J. Mark Gidley chairs the White & Case LLP Global Antitrust/Competition Practice.  His practice focuses on mergers, acquisitions, and cartel cases, often with a transnational focus.

Mr. Gidley was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division in 1992-1993.  Prior to that, Mr. Gidley served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Regulated Industries in the Antitrust Division from 1991-1992.  From 1990 to 1991, Mr. Gidley served as Associate Deputy Attorney General under then Deputy Attorney William P. Barr, during the first Bush Administration.  During his tenure at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Gidley worked on a number of merger and acquisition investigations, including Bank of America's acquisition of Security Pacific National Bank.  He brought the successful lawsuit under Section 1 of the Sherman Act against the major US domestic air carriers for alleged price fixing and cartel behavior.  Mr. Gidley supervised the government grand jury investigation of the treasury bond action market, which resulted in a $28 million asset forfeiture action against Salomon Brothers – at that time the largest antitrust penalty ever in the Division's history for cartel activity.

Mr. Gidley represents parties before competition agencies, as well as parties in civil and criminal grand jury investigations of pricing conduct, and other potential antitrust violations.  His work often features investigations of transnational firms in grand jury and civil investigations of pricing and other competitive practices.  Mr. Gidley represents antitrust defendants in multi-forum cases that involve parallel, simultaneous government investigations and multiple civil actions.  His cases have involved investigations by numerous competition agencies such as the Canadian, Korean, EC, and Japanese competition authorities.  He has significant experience in trying antitrust merger and cartel cases.

Mr. Gidley's significant litigation matters include:

• Representation in a landmark victory for our client, Stolt Nielsen SA, in its efforts to enforce its Amnesty Agreement with the DOJ Antitrust Division.  On November 30, 2007, the federal district court in Philadelphia ruled, after a three-week criminal trial, that the Company's amnesty agreement should be upheld and that the indictment of our client be dismissed.  This case, closely watched by the white collar and antitrust bars, has been the subject of extensive commentary.  With amnesty programs proliferating around the globe, this case is the first anywhere in the world where a court has enforced an antitrust amnesty promise.  United States v. Stolt-Nielsen S.A., 524 F. Supp. 2d 609 (E.D. Pa. 2007);
• Representation of Upsher-Smith Laboratories in a landmark victory in a case involving pharmaceutical branded-generic patent settlements against a challenge by the FTC.  White & Case tried the case in a 40-day trial before an Administrative Law Judge and won the trial in 2002.  Subsequently, the Eleventh Circuit ruled in favor of the defendants.  Schering-Plough Corp. v. FTC, 402 F.3d 1056 (11th Cir. 2005).  In 2006, the US Supreme Court declined the FTC's appeal in the Schering-Plough/Upsher-Smith antitrust matter in 2006.  The Court's decision not to take the appeal is believed to be the first time in recent memory for the FTC.  This case was named as one of the "hot" litigation victories in 2006 by the National Law Journal;
• Representation of Stolt-Nielsen in a victory before the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), after receiving notification that they ceased deliberations in an investigation of cartel activity in the parcel tanker industry.  The KFTC's action clears the Stolt Nielsen case from its docket without a finding of any violation.  The case is believed to be the first trial with live witness testimony before the nine-member KFTC;
• Representation of SunGard Data Systems in its successful trial defense of the acquisition and merger of the computer disaster recovery assets of Comdisco.  This high-tech litigation broke new ground in the intersection of US bankruptcy and merger law under Section 7 of the Clayton Act and was tried in record time.  From the filing of the complaint through the trial before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, until the decision on stay by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, only 19 business days elapsed.  This was the first defeat of a government merger challenge in federal court in the District of Columbia in almost a decade.  United States v. SunGard Data Systems, Inc., 172 F. Supp. 2d 172 (D.D.C. 2001);
• Representation of overseas manufacturers against charges of private losses stemming from an alleged global price-fixing cartel.  In Dee-K v. Heveafil, the White & Case trial team successfully secured a landmark jury verdict absolving the Firm's clients, Malaysian producers of rubber thread, of any violation of the Sherman Act Section 1 based on allegations of overseas price fixing.  White & Case also successfully opposed class certification in this private damages suit in this action.  The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the trial court verdict in a landmark ruling that clarified the US Supreme Court's Hartford Fire test of "substantial effects" in the reach of the Sherman Act. Dee-K Enterprises, Inc. v. Heveafil Sdn. Bhd., 299 F.3d 281 (4th Cir. 2002);
• Representation of Stolt-Nielsen SA and Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group Ltd. in the first US federal court appellate decision in the Second Circuit compelling arbitration of claims based on alleged horizontal price fixing under the Sherman Act.  JLM Industries, Inc. v. Stolt-Nielsen SA, 387 F.3d 163 (2d Cir. 2004); and
• Successful representation of the defendants in United States v. Agrimark, 156 F.R.D. 87 (D. Vt. 1994), a contested antitrust consent decree matter against the DOJ Antitrust Division.  The district court ruled in favor of the defendants.  The decision overturned 60 years of prior law on antitrust consent decrees, which involved a consent decree and vertical integration issues arising from a merger.

Mr. Gidley has an active merger and joint venture practice, representing merging parties before the DOJ and the FTC, including numerous companies in connection with mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures in industries ranging from health care, telecommunications, computer software, defense and publishing to engineering, energy, minerals and industrial and consumer goods.  Mr. Gidley's recent merger matters have also included US DOJ Antitrust Division and FTC investigations into acquisitions that had previously closed, due to the acquisition being below the Hart-Scott- Rodino merger filing thresholds.  Mr. Gidley's merger and joint venture experience includes representation of:

• Luvata/Eco Spa, two leading heating and air conditioning parts suppliers in 2007;
• Iron Mountain Incorporated, the leading provider of records and information management services in the US, with respect to its acquisition of ArchivesOne, Inc. in 2007;
• Scientific Games Corporation in an agreement regarding the sale of its real-time satellite communications and broadcasting services business, used by the racing industry for off-track wagering, to Roberts Communication Network;
• Houghton Mifflin Company, a US-based leading educational and trade press publisher in connection with its acquisition by Riverdeep Group plc, an Irish educational publisher in a $5 billion combination; and
• WebCT, Inc. before the DOJ Antitrust Division in its $178 million merger with rival Blackboard, Inc.  After demonstrating to the Antitrust Division that the transaction is pro-competitive and that customers will continue to benefit from vibrant competition from emerging new competitors, the Antitrust Division closed its investigation within four months of opening the probe, taking no action against the companies.

Mr. Gidley has experience in transnational transactions that span multiple and often conflicting antitrust regimes.  He is co-editor of the White & Case Worldwide Survey of Merger Laws, a comprehensive compendium of global merger filing regimes.

Mr. Gidley is a leading antitrust lawyer and has recently been featured in Legal 500 US, Chambers USA, Asialaw Leading Lawyers, Who's Who Legal and Euromoney.  Mr. Gidley was also chosen in a survey of in-house counsel and antitrust practitioners as the leading US competition lawyer under 45, and one of the top ten in the world by Global Competition Review's "45 Under 45" survey of leading antitrust lawyers.