Preston Miller

Preston Miller, a Partner in the Firm’s Washington, D.C. office, focuses his practice on antitrust and competition law. With a particular emphasis on merger review, he has extensive experience obtaining regulatory clearance from domestic and international competition authorities for high-profile, often cross-border, transactions across a wide variety of industries. He is recognized by The Legal 500 U.S. in Antitrust: Merger Control, where sources describe him as “such a strong lawyer that partners from other firms routinely acknowledge the benefits of having him on the other side as someone who will be efficient, practical, friendly and able to lead a very strong case.” Preston also has experience in defending clients in complex class action antitrust litigation and government antitrust investigations. In 2023, Preston was recognized on Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under List,” which honors the top emerging talent in litigation, and as a “DC Rising Star” by The National Law Journal.

Preston represents a mix of both private equity and corporate clients, having done extensive work for private equity firms like Blackstone and KKR, as well as dozens of strategic clients active in a wide range of sectors, including industrial (Gardner Denver), automotive (ZF/TRW; BorgWarner), life sciences/healthcare (CSL; Certara; Change Healthcare; HCA), defense (L3Harris), retail (Office Depot; Mattress Firm Group), semiconductors (Siltronic; Kokusai Electric), and more.

Preston’s recent work highlights include:

Automotive

• BorgWarner in its $3.3 billion acquisition of Delphi Technologies
• TRW Automotive in its $12.4 billion acquisition by ZF, including navigation of an FTC Second Request and successful proposal of divestiture remedies
• Daimler and Chrysler’s formation of a mobility services joint venture, including coordination of responses to Second Requests issued to both parties

Defense

• L3 Technologies in connection with the antitrust review of its $33.5 billion merger of equals combination with Harris Corporation, including the successful divestiture of assets to resolve concerns

Life Sciences/Healthcare

• Change Healthcare in its $13.8 billion acquisition by UnitedHealth Group
• Vyaire in the sale of its respiratory consumables business to SunMed
• CSL Behring in the formation of CoVIg-19 Plasma Alliance

Manufacturing/Industrial

• Melrose Industries’ takeover of public company GKN for £8 billion, in the biggest U.K. hostile takeover since 2009
• Gardner Denver in its $5.8 merger with Ingersoll Rand’s Industrial Group
• Taiyo Nippon Sanso and its U.S. subsidiary Matheson in their acquisition of Praxair European assets for €5 billion in connection with Linde/Praxair transaction divestiture

Private Equity

• Carlyle Group and Hellman & Friedman in launching Vantage Group Holdings
• KKR in its $8 billion acquisition of Unilever’s global Spreads business (n/k/a Upfield), $3.2 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in German media conglomerate Axel Springer and $2.5 billion acquisition of a controlling stake in professional beauty business Wella, as well as several other transactions
• Blackstone Real Estate in a wide range of transactions, including its £4.7 billion acquisition of iQ Student Accommodation, at the time the largest real estate deal ever in the U.K., C$6.2 billion acquisition of Dream Global REIT, active in North America and Europe, £1.5 billion acquisition of over 5,000 properties from Network Rail, in a joint venture with Telereal Trillium, and acquisition of a majority stake in Banco Popular’s €30 billion real estate business in Spain
• Blackstone in the EU Phase II investigation of the proposed JV between Acetow and Celanese
• A variety of private equity clients in various other transactions notifiable in the U.S. and abroad, including KKR, Blackstone, Hellman & Friedman, and EQT

Retail

• Office Depot, in its proposed acquisition by Staples, including responding to an FTC Second Request and subsequent merger litigation
• Mattress Firm Group Inc. in its announced agreement to be acquired by Tempur Sealy International, Inc.
• G-III Apparel Group, Ltd. in connection with its agreement to acquire the remaining 81% interest in fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld for approximately $210 million

Semiconductors

• Siltronic in achieving U.S. clearance of its proposed $5.3 billion acquisition by GlobalWafers
• KKR in its proposed $3.5 billion sale of Kokusai Electric to Applied Materials

Preston was a featured speaker at Global Competition Review’s Telecoms, Media & Technology 2022 conference on the panel titled, “Breaking down the walled garden: the limits of antitrust?” He earned his J.D., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center and his B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology and Genetics and B.A. in Philosophy from University of Maryland. He is admitted to practice in Washington, D.C. and New York.