Clifford H. Aronson

Clifford Aronson serves as the North American leader of Skadden’s Antitrust/Competition Group. He focuses his practice on advising clients in antitrust matters relating to mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Aronson has been involved in numerous high-profile transactions and strategic alliances across multiple industries, including entertainment, consumer products, health care, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, retail and technology.

Mr. Aronson also has worked on numerous significant criminal and civil antitrust investigations (and resulting civil lawsuits) in various industries, including publishing, auction houses and cement. Mr. Aronson, who is listed in the top tier in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, also has been included repeatedly in Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business. His representations include:

• Rockwell Collins in its combination with United Technologies;
• E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company in its merger with The Dow Chemical Company in an all-stock merger of equals with an announced value of $130 billion;
• EMC Corporation on its $67 billion acquisition by Denali Holding Inc., the parent company of Dell Inc.;
• Jos. A. Bank Clothiers Inc. in its unsolicited, but subsequently agreed upon, $1.8 billion acquisition by The Men’s Wearhouse, Inc.;
• Hospira, Inc. on its $17 billion acquisition by Pfizer Inc.;
• The merger of Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Barnabas Health; SHFL Entertainment, Inc. in its US$1.3 billion acquisition by Bally Technologies, Inc.;
• Cephalon, Inc. in defense of an unsolicited $5.7 billion takeover bid from Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. and its subsequent agreed upon $6.8 billion acquisition by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Limited.

Mr. Aronson represented HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corporation, in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and various state attorneys general in connection with the pricing of e-books, as well as in private class action litigation brought against various publishers and Apple.

He also successfully defended a high-tech company in a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into alleged hiring practices in the high-tech industry. Additionally, Mr. Aronson represents clients before federal and state antitrust agencies and grand juries. For example, he represented Christie’s Inc. in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice’s auction house investigation and Christie’s successful amnesty application, as well as in connection with certain private class actions.

He also advised Chicago Bridge & Iron in its appeal from a decision and order of the Federal Trade Commission requiring the divestiture of certain assets. Mr. Aronson has been an instructor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and is a regular speaker on mergers and acquisitions at Wharton’s Executive Education Program. He also was vice chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association.