Michael McFalls' Arrival Bolsters Ropes & Gray's Antitrust Practice

Ropes & Gray today announced that Michael McFalls is joining the global law firm’s leading antitrust practice. Mr. McFalls will primarily serve the growing antitrust issues faced by Ropes & Gray’s clients, especially the firm’s intellectual property, life sciences, pharmaceutical, health care, and private equity clients.

Mr. McFalls, 41, is a leading competition lawyer with deep knowledge of how to handle the hurdles that antitrust enforcers erect when evaluating mergers, acquisitions, and other business practices. A former attorney-advisor to Federal Trade Commission chairman Robert Pitofsky, Mr. McFalls helped develop the FTC/DoJ’s Guidelines for Competitor Collaborations, the first set of guidelines issued jointly by both federal antitrust agencies that address a broad range of horizontal agreements among competitors, including joint ventures, strategic alliances, and other competitor collaborations.

“Mike is a tremendous antitrust talent, renowned for his expertise in the interface of antitrust and intellectual property issues—especially in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, and health care industries—and for his deft handling of agency investigations,” said Mark Popofsky, co-head of the antitrust practice at Ropes & Gray. “Our clients will benefit from Mike’s insightful counseling on business problems, his leadership in steering transactions and investigations through the antitrust enforcement agencies, and his deep experience across a range of industries.”

Notable transactions handled by Mr. McFalls, who was previously with the law firm Jones Day, include some of the most challenging antitrust matters of the last decade. Most recently, he represented Bayer CropScience in its acquisition of Athenix Corp. and Abbott Laboratories in its acquisition of Visiogen. His other major representations include XM in its combination with Sirius; Abbott Laboratories in its acquisitions of Kos Pharmaceuticals, Therasense, and Knoll AG’s pharmaceutical business; Procter & Gamble in its acquisitions of Gillette, Wella, and Clairol; RJR in its combination with Brown & Williamson; and King Pharmaceuticals in its acquisition of Alpharma.

Mr. McFalls has been recognized as a leading antitrust attorney by Chambers USA and Best Lawyers in America. His arrival—the second at the partner level in the antitrust group within the last year—demonstrates Ropes & Gray’s commitment to providing the full range of antitrust capabilities to its clients.

Ropes & Gray lawyers have successfully guided numerous clients through the U.S. pre-merger process with federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies and applicable foreign merger review processes, negotiating resolutions as necessary. The firm's lawyers are involved, at the trial and appellate level, in state and federal antitrust, business tort, and unfair state law competition cases, and in business negotiations to resolve issues before the litigation process begins. The firm also defends clients and represents third-parties in investigations and prosecutions brought by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission as well as investigations conducted by state attorneys general.