20. Dechert

Dechert inched up from 21 to 20 in the Global Elite rankings this year, despite losing four partners and adding only a single lateral hire at that level. Shari Ross Lahlou joined the Washington, DC office in April 2019 from Crowell & Moring’s competition practice. Her addition followed the departure of partners Paul Denis and Paul Friedman in Washington, DC, Ethan Litwin in New York and Christine Levin in Philadelphia. The transatlantic team houses 14 total partners across seven offices, five of which are ranked by GCR.

Although Dechert fell outside the top 10 in the three major areas ranked in the Global Elite, it achieved good work in each. Perhaps the biggest deal of the year was the firm’s representation of CVS Health in its acquisition of insurer Aetna, which was valued at $70 billion. While the second request was received prior to the relevant window, the deal was conditionally cleared in late November 2018 by the US Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust division. Dechert worked with Pinheiro Neto Advogados in Brazil and Karanovic & Partners in Serbia in advising One Equity Partners on the sale of chemical maker PeroxyChem to Evonik Industries, which the US Federal Trade Commission sued to block in August 2019.

On the cartel side of things, Dechert partner Steve Bizar leads the team acting for a client in the DOJ’s probe of early admission practices. The firm is advising a company on a confidential investigation in the US, which remained ongoing at the time of writing. The firm has also obtained leniency for Crown Holdings in the European Commission’s ongoing cartel proceedings regarding the packaging industry.

In non-cartel conduct work, Dechert is advising a major client in the US regarding a price coordination investigation. It also acted for a major technology company before the EU enforcer and France’s competition authority in an abuse of dominance probe that closed in June 2018, and is advising two companies regarding confidential probes in the US. Turning to private litigation, Citron Pharma has retained Dechert’s counsel in the Generic Pharmaceuticals price-fixing case, which involves enforcers from at least 49 US states and territories. The firm is active in several other ongoing private cases, including defending Endo Pharmaceuticals against pay-for-delay allegations in the Opana ER antitrust litigation.