Profile: J Mark Gidley

Competition

Biography: Competition

J Mark Gidley is head of White & Case's global antitrust/competition practice and a partner resident in the Washington, DC office.

He was ranked among the top 10 competition lawyers under the age of 45 worldwide in a Global Competition Review survey.

Mr Gidley served in antitrust-related positions within the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1993. From 1992 to 1993, he served as acting assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, with responsibility for all of the division's enforcement efforts. At the division, he brought the case against domestic air carriers for alleged price fixing in 1992. He also had responsibility for the record asset forfeiture recovery against Salomon Brothers in the government Treasury bond auction criminal cartel probe.

Mr Gidley frequently represents parties in antitrust matters that have an international dimension. His matters for clients frequently span multiple competition agencies, such as the US, EC, Korea, Canada and Japan. He has a broad knowledge of cross-cultural and multi-jurisdiction legal issues relevant in global antitrust matters.

In the area of cartel enforcement, Mr Gidley represented Stolt-Nielsen in a landmark win that upheld the enforceability of the amnesty contract with the US Antitrust Division, after a three-week criminal trial in the summer of 2007. The Stolt-Nielsen decision, rooted in fundamental fairness, is the first decision in any jurisdiction in which an amnesty agreement has been held by the courts to be enforceable. Mr Gidley also represented Stolt-Nielsen in connection with a cartel victory before the Korean Fair Trade Commission in 2005. Mr Gidley and his colleagues also won for Stolt-Nielsen a landmark ruling, which sent Sherman act claims to private arbitration. Mr Gidley has handled a number of criminal grand jury matters.

Mr Gidley's trial work also includes the first US trial victory involving government antitrust claims against branded-generic pharmaceutical settlements. Mr Gidley and the White & Case team won a 40-day trial before an FTC administrative law judge, defending the Schering-Plough/Upsher-Smith settlement, and won the appeal against the FTC 11th circuit. The US Supreme Court denied the FTC's petition for certiorari.

Mr Gidley maintains a very active merger and acquisitions practice. In addition to strong agency practice, he represented SunGard Data Systems, Inc in its acquisition of Comdisco before the US District Court for the District of Columbia in a Clayton Act section 7 trial victory against the US Department of Justice antitrust division.

Mr Gidley's practice also includes defence against private civil damages actions settlements, including class actions, arbitrations and opt-out claims. He and his colleagues won a jury trial victory in defence of Malaysian rubber producers against overseas price-fixing charges by class members and defended the verdict on appeal.

Mr Gidley's practice draws on the strength and breadth of White & Case's antitrust practice, which is conducted through 37 offices in 25 countries. He has evaluated or assisted with antitrust merger compliance obligations in over 80 jurisdictions. Mr Gidley is an editor of the White & Case Survey of Worldwide Antitrust Merger Notification Requirements, a compendium of the growing merger compliance obligations around the world.