Stephen P. Murphy

Steve Murphy is an antitrust and competition trial attorney and counselor with particular emphasis on mergers, price fixing, distributor relations, monopolization, and federal and state unfair competition investigations. He possesses extensive experience in the defense and prosecution of civil antitrust cases, counseling in criminal antitrust investigations, merger and acquisition analysis, and advice on cutting edge pricing and distribution issues.

Steve's antitrust and trade regulation practice includes experience counseling pharmaceutical companies on pricing and distribution, counseling health care, cable, energy and telecommunications entities on mergers and acquisitions, advising a movie studio on distribution issues, and representing a major textile producer in a lucrative settlement of a plaintiff’s opt-out antitrust case. In addition, he has represented clients in connection with the Antitrust Division's Corporate Leniency Program. Since 2013, Steve has been named a Washington, DC Super Lawyer for antitrust litigation by the corporate counsel edition of Super Lawyers magazine.

Previously, Steve was a Partner in the antitrust litigation groups of ReedSmith LLP and McDermott, Will and Emery LLC.

Antitrust Experience

• Advised healthcare, cable, telecommunication, manufacturing and energy companies in connection with Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission merger investigations
• Settled a textile producers’ plaintiff’s antitrust opt out case for $107 million
• Prosecuted civil antitrust claims against the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Inc. establishing seminal U.S. Supreme Court law on association liability for member misconduct
• Defended major textile producer in price fixing class actions
• Counseled major pharmaceutical companies on pricing and distribution issues
• Represented medical specialty groups in competitive disputes
• Defended Hitachi, Inc. in dismissal of Go-Video v. Aka
• Counseled international shipping lines on information exchanges
• Defended client and settled trademark infringement and Sherman Act case brought by Red Bull

Steve has also represented clients before the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (“CFIUS”), particularly under the new regulations promulgated under the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (“FIRRMA”). Steve is currently representing  “foreign person” clients which are engaged in transactions involving controlling and non-controlling acquisitions of U.S. companies involved in the so-called “pilot program” businesses. With a fine equal to the value of the transaction for failures to file, the new CFIUS regulations have created a dangerous landscape for unsuspecting foreign acquirers.