Professional notice
United States: New York
Led by John D Harkrider, a Who’s Who Legal nominee alongside fellow name partner Stephen M Axinn, the Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider team punches significantly above its weight as a highly regarded antitrust boutique. Over the past three years, it has been a finalist for or won GCR Matter of the Year, GCR Lawyer of the Year, GCR Behavioural Matter of the Year, GCR Merger Control Matter of the Year (Americas) and GCR Firm of the Year (North America).
In 2014, Harkrider, Mark Alexander and newly promoted partner Daniel Bitton were lead counsel to Thermo Fisher in its $13.6 billion merger with Life Technologies. Harkrider and DC partner Richard Dagen, newly hired from a senior FTC position, defended Stanley Black & Decker against a monopolisation claim, and Harkrider and Russell Steinthal counselled Google in various competition matters. Axinn and Nicholas Gaglio were counsel on a number of non-public billion-dollar mergers.
United States: Washington, DC
Litigation and antitrust boutique Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider says 2014 was another great year for the DC office, where the firm handles a blend of litigation and government cartel defence work. The three-partner, one-counsel group works as a kind of counterbalance to the firm’s prominent New York office, where the lawyers more often find themselves handling merger matters. Axinn strengthened its DC office in 2014 with the hire of long-time FTC attorney Richard Dagen, who once served as head of the anti-competitive practices division and pioneered such cases as North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners.
Who’s Who Legal nominee John DeQ Briggs and the DC group at Axinn are advising Independence Blue Cross in the consolidated Blue Cross Blue Shield Antitrust Litigation, by some measure the largest in the country. Axinn lawyers are lead counsel to Mutual (now Sun) in sham litigation monopolisation claims against Tyco Healthcare, and Dagen supported New York name partner John Harkrider in securing the dismissal of a standard-setting lawsuit against client Stanley Black & Decker and multiple other power tool companies. Partner Michael Keeley generally works on merger matters, advising Cedagim on its planned acquisition by IMS Health and helping out on the Thermo Fisher/Life Technologies deal.
Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider is a boutique law firm composed of a select group of the finest lawyers from the best firms dedicated to three practice areas: antitrust, intellectual property and litigation. Unencumbered by the characteristics of larger firms, Axinn has proved to be agile, efficient, responsive, and deeply involved in its clients’ issues. Notwithstanding its size (almost 60 lawyers), Axinn is called upon to handle clients’ largest and most strategically critical matters.
Axinn has worked on many of the most significant antitrust matters in the last year. Founding partner and antitrust practice co-chair John Harkrider won Lawyer of the Year - Worldwide and also was co-lead counsel on Merger Control Matter of the Year - Americas.
Partner and antitrust practice co-chair John DeQ Briggs was one of the first, and most senior, defections from Howrey when he left for Axinn in 2008. Since then, Briggs and Harkrider have built a formidable and multifaceted practice that finds itself on deals much larger firms would covet.
Contact us at:
John Harkrider
212.728.2210
[email protected]
John Briggs
202.721.5400
[email protected]
Learn more at www.avhlaw.com.