WASHINGTON, D.C., May 16, 2018 – Reed Smith today announced that Edward B. “Ed” Schwartz has joined the firm’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group as the Co-Chair of its Antitrust & Competition Team and partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. He was previously the firmwide Practice Group Leader of the Antitrust Practice at Steptoe & Johnson, where he was a partner in its New York and D.C. offices.
“Ed joins us as clients across the globe face shifting and increasingly complicated antitrust enforcement challenges and litigation risks,” said James Sanders, Co-Chair of Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group. “To achieve their key strategic objectives, clients require the sort of antitrust litigation and enforcement experience as well as the competition guidance that Ed provides, drawing on his 30 years of experience in this critical field. His full-time presence in D.C. means that Ed will serve clients from where much of the nation’s consequential antitrust enforcement and litigation occurs.”
Schwartz represents companies before the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and state attorneys general in antitrust merger and non-merger investigations. He also has deep experience representing clients in antitrust class actions, other private antitrust litigation and commercial disputes, including through trial.
“As vigorous antitrust enforcement and private litigation threats have spread around the globe, successfully navigating competition law risk has become at once more challenging and more important than ever before, and requires a global presence and superb practitioners,” said Schwartz. “Reed Smith has both, and that was a decisive factor in my decision to join the firm.”
Schwartz’s experience with the FTC also includes representing clients in investigations undertaken by the Bureau of Consumer Protection. In addition to his strong litigation focus, he also counsels clients on minimizing antitrust risks in pricing, distribution, licensing and other practices, as well as in connection with joint ventures and other collaborations with competitors. As part of his counseling work, Schwartz also frequently assists clients in developing and updating antitrust compliance programs.
His experience spans a broad range of industry sectors, including aerospace, chemicals, entertainment and communications, financial services (commercial banking, investment banking, commodities trading, money transfers), food manufacturing, health care, mining, oil and gas, pharmaceutical and medical device, telecommunications, transportation (air, rail, trucking, motor carrier) and waste disposal.
Prior to joining Steptoe in 2011, Schwartz was at Shearman & Sterling, DLA Piper and Howrey.
A 1984 graduate of the Boston College Law School, Schwartz was named among the National Law Journal’s “Trailblazers in Antitrust” in 2016, and selected to Washington, DC Super Lawyers for Antitrust Litigation in 2014, 2015 and 2017. He also served for several years as the Vice Chair of the Trial Practice Committee of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section.
Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Group serves clients facing emerging and evolving regulatory challenges across the nation and around the world, helping them meet the regulatory requirements that critically influence their business operations and bottom lines. The group provides strategic guidance on regulatory compliance, regulatory investigations and other disputes related to anti-corruption, antitrust and competition, international trade, government contracts, government relations, and securities or fraud investigations. Its attorneys advise clients on regulatory compliance issues, and defend clients in all aspects of enforcement proceedings, whether related to antitrust and competition, exports and customs, government contracts, securities, or civil or criminal fraud investigations or prosecutions.
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