Cadwalader Expands Antitrust Group with Addition of Partner Joel Mitnick

July 30, 2018

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP today announced that Joel M. Mitnick, who advises clients on antitrust matters associated with M&A transactions and litigation and investigations brought by federal and state antitrust authorities, has joined the firm’s Antitrust Group as a partner in New York.

Mitnick’s practice focuses on antitrust matters on behalf of a wide array of financial market, life science, media, service industry and industrial clients. He has deep expertise in counseling clients on antitrust aspects of M&A (including Hart-Scott-Rodino Act issues and filings), joint ventures and distribution arrangements. Mitnick also advises investment funds on complex HSR and other questions and regularly advises on fund development, accumulation and clearance matters.

A former antitrust trial lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Mitnick litigated through trial one of the earliest FTC cases resulting in a technology divestiture. Today he represents major corporate clients in individual and class action lawsuits arising under the Sherman and Clayton Acts, as well as from federal and state investigations.

Mitnick comes to Cadwalader from Sidley Austin LLP, where he was global co-leader of the firm’s Antitrust and Competition practice.

“Joel is a senior member of the antitrust bar and is very well respected by the regulators,” said Pat Quinn, managing partner at Cadwalader. “With his broad and considerable experience advising on M&A and other matters, we see him as critical to supporting our growing Corporate and M&A practice.”

Added William Mills, co-head of Cadwalader’s Corporate Group, “Our clients look to Cadwalader for their most important and strategic matters. Joel’s seasoned perspective and the insights he has gained through deep experience across industry sectors will enhance our ability to offer our clients the informed and sound antitrust counseling that is often central to achievement of business strategy and goals.”

London/Brussels antitrust partner Vincent Brophy said, “Joel will enhance the firm’s ability to seek clearance for M&A deals and defend competition investigations by enforcement authorities on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Mitnick has been selected as a leading lawyer in antitrust matters by Chambers USA, Benchmark Litigation, The Best Lawyers in America, The Legal 500 US, Super Lawyers and Who’s Who Legal: Competition. He is a frequent lecturer and author on antitrust topics. He appears regularly before federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies, has lectured at enforcement programs sponsored by the FTC and the National Association of Attorneys General and has served as an ABA Antitrust Trial Skills faculty member.

“There are so many good things happening right now at Cadwalader,” Mitnick said. “The M&A group is first rate, even more so with the recent addition of Steve Fraidin and the return of Chris Cox, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in M&A and in the Antitrust Group to provide exceptional counsel to the firm’s clients.”

Mitnick’s arrival is the latest in a series of important lateral partner additions at Cadwalader. In addition to the recent arrival of Fraidin and the return to the firm of Cox after several years in a senior corporate role, fund finance partner Samantha Hutchinson will be joining Cadwalader in London, expanding the firm’s transatlantic fund finance offering. In recent months, litigation partner Jonathan Watkins joined the firm and real estate partner Alan Lawrence lateraled back to the firm from another major firm. Previously, partners Todd Blanche and Ellen Holloman joined together to enhance the firm’s Litigation capabilities in New York and Washington, DC; and partner Kurt Oosterhouse expanded the firm’s corporate finance practice with his arrival in Charlotte.