Profile: Ronan P Harty

Competition

Biography: Competition

Mr Harty, a member of Davis Polk & Wardwell's litigation department, provides general antitrust counselling to US and non-US companies, and represents clients in enforcement agency investigations, domestic and cross-border acquisitions and joint ventures, and litigations.

His representations have included Gillette in its acquisition by Procter & Gamble; Comcast in a wide variety of matters relating to its cable business, including the acquisition of AT&T's cable business; FirstGroup in its acquisition of the school bus services business of Laidlaw; CVS in its acquisitions of Eckerd Drugs, Revco, Arbor Drugs, and its proposed acquisition of Albertson's freestanding drug stores; Emerson Electric in numerous acquisitions; Gibson Greetings in connection with its acquisition by American Greetings; Hoffmann-La Roche in its acquisitions of Genentech, Syntex and Boehringer Mannheim, and the divestiture of its vitamins business to DSM; Jefferson Smurfit in its merger with Stone Container; Zeneca in litigation against Monsanto relating to genetically modified seeds, and with respect to Zeneca's merger with Astra AB, and the formation of Syngenta, a company that combines the agrochemicals businesses of AstraZeneca and Novartis; and the merger of JP Morgan and Chase Manhattan.

Mr Harty joined Davis Polk in 1986 and became a partner in 1994.

He received a bachelor of Civil Law degree, with first class honours, from University College, Dublin in 1984. He received an LLM from the University of Michigan Law School in 1986, where he was awarded a Cook Fellowship for Legal Research. In 1991 he served as an assistant (stagiaire) in the cabinet of Sir Leon Brittan, Vice President of the European Communities Responsible for Competition Policy. He was recognised by Global Competition Review as one of the "40 Under 40" leading antitrust lawyers in the world.

Mr Harty is a member of the American Bar Association antitrust law section. He served on the editorial board of Antitrust Law Developments (Fifth) and was the editorial co-chair of the section's 2002 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments. He is currently co-chair of the section's international committee. Mr Harty was co-chair of the American Bar Association's international antitrust committee of the section of international law and practice. He is also a member of the International Bar Association, where he serves as co-chair of the antitrust and trade law committee. Mr Harty also serves on the editorial board of the Matthew Bender publication, Antitrust Report.

Mr Harty is listed as a leading lawyer in several legal industry publications, including Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business (2008, 2007), Chambers USA - America's Leading Lawyers for Business (2007), Practical Law Company's Cross-border Competition Handbook (2007/08), Legal Media Group's Expert Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers - Best of the Best US (2008), and Law Business Research's The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers (2008 compendium volume).