, a type of agreement that the current antitrust chief has criticized
- Chairs the antitrust practice at Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP, where she has worked on major deals including Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s acquisition of SABMillerPlc
Peter Barbur, Time Warner
- Defended American Express against the Justice Department’s antitrust case, which the U.S. won at trial, but lost on appeal
- Weathered a run-in with Leon five years ago in a corruption case involving International Business Machines Corp. in which the judge threatened to hold Barbur, a partner at Cravath, in contempt for talking over him
“Mr. Barbur, when I start, you stop,” Leon said. “If you don’t, you will be held in contempt. That might be a first for Cravath. You stop when I start. You get me?”
- Leon criticized Cravath’s argument that it was too burdensome for IBM to make regular reports to the court if allegations of additional corruption were made
- “I have had plenty of other cases where the lawyers never did any of these things. This is the Cravath approach,” Leon told Barbur. “The language is too tough for IBM. It’s not too tough for a lot of other corporations, but IBM is a special situation. So you know what? Get the data.”
Robert Walters, AT&T
- Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, based in Dallas
- Former general counsel for Texas power company Energy Future Holdings Corp.
- Represented Tenet Healthcare Corp. in litigation against Community Health Systems Inc.’s hostile bid for Tenet
--With assistance from Andrew M Harris and Jef Feeley
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Sara Forden at sforden@bloomberg.net, Heather Smith
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