Michael A. Lanci

Mr. Lanci has worked on numerous high-profile federal and state court litigation matters involving companies in the tech, multifamily property, advertising, veterinary, hospitality, construction and pharmaceutical industries. These matters have encompassed those involving Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, Section 7 of the Clayton Act, Section 5 of the FTC Act and state antitrust laws, including matters regarding alleged price-fixing agreements, information exchanges, market-allocation agreements, concerted refusals to deal, most-favored-nations agreements and anticompetitive acquisitions. His experience in litigation matters includes developing litigation strategy; drafting briefs and motions, including numerous successful dispositive motions; assisting with witness preparation both at trial and in discovery; and facilitating expansive document productions.

Mr. Lanci has also counseled clients on antitrust issues that arise in M&A, regulatory and compliance matters, and he has represented clients in connection with merger review advocacy before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He has worked on numerous high-profile transactions, including those involving major financial services corporations, actuarial services corporations and telecommunications companies. His experience in transactional matters includes drafting white papers and assisting with witness preparation in relation to expansive Hart-Scott-Rodino Second Requests. In addition, he has worked on compliance matters, including drafting antitrust compliance program design, policy manuals and training materials.

Examples of Mr. Lanci’s representations include:

• Activision Blizzard in the FTC’s challenge to its $75 billion acquisition by Microsoft, one of the most high-profile merger trials in recent years
• Amadeus Hospitality in securing the dismissal of a class action alleging an antitrust conspiracy among luxury hotel operators involving Amadeus’s Demand360 product
• Apple:
  • in securing the dismissal of antitrust actions brought by a group of Google search users and a putative class of Google search advertisers alleging that Apple and Google conspired not to compete with one another in the “search business”
  • as a third party in connection with the DOJ’s monopolization lawsuit against Google and the FTC’s monopolization lawsuit against Meta
• Ascension Health in litigation brought by a putative nationwide class of pharmacy residents alleging a conspiracy to suppress wages involving the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Residency Matching Program
• Ethos Veterinary Health in litigation brought by a putative nationwide class of veterinary interns and residents alleging a conspiracy to suppress wages involving the Veterinary Internship & Residency Matching Program
• Greystar Real Estate Partners in investigations and litigations brought by the DOJ, state attorneys general and a putative nationwide class of renters alleging that multifamily property managers inflated rents through the use of RealPage revenue management software
• Mars in securing the dismissal of an antitrust action brought by X Corp. alleging that various advertisers conspired to boycott its platform
• Sprint Corporation in its $59 billion combination with T-Mobile US, Inc.
• Sunstate Equipment Co. in a multidistrict class action litigation alleging a price-fixing conspiracy among construction rental equipment companies using a benchmarking service
• Willis Towers Watson in its proposed (but terminated) $80 billion combination with Aon plc
• Visa Inc. in its proposed (but terminated) $5.3 billion acquisition of Plaid Inc.

Mr. Lanci has also represented clients in pro bono matters involving, gun control, immigration, disability benefits and prisoners’ civil rights.

Prior to joining Skadden, Mr. Lanci clerked for Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Judge William F. Kuntz, II of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.