"A star at the competition bar."
Who's Who Legal Competition: Future Leaders

Overview

Richard Snyder is a partner in Mayer Brown's Washington DC office and a member of the Antitrust & Competition practice. Rich’s experience includes representing companies in litigation, global merger control, cartel matters and successfully handling antitrust matters in strategic transactions and before various government agencies. 

Rich represents clients in civil antitrust litigation in both federal and state court and appears regularly before the US Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission in merger reviews, criminal antitrust investigations and other conduct matters. In addition, he has deep experience coordinating global merger control strategy and execution, global cartel defense and global private damages litigation strategy. He has a particular focus on the Latin American merger clearance process and has represented clients in commercial and class action antitrust litigation in a variety of industries including publishing, airlines, auto parts, electronics components, pharmaceuticals and supermarket products.

Richard was ranked #2 most highly regarded future leader in North America by Who's Who Legal Competition: Future Leaders. He received praise from one respondent as "one of the best antitrust lawyers I have met, providing sound and solid advice not only on US antitrust laws, but on other jurisdiction's laws too." Additionally, the publication said "he is 'very well-liked by clients.' He particularly stands out for his excellent work handling complex merger defense matters."

Areas of Focus

Practices

Experience

  • Advising Universal Music Group on the antitrust considerations of its €6bn sale of a 20% stake to Tencent-controlled entities and $4bn sale of a 10% stake to the Pershing Square Tontine Holdings Ltd. SPAC.
  • Advising Hachette Book Group in the eBooks investigation and litigation (US v. Apple) as well as follow-on class action litigation, In re Electric books Antitrust Litigation, and related proceedings brought by the DOJ and state attorneys general; in related eBooks litigation brought by eBook retailers claiming antitrust injury from publishers’ adoption of the agency sales model (summary judgment for defendants granted); and in The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Inc., et al. v. Amazon.com, Inc., antitrust litigation alleging agreement to implement exclusionary Digital Rights Management (DRM) provisions (dismissed).
  • Advising Anheuser-Busch InBev in western hemisphere merger clearance processes in its acquisition of SABMiller PLC; coordinated and directed strategy to obtain necessary authorizations, including overall strategy, meetings with regulators and negotiation of merger remedies.
  • Advising Matsushita Beijing Color CRT Company, Ltd. in In re Cathode Ray Tube Antitrust Litigation, a number of class actions consolidated in the Northern District of California targeting all major producers of cathode ray tubes. BMCC was successfully dismissed from proceedings in January 2015 after all remaining claimants dismissed their claims against the company.
  • Advising Continental Airlines in In re Transpacific Passenger Air Transportation Antitrust Litigation, a class action seeking damages related to an alleged price-fixing cartel in passenger service to Asia and Oceania (dismissed without remedy in 2013); and Malaney et al. v. UAL Corporation et al., the private consumer antitrust action challenging Continental’s merger with United Airlines (dismissed after hearing).
  • Advising EMI Music in connection with the FTC investigations of Sony’s $2.2bn acquisition of EMI’s music publishing business and Universal’s $3bn acquisition of EMI’s recorded music business.

News

Education

Stanford University, BA

University of Chicago Law School, JD

Admissions

  • District of Columbia

Court

  • US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
  • US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

Activities

  • Member, American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law
  • Global Competition Review (GCR) “M&A Transaction of the Year, Americas,” (United Airlines-Continental Airlines)
  • Global Competition Review (GCR) ‘‘Behavioral Matter of the Year, American (ebooks investigation)
  • Global Competition Review (GCR) "Matter of the Year" (Anheuser Busch InBev/SABMiller)