Biggest Challenge: Take the Law Seriously

The biggest challenge faced by an antitrust lawyer is to convince potential new clients to take seriously the consequences to their business of ignoring the antitrust. Too often businesses follow what other companies do or what they believe they need to do to survive or prosper . Once an industry faces a massive antitrust prosecution , it will be forever changed. Our key challenge as antitrust lawyers is to convince clients to change before the antitrust enforcement action with all of its costs and consequences arrives. Often the most antitrust compliant clients are those who have suffered through a prior antitrust prosecution. Our challenge is to educate clients in the experiences of other clients so they will not have to suffer the burdens of a prosecution.

An antitrust lawyer counsels clients to think about antitrust and how the concepts embodied in the antitrust laws can be consistent with their business practices. Many of the companies that have learned to incorporate antitrust law concepts into their practices remain successful in their business. We need to have clients think about antitrust law along with tax and securities law, disclosure issues, environmental issues and the whole panoply of legal matters they face. We advise them not to put antitrust too far down their priority list, because if the government comes calling it inadvertently could become the number one priority for all the wrong reasons.