Corey Roush

Corey W. Roush represents clients in federal antitrust, consumer protection, and qui tam investigations and litigation in district and appellate courts around the country. He has represented clients before the FTC, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and various attorneys general around the country. He has litigated multiple merger trials against the government, including both the FTC and DOJ. Most recently, he led the trial team in 2018 against the FTC in its challenge to the global merger of two marine chemical providers.
The Chambers USA 2018 Antitrust rankings note that clients recognize Corey as being “measured and very smart – he does a tremendous job and has a cool demeanor.”

Corey also counsels clients in various industries on compliance with federal and state laws and regulations, including the Sherman Act, the FTC Act, the Anti-Kickback Statute and the False Claims Act. He has represented clients in federal, state and congressional investigations regarding:

• Sales and marketing practices
• Reimbursement issues
• Pricing issues
• Food and Drug Administration promotional issues, including off-label marketing
• General fraud and abuse theories.

Additionally, Corey provides compliance counseling on related marketing and pricing laws, agency regulations and industry guidelines. He has represented clients before almost all of the divisions of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Corey has won several dismissals of cases at the motion to dismiss and summary judgment stages, as well as assisted in procuring favorable settlements of federal antitrust and consumer protection claims and false claims and anti-kickback cases in various industries, including technology, retail, health care, defense, aeronautics and medical devices. He has developed a particular niche in representing clients in the life sciences, retail and direct selling industries.

Corey is also experienced in a wide range of issues related to mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, and he has litigated against the FTC and the DOJ to preserve proposed and consummated mergers. Recently, Corey concurrently led teams responding to two publicly announced Second Requests and a third non-public Second Request before three different merger shops at the FTC.

For each deal, he developed a tailored and sophisticated strategy influenced by whether he represented the buyer or seller, by his clients’ primary objectives (speed versus no divestiture), by the industry and by the group of antitrust enforcers with whom he was working.His work also extends to conducting internal investigations related to his areas of experience as well as responding to administrative subpoenas, civil investigative demands and other government requests for information.

Experience:

• Concentrates on antitrust and consumer protection litigation and investigations, health care fraud and abuse, and related internal investigations and class actions.
• Regularly assists clients in effectively navigating the antitrust regulatory approval process in complex transactions and one of only a handful of antitrust lawyers to litigate multiple merger trials against the government.
• Leads the firm’s antitrust/competition practice and heads its Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-facing consumer protection practice.

Representative Work:

• Served as lead antitrust counsel to a retailer in its $165 million sale of the pharmacy patient prescription files and related inventory spread from 185 stores in 10 states to the second-largest pharmacy chain; successfully steered the company through FTC regulatory approval despite significant overlaps in some areas by in part negotiating an advantageous deal structure that allowed quick clearance despite those overlaps.
• Served as lead antitrust counsel to a global maritime company in its $400 million acquisition of its largest competitor in certain marine chemicals and gases, including serving as lead trial counsel in a closely watched, three-week bench trial against the FTC, which sought an injunction blocking the deal (D.D.C.); the proceedings were widely covered in the press, including Law360 articles “Merging Marine Supply Cos. Blast FTC Expert’s Assumptions” and “FTC Wraps Trial Warning Marine Cos. Set for Monopoly” (subscription required).
• Served as lead antitrust counsel to a large chain in the convenience retailing industry in its $3.3 billion acquisition of approximately 1,030 gasoline and convenience store locations in 18 states, the largest acquisition in our client’s history; following compliance with a Second Request, negotiated a novel FTC divestiture agreement allowing the seller to buy certain overlapping outlets from our client and to retain certain of its own overlapping outlets so long as the seller retained control over pricing of fuel at those outlets..
• Represented a healthcare system in an antitrust class action alleging conspiracy to fix wages of registered nurses; obtained denial of class certification and denial of motion to intervene; initial intervention decision upheld on appeal..
• Represented a consumer electronic company facing FTC scrutiny regarding potential consumer protection issues related to a recent update to its privacy policy; the agency closed the investigation without taking action following our advocacy efforts and presentation to staff attorneys.

Affiliations:

• Member, Antitrust Section, American Bar Association
• Member, District of Columbia Bar Association.

Education:

• J.D., Georgetown University Law Center,cum laude, 1997
• B.A., Vanderbilt University, magna cum laude, 1994

Bar Admissions:

• District of Columbia