Steven C. Sunshine

Mr. Sunshine is recognized as a leading antitrust practitioner and has been listed repeatedly in Best of the Best USA as one of the top competition lawyers in the world and as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America and 500 Leading Litigators in America. He also was named to the Lawdragon Hall of Fame, which recognizes members of the Lawdragon 500 who have “made remarkable contributions as leaders in their field.” He was named by The National Law Journal as a 2020 Winning Litigator and previously as one of the publication’s Trailblazers, honoring lawyers who have advanced their legal practice areas through the use of innovative strategies. He regularly is selected for inclusion in Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Who’s Who Legal and The Best Lawyers in America, and named as a leading lawyer by Legal 500. Mr. Sunshine repeatedly has been named as a Law360 MVP in the competition category (including 2020), a Litigator of the Week by The Am Law Litigation Daily and a finalist for Global Competition Review’s Antitrust Lawyer of the Year. The Finan­cial Times report on U.S. Innovative Lawyers recognized his work on Sprint v. AT&T as a Standout litigation matter. He also has been repeatedly cited as a Star by LMG Life Sciences.

Mr. Sunshine was formerly deputy assistant attorney general in charge of merger enforcement at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. While there, he supervised interventions in more than 35 proposed transactions, including those in the telecommunications, computer, consumer products, mining and industrial sectors.

Mr. Sunshine has led antitrust representations in numerous M&A transactions, including Activision/Microsoft; Adobe/Figma; Sprint/T-Mobile; HPE/Cray; Visa/Plaid; Coherent/II-VI; DoorDash/Caviar; Xilinx/AMD; Intel/Apple; NXP/Qualcomm; Embraer/Boeing; Becton Dickinson/C.R. Bard; Nokia/Alcatel-Lucent; Intel/Mobileye; Cardinal/Medtronics; Yahoo!/Verizon; HP/ HyperX and Samsung sale of printers; Broadcom/Avago; Plum Creek/Weyerhaeuser; Freescale/ NXP; Anheuser-Busch/Grupo Modelo; Sprint/Clearwire; Air Products/Evonik; SanDisk/Western Digital; Southwest/AirTran; Gilead/Pharmasett; SanDisk/Fusion-io; Rite-Aid/Envision; Cisco/ Tandberg; Exelon/Constellation and Pepco; Duke/Progress Energy; Corning/Becton Dickinson Labware; Valeant/Allergan, Medicis and Bausch & Lomb; Jet Aviation/General Dynamics; Actavis/Forest and Warner Chilcott; Rockwood/Elementis; and De Beers/Louis Vuitton.

Mr. Sunshine’s litigation experience includes defending Sprint in a challenge by 14 states to its merger with T-Mobile; defending Sabre Corporation in the Justice Department’s challenge to its proposed acquisition of FareLogix; defending EnergySolutions in DOJ’s challenge of its proposed acquisition of WCS; defending Sabre Corporation against a monopolization action brought by USAir; representing Sprint in its antitrust challenge to AT&T’s acquisition of T-Mobile; defending Apple in a class action alleging claims under Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act; representing Oscar Health in its monopolization case against Florida Blue; defending Anheuser-Busch in a U.S. antitrust attack against its distribution in Ontario; representing Bausch & Lomb in a multidistrict litigation regarding antitrust challenges to its contact lenses pricing policies; defending Nokia in an antitrust challenge to its IP licensing by Apple; defending Actavis Pharmaceuticals in suits brought by the FTC and private plaintiffs relating to “reverse payment” IP settlements for Androgel; defeating a challenge by private plaintiffs to Anheuser-Busch’s acquisition of Modelo; representing Medicis in a multidistrict litigation relating to life cycle management and patent settlements for Solodyn; representing Actavis/Teva in suits brought by the FTC and private partners relating to Lidoderm; representing Southwest Airlines in securing a dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit challenging its acquisition of AirTran; defending De Beers in connection with national class actions involving gem diamonds; representing Actavis in suits defending patent settlements relating to Lidoderm; representing Energy Transfer Partners in the successful defense of an antitrust class action in the Texas natural gas market; defending a pharmaceutical company CEO in a challenge to an FTC investigation; and defending Hankyu Hanshin Express Ltd. in an alleged price-fixing conspiracy in freight forwarding.

Mr. Sunshine also represents clients in connection with grand jury investigations into allegations of price fixing or other cartel conduct. He has resolved key matters for companies such as De Beers, Corning International KK; Hankyu Hanshin and SGL Carbon, and successfully represented many clients in several investigations that closed without indictment or plea. He also represented Globe Telecom in successfully quashing a grand jury subpoena, ending a Department of Justice criminal investigation.