Mark W. Ryan is a partner in Mayer Brown’s Washington DC office and the head of the firm’s Global Antitrust & Competition group. Mark has extensive experience representing clients before the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in connection with mergers and acquisitions.
Mark is also one of the nation’s leading antitrust litigators. He recently rejoined Mayer Brown after serving as the first-ever Director of Litigation for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. In that position, Mark was responsible for overseeing and strengthening the Division’s litigation enforcement efforts.
He worked regularly with staff lawyers and economists, as well as the senior leadership of the Division, to identify transactions and conduct that violated U.S. antitrust law and to assemble investigative and litigation teams.
He also participated in litigation on behalf of the United States, including acting as lead trial lawyer in the e-books price-fixing litigation in the Southern District of New York and as a member of the trial team that successfully sued a major credit card issuer in the Eastern District of New York over anti-steering rules contained in merchant agreements.
These lawsuits are widely regarded as two of the most important government antitrust cases in recent years. He also led the Division’s trial teams that challenged the InBev/Grupo Modelo and US Airways/American Airlines mergers. Both mergers were resolved by settlement after the United States filed suit.
At the end of his tenure at the Justice Department, Mark was the lead trial lawyer in a challenge to the proposed merger of the two largest cinema advertising companies in the country, which the parties abandoned completely shortly before trial, a result that Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer lauded as “a testament to the strength of the Antitrust Division’s case and the hard work of our talented litigation team.”
Mark went to the Department of Justice from Mayer Brown, where he held several key positions, including as a firm-wide litigation practice leader and as partner-in-charge of the Washington DC office. In over 25 years of private practice he has appeared in federal and state courts across the nation on behalf of large multinational corporations, small companies and individuals.
In addition to high stakes litigation, Mark advises corporations on the potential antitrust consequences of distribution strategies, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions. He also represents companies and individuals in cartel investigations.
Mark was lead antitrust counsel for the Chicago Board of Trade in its merger with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a combination of two of the largest futures exchanges in the world. He has handled many other mergers of principal competitors throughout his career. He has also served as regular antitrust counsel to one of the world’s largest traders of commodities and has advised major agricultural firms on cartel and related competition matters.
In addition to antitrust, Mark has represented boards of directors in shareholder derivative actions and in disputes with former senior executives. He has represented clients in trials of government and private lawsuits arising from bank failures and the collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market and handled numerous matters on behalf of major accounting firms.
Education :
- Syracuse University, BA, magna cum laude
- Duke University School of Law, JD
Admissions :
- District of Columbia
- Maryland
- US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
- US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Maryland Court of Special Appeals
Activities : American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, Vice Chair, Agriculture and Food Committee (former)
Experience :
- Represented one of the nation’s largest meatpackers in the successful jury trial and appeal of a lawsuit brought by a nationwide class of beef producers.
- Obtained a favorable jury verdict on behalf of a defendant in a Robinson-Patman Act case.
- Represented one of the world’s largest food ingredient companies in connection with government price-fixing investigations and resulting class action litigation in which the alleged damages totaled billions of dollars.
- Represented a marine engine manufacturer in several acquisitions reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission, all concluding without objection, and in an extended FTC investigation of the manufacturer’s rebate and discount policies that ended without any enforcement action.
- On the eve of a trial, based on newly developed evidenced and other pre-trial efforts, obtained the release from prison of an indigent criminal defendant who had served two years of a mandatory twenty year sentence.
Cost
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