Practice Areas & Industries: Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP

Practice/Industry Group Overview
Whether addressing questions about permitted competitor and supplier contacts or defending clients in class-action litigation involving hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs and millions of documents, we are prepared to assist you. Our experience spans every major area of antitrust law, including: Sherman Act Section 1 and 2 matters such as bid-rigging and price-fixing, abuse of monopoly (seller) or monopsony (buyer) power, predatory pricing, exclusive dealing, resale price maintenance, dealer termination Robinson-Patman Act - federal price discrimination Clayton Act - mergers and acquisitions State Sherman Act equivalents and unfair and deceptive trade practices statutes, as well as other industry-specific antitrust provisions Opinions reflecting Smith Moore's work as counsel in antitrust litigation include: DeLoach, et al. v. Philip Morris USA Inc., 206 F.R.D. 551 (M.D.N.C. 2001) Dublin v. UCR, Inc., 115 N.C. App. 209, 444 S.E.2d 455 (1994) Hyde v. Abbott Labs, Inc., 123 N.C. App. 572, 473 S.E.2d 680 (1996) Neway Anchorlok Int'l, Inc. v. Longwood, 107 F. Supp. 2d 810 (W.D. Mich. 1999) R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Philip Morris, Inc., 199 F. Supp. 2d 362 (M.D.N.C. 2002) Sara Lee Corp. v. Kayser-Roth Corp., 81 F.3d 455 (4th Cir. 1996) Our clients have come to us from a broad range of industries: Apparel Manufacturing & Marketing Automotive Financing Chemical Manufacturing Consumer & Agricultural Products Furniture Manufacturing Health Care Providers & Networks Leaf Tobacco Purchasing & Cigarette Marketing Newspaper Publishing Retail Sales Satellite Television Technology Soft Drinks Textile Manufacturing Two of our attorneys were among the nineteen named in January 2003 by Business North Carolina as the state's Legal Elite for Antitrust Law. We are active in the NCBA and ABA sections for antitrust law. We regularly assist clients with antitrust compliance audits and pre-merger reviews and filings (under Hart-Scott-Rodino, for example). We counsel clients on the antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions, pricing, and distribution and sales arrangements. We have designed and conducted industry-specific antitrust workshops for management and sales staff. We know the manner in which state antitrust and trade regulation provisions interact with or differ from federal antitrust law, and recognize how federal antitrust law intersects with patent and trademark law and other types of litigation.