David Vann, Head of Antitrust for Europe and Asia, is a Partner in the Firm’s Litigation Department, concentrating in antitrust, government and internal investigations and compliance, complex commercial litigation and international arbitration.
David's experience includes counseling clients on a wide variety of antitrust and compliance issues ranging from mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and distribution practices to civil litigation, criminal grand jury investigations, and regulatory compliance. He has also conducted numerous internal investigations for corporate clients.
He has represented clients before federal and state courts throughout the United States, the Federal Trade Commission, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the European Commission and in a variety of arbitrations. David has been engaged by firms in a wide range of industries, including: airlines, entertainment (music and motion pictures), petrochemicals, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, retail, real estate, glass and metal container packaging and auto parts.
David has represented clients on the following transactional matters:
- ChemChina in its acquisition of Syngenta
- Blackstone in its acquisitions of Solvay, Gates, Alliance Automotive, Mivisa (and its subsequent sale to Crown), Valad, Jack Wolfskin, and Hilton Hotels
- Melrose in its sale of Elster to Honeywell
- CSL in the acquisition of the flu vaccine business of Novartis
- Virgin Atlantic in its joint venture with Delta Air Lines
- Xerox in its acquisition of Affiliated Computer Systems
- KKR in its acquisitions of Calsonic, GfK, Versatel, Capsugel and Gardner Denver, and in the formation of BMG Music and its subsequent sale to Bertelsmann
- BMG Music in the acquisition of numerous music catalogs
- China National Agrochemical Corporation in its acquisition of joint control over Makhteshim Agan Industries
- Wyeth in its sale to Pfizer
David has also represented clients in recent cartel and leniency proceedings before the European Commission and the United States Department of Justice and follow-on civil antitrust litigation, including:
- The International Swaps and Derivatives Association in the European Commission’s investigation of CDS
- Virgin Atlantic in its successful leniency application to the United States Department of Justice
He is consistently recognized by Chambers UK for Competition/European Law and by Chambers Global for both Competition/Antitrust—Foreign Expert Based in UK and Competition/European Law—Foreign Expert for USA. David is listed in Global Competition Review’s International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers and in PLC’s Competition Law Handbook as a leading competition lawyer.
David is admitted to the bar in New York and to practice before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. He is also admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, as well as Ireland. David received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1983 and his J.D. from Cornell University in 1990.