Brian Byrne is a partner based in the Washington, D.C. office.
Mr. Byrne’s practice focuses on the antitrust review of mergers and acquisitions by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the European Commission; criminal investigations, EU cartel proceedings, and other antitrust enforcement matters; and civil antitrust litigation. He has represented clients in a number of industries, including chemicals and plastics, metals and mining, oil and gas, consumer products, telecommunications and technology, defense, health care, finance and banking, pharmaceuticals, insurance, agricultural chemicals and biotechnology, grocery and other retail, building materials, airlines, and automotive and other manufacturing.
He has represented clients in some of the largest mergers in various industries, including Maytag in its acquisition by Whirlpool; Molson Coors in its U.S. joint venture with SABMiller; Conoco in its merger with Phillips Petroleum; Premcor in its acquisition by Valero; Dow Chemical in its acquisitions of Rohm and Haas and Union Carbide; and NYSE Euronext in the European Commission review of its merger with Deutsche Börse. Mr. Byrne also represented PeopleSoft in the antitrust review and litigation related to DOJ’s challenge to the hostile tender offer by Oracle and an automotive parts industry client in antitrust investigations by the DOJ, European Commission and various other authorities.
In recent non-merger matters, Mr. Byrne has represented Embraco (a Whirlpool affiliate) in various investigations and class action litigation regarding alleged anti-competitive practices in the refrigeration compressor industry; Amgen and Lundbeck in the European Commission’s pharmaceutical sector investigation; various clients in the FTC’s investigation of the U.S. oil refining industry; and a client in the DOJ, European Commission and other antitrust authorities’ cartel investigations in the automotive parts industry.
Mr. Byrne has contributed to various publications on developments in antitrust laws, including the
Global Competition Review,
Competition Law Insight, ABA’s
Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments and the ABA’s
Antitrust Law Developments, and he speaks on antitrust topics for various organizations including the ABA and ALI-ABA.
Mr. Byrne was named one of the "40 under 40" (40 leading antitrust lawyers worldwide under 40 years old) by
Global Competition Review in 2008. He has also been distinguished as one of the leading antitrust lawyers by
Chambers Global,
Chambers USA,
The Legal 500 U.S.,
PLC "Which Lawyer?" and
Who's Who Legal.
Mr. Byrne joined the firm in 1995 and became a partner in 2004. He was resident in the firm's Brussels office from 2008 to 2011. Mr. Byrne received a J.D.,
magna cum laude, Order of the Coif, from University of Michigan in 1995 and an undergraduate degree,
magna cum laude, from Brown University in 1992.
Mr. Byrne is a member of the Bars in the District of Columbia and California, and is registered with the Brussels bar.