Biography: Competition

George A Nicoud III (Trey) is a partner in the San Francisco office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He is a member of the firm's antitrust and trade regulation practice group and its litigation department.

Mr Nicoud has concentrated his practice on antitrust matters, including litigation matters, for over 25 years. He represents clients in both civil and criminal investigations and lawsuits, and counsels clients on a variety of antitrust matters, including distribution practices, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, licensing, and other intellectual property matters.

He is a frequent speaker on antitrust and compliance issues and served on the editorial board for Antitrust Law Developments (seventh), one of the leading treatises on US antitrust law. Mr Nicoud is recognised as a Northern California 'SuperLawyer' for antitrust litigation, as a 'future star' in Institutional Investor's 2010 and 2011 Benchmark Litigation Guide, and has been listed as a leading antitrust practitioner in Global Competition Review's The International Who Who of Competition Lawyers and Economists for the past three years consecutively (since 2010).

Immediately prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr Nicoud served as associate general counsel of American Airlines, Inc, where he managed antitrust, environmental, intellectual property, and occupational safety and health legal services. While at American Airlines, Mr Nicoud led the successful defence of United States v AMR Corp, 140 F Supp 2d 1141 (D Kan 2001), aff'd, 335 F.3d 1109 (10th Cir 2003), assisted in the company's successful purchases of BusinessExpress, RenoAir, and substantially all of the assets of TWA, and managed the company's response to a variety of lawsuits and government investigations.

Since joining Gibson Dunn, Mr Nicoud's representative matters have included: acting as lead counsel for Norbord Industries Inc in class actions filed by direct and indirect purchasers of oriented strand board (OSB); acting as lead counsel for American Airlines, Inc, and liaison counsel for defendants in civil treble damages actions filed by two groups of travel agents that opted out of a nationwide class action; acting as co-lead counsel for Los Gatos Tomato Products in a criminal investigation of possible price-fixing of processed tomato products and in related civil antitrust litigation; representing Atlantic Coast Airlines in its successful efforts to defeat a takeover effort by the parent of Mesa Airlines; representing Sempra Energy and its affiliates in a civil class action; defending Applied Materials Inc in a civil suit alleging that Applied Materials was seeking to monopolise the refurbishment of used Applied Materials semiconductor fabrication equipment; and advising Marriott International Inc with respect to the formation of Roomkey.com.

Mr Nicoud's representations have also included representing Amazon.com in its acquisition of Zappos.com, Applied Materials Inc in its acquisition of Brooks Software, Cadence Design Systems Inc in its acquisition of Verisity Ltd, and Seagate Technology in its acquisition of Maxtor Corporation.