Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Sullivan & Cromwell's antitrust practice has its headquarters in New York, but it also operates from the firm's Los Angeles, London and Washington, DC offices. The firm estimates that 48 lawyers devote most of their time to antitrust, but says it is hard to determine a precise figure because its antitrust practice is housed within its litigation department and because most Sullivan & Cromwell lawyers have several specialisations.

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

Three of the firm's antitrust partners are Who's Who nominees: practice co-head Yvonne Quinn and John Warden in New York, and Juan Rodriguez in London. This year saw three associates promoted to partner – Jeffrey Chapman and Stacey Friedman in New York, and Rodriguez.

Sullivan & Cromwell worked on a number of high-profile cases this year, including several for longstanding client Microsoft. In Iowa, it successfully defended Microsoft in a three-month antitrust jury trial. In Europe, it co-represented it in relation to the European Commission's investigation of bundling and interoperability issues, and the subsequent landmark appeals.

The firm is also representing British Airways in two global criminal antitrust investigations and in related multidistrict class action lawsuits over allegations of price fixing of fuel surcharges for air cargo services and passenger air services.

In the US, the Supreme Court recently handed an important victory to Sullivan & Cromwell's client Goldman Sachs, together with several other investment banks, in the IPO Antitrust Litigation. The plaintiffs in that case had contended that the defendants' apparently similar conduct during the dot-com boom violated federal and state antitrust laws.

Sullivan & Cromwell's antitrust team also worked on a host of major deals this year. For example, it is advising Alcan on its pending US$38.1 billion acquisition by Rio Tinto. Before that it helped Alcan fend off a bid by rival mining company Alcoa. It advised the Bank of New York on its US$16.5 billion merger with Mellon Financial Corporation. And it represented Akzo Nobel on its US$16.2 billion acquisition by ICI, and its US$14.5 billion sale of Organon BioSciences to Schering-Plough.