Law360 – Longtime Dechert Antitrust Co-Chair Heads To Steptoe
By: Bryan Koenig | September 2, 2020
Law360 (September 2, 2020, 9:02 PM EDT) — Steptoe & Johnson LLP announced Wednesday it has hired former Dechert LLP antitrust practice co-chair Michael L. Weiner to join its competition practice in New York as a partner.
Weiner headlined Dechert’s antitrust and competition practice for a decade before joining Steptoe & Johnson on Tuesday, bringing with him what his new firm described as “a broad antitrust practice that encompasses merger reviews, government investigations and litigation.”
“Michael is an extremely accomplished antitrust lawyer who has a long track record of success in all phases of competition-related matters,” Steptoe & Johnson Chair Phil West said in a statement accompanying the hiring announcement. “He will be an excellent addition to our Antitrust and Competition practice, both in the U.S. and internationally, and will serve as a valuable resource to our practices in regulated industries.”
In an interview Wednesday, Weiner called Steptoe & Johnson “a really high-quality firm” that excels at the complex, sophisticated matters that his clients call on him to address. “I think it’s going to be a great platform,” Weiner said.
After 10 years at Dechert, having joined in March 2011to serve as antitrust co-head, Weiner said it was time to move on. At Steptoe & Johnson, Weiner said he hopes to apply his experience to “round out” the antitrust verticals in which the firm is particularly well known such as technology, insurance, energy, telecommunications and life sciences.
“I bring some experience in antitrust aspects of all of those verticals plus others. So I’m really hoping that I can contribute to what they’ve built and help them grow further in expanding and broadening their antitrust practice,” he said.
In a statement accompanying the hiring announcement, the Georgetown University law school graduate said he hoped to use Steptoe & Johnson’s platform to expand his practice both on antitrust litigation and investigations, along with navigating merger clearance with enforcers.
The firm touted Weiner’s work across class action litigation, along with lawsuits with restraint of trade and monopolization claims “in a broad range of industries in federal courts in the United States.”
“He has also led cutting-edge transactions through antitrust review at the U.S. federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies and before the European Commission and several national competition enforcement agencies,” the firm said.