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Andrew Finch Discusses the Legal Implications of New Merger Guidelines With The Deal
February 16, 2024
Litigation partner Andrew Finch spoke with The Deal about how new merger guidelines finalized by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in December will affect the way legal counsel advise clients. In the article, “Dealmakers Prep for New Merger Guidelines Era,” published on February 16, Andrew says that the enforcement priorities have implications for the duration of a merger review and the likelihood of a second request. He highlights other impacts of the new guidelines, such as that enforcers may spend more time scrutinizing individual deals in the context of serial acquisitions, and acquisitions of partial ownership or minority interests.
Dealmakers’ “success is going to depend on the degree to which courts do adopt, or are persuaded by, the guidelines,” Andrew says. If courts determine that the guidelines “don’t accurately reflect the law, or don’t completely describe what the current case law is, the courts are going to have to decide if they want to move the law in the direction of the guidelines.”