Gene has counseled clients in structuring complex licensing arrangements that have significant competition law implications in a way that satisfied Department of Justice review and has advocated before the Department in defense of license backs and other restrictive provisions in cross-licensing arrangements. He has also represented parties to licensing arrangements where efforts to coordinate industry standards with the client’s intellectual property positions needed to avoid any unreasonable exclusionary effects. In his merger practice, Gene has frequently represented merging parties in FTC and DOJ investigations and negotiated consent decrees and consent orders with both agencies. In that regard, he has prepared witnesses and defended the depositions of companies’ government merger investigations. Similarly, he has often counseled companies engaged in acquisitions about restructuring transactions to avoid potential antitrust concerns. In the same way, he has contributed to the modification of joint ventures to maximize the efficiency realizations of the transactions.

Gene has represented parties in many fixed-pricing investigations and cases. He is thoroughly conversant with antitrust grand jury practice and with the policies and practices of the Department of Justice in price-fixing investigations. A recurring issue in such investigations is the level of evidence sufficient to support an inference that price-fixing occurred and sufficient to support an indictment. Gene has represented defendants in several cases where the core issue was whether the challenged activity was illegal collusion or exempt government petitioning. One of the more recent of these cases transitioned into an administrative proceeding that tests the way in which the International Trade Commission may rely on or ignore findings made in an antitrust court regarding the same facts now before the International Trade Commission.

Additionally, Gene has worked with several clients to fashion strategic relationships with competitors without violating the Sherman Act. These strategic arrangements have entailed extensive coordination of research, purchasing, and production among competitors without integrating the areas of cooperation into a joint venture. Gene’s merger and joint venture practice has for many years included many Japanese and European clients, which frequently require careful coordination of the legal requirements in their home countries with the demands of the US antitrust laws.

With Arent Fox’s extensive roster of trade association clients, Gene has regularly monitored trade association meetings, lectured on antitrust compliance, and counseled in other legal areas. For example, he has advised on petitioning government agencies to alleviate unfair competition by foreign competitors. In particular, he has worked extensively with the National Soft Drink Association, the Compressed Gas Association, and the Motor Equipment Manufacturers’ Association and its member associations.