Description
Why Is Antitrust Considered A Difficult Practice Area
[00:00:00] I have been practicing antitrust law for almost 10 years at large law firms and I feel the area's over-saturated.
I agree.
While I consider becoming a solo practitioner or join a boutique as a partner. I realize that antitrust is very dependent on sophisticated clients of large law firms, engaging in cross border M&A transactions are high-profile cartel matters. What is your view on this?
Yeah, so I've worked with a lot of trust/ antitrust people and it's actually very difficult to find jobs in antitrust. It's not easy. If you join a boutique, there are lots of boutiques. And you should research all the boutiques that do it, but you're right. Most of the work is dependent on large clients and the cases can go on for a long time.
You need to be careful. I know antitrust attorneys that have been recruited by companies that are being sued for antitrust. To work in house, that's one option. And then, the skills of an antitrust litigator are related to general litigation, commercial litigation, to some extent.
It's a little more cerebral obviously. Another thing to think about working in the justice department, you certainly won't make as much money. So, I think it's a tough practice area. I can tell you the reason, I think antitrust is a tough practice [00:01:00] here is just because I've worked with lots of very talented people.
And, in most cases, they leave because the work slows down when we're trying to find them opportunities, there's just not a lot in the market. So, that's something would be concerned about. You can always find jobs.
There are some very active firms. Freshfields in Washington DC is very active. There are a lot of places that are very active, that have a lot of business,
I just placed an antitrust attorney recently, but there's just not as many opportunities, especially for senior antitrust attorneys because billing rates are very high. Work doesn't seem to be increasing and that sort of thing. One thing I will say though, is that that the work for an trust, can many times, be dependent upon the administration. The type of administration who knows what will happen at this time, but I agree, I think it's a difficult practice area and if it was me, I probably would look at firms where I can do general litigation and contribute also to antitrust related work.
I hope that helps.
