Overview
Honigman has been very active in counseling clients regarding mergers and joint ventures, defending government investigations of mergers and joint ventures, and—rare even among antitrust lawyers—successfully defending mergers and joint ventures in court. At the other extreme, we have also successfully resolved federal merger investigations through "quick looks" and initial reviews, which substantially reduced our clients' time and expenses. We have done merger work before the Federal Trade Commission, Antitrust Division, and state attorneys general and consulted on merger advocacy before a number of European competition agencies. Specific activities have included the following:
- Saint Alphonsus v. St. Luke's Health System, Ltd. Challenge to hospital acquisition of physician practice.
- U.S. v. Mercy Health Services. Defense of hospital merger.
- Advocacy Organization for Patients and Providers v. Mercy Health Services. Defense of hospital merger.
- Great Scott v. Farmer Jack. Claim of antitrust violation in the acquisition of supermarkets.
- Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Urology of Central Pennsylvania, Inc. Defense of physician merger and negotiation of consent order.
- Defended government investigations of mergers and joint ventures in the automobile parts, hospital, mainframe computer software, design computer software, supermarket, oil field servicing, specialty physician practice, and home hardware industries.
- Consulted on mergers and joint ventures in the plumbing equipment, hospital, physician-hospital network, IT services, transportation equipment, construction materials, computer software, and home-builder industries.
- Advocated government challenges of mergers in the hospital industry and computer testing and debugging software industry and, in some cases, worked with government agencies on those challenges
- Represented merging hospitals in Port Huron, Michigan, in negotiating a consent agreement with the Federal Trade Commission.