Hartmut Schneider

Hartmut Schneider is a US and German-qualified lawyer who practices antitrust law primarily before US agencies and courts. He has extensive experience in securing merger clearance for transactions in a diverse range of industries.

He also regularly counsels clients on legal issues at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law, as well as on the compliance of joint ventures, other horizontal cooperation agreements and vertical distribution agreements with the antitrust laws.

Before relocating to Washington in 2005, Mr. Schneider worked in the Antitrust and Competition Department of the firm’s Brussels and Berlin offices, as well as in the New York office. In addition to his US antitrust law expertise, Mr. Schneider has significant experience in EC and German competition law.

Mr. Schneider currently serves as a member of the 2018 MLex Advisory Board and on the Council of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law. Previously, he served as co-chair of the Section’s Intellectual Property Committee (2016–2018), of the ABA Spring Meeting (2013–2015), as a member of the Section’s Long Range Planning and Nominating Committees, and as the assistant to the chair of the Section.

Experience :

• Guiding three major Japanese container shipping carriers in the US and EU antitrust reviews of their 1,440,000 TEU joint venture, Ocean Network Express.
• Advising International Paper Company in obtaining clearance in the United States and seven other jurisdictions for its $2.2 billion acquisition of the pulp assets of Weyerhauser.
• Assisting American Science & Engineering in securing antitrust clearance for its $269 million sale to OSI Systems.
• Assisting MKS Instruments in securing antitrust clearance for its $980 million acquisition of Newport Corporation.
• Assisting Analog Devices in securing antitrust clearance for its $2.5 billion acquisition of Hittite Microwave.
• Defending Cephalon in “reverse payment” Hatch Waxman patent settlement cases pending in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, including those brought by the Federal Trade Commission, Apotex, and a number of purported purchaser classes.
• Advising the founders of a patent pool for Blu-ray optical media technology on US antitrust aspects of the pool’s formation, and assisting in obtaining worldwide antitrust clearances for the establishment of the pool’s licensing agent.

EDUCATION :

• LLM, University of Michigan Law School, 2000
• Second State Exam, Berlin, Court of Appeals, 1999
• First State Exam, University of Freiburg, 1996
• Licence en droit, University of Paris X – Nanterre, 1993

ADMISSIONS : District of Columbia, Berlin.