David Ernst concentrates on antitrust law and trade regulation.  Mr. Ernst regularly advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.  He frequently counsels on cross-border transactions, and has coordinated worldwide merger notifications for transactions requiring clearance in multiple foreign jurisdictions.  Mr. Ernst has defended clients before the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in connection with investigations of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Mr. Ernst advises clients in virtually all aspects of antitrust law, including monopolization, vertical restraints, concerted activity, licensing and other intellectual property issues (including patent pools), resale price maintenance, price discrimination, and implementation of antitrust compliance programs.  Mr. Ernst has advised a number of companies regarding their involvement in business-to-business (B2B) internet-based trading platforms in a number of different industries including financial products, insurance, and electrical products.  Mr. Ernst represented two major financial institutions in connection with a series of investigations by the Department of Justice into internet-based trading platforms, all of which were resolved without enforcement action.  Mr. Ernst has also represented clients in major antitrust litigations in the vitamin and shipping industries.

Mr. Ernst has represented clients in a variety of industries, including banking and financial services, information services, healthcare, biometrics, semiconductors, chemicals, oil and gas, advertising, pulp and paper, construction equipment, and motor vehicles.

Current and recent matters handled by Mr. Ernst include:

• Defending Experian, a national credit bureau, in a lawsuit filed by Fair Isaac Corporation against Experian, Equifax, TransUnion, and VantageScore Solutions;
• Tyco's sale of its Radionics business to Integra;
• Smiths' sale of its live scan business to Crossmatch;
• The acquisition by SunGard of the computer disaster recovery assets of Comdisco which was successfully defended at trial;
• The sale of Polaris Pools to Zodiac;
• Ferroatlántica's acquisition of Pechiney Electrométallurgie;
• First American's acquisition of the tax service and flood certification businesses of Transamerica;
• The formation of Atriax, an internet-based foreign exchange portal, by Reuters and several large financial institutions;
• The acquisition by the Finnish company, Metso Corporation, of one of its principal competitors, Svedala, in which a novel consent decree was negotiated with the Federal Trade Commission;
• Fording's three-way transaction with Teck Cominco and Sherritt International which involved coordination of worldwide antitrust clearances;
• Williams' sale of its TravelCenters business;
• ABB's sale of its nuclear business to British Nuclear Fuels; and
• Deutsche Bank's acquisition of Scudder.