Dave Beddow is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office and a member of the Antitrust and Competition Practice. A significant amount of Dave’s time is spent defending mergers and acquisitions before the US antitrust agencies - the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) - under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. In recent years Dave has represented clients in major transactions in the defense, healthcare, computer, supermarket, drug store, food products, gaming, manufacturing, and communications industries.

Among these transactions have been hospital mergers, mergers and acquisitions for Fortune 500 companies, and mergers involving multi-national companies. Dave represented Gemstar International, which is in the interactive television business, before the DOJ, in its high-profile merger with TV Guide, Inc., and negotiated the settlement of the FTC case against MSC Software Corporation, which had challenged two MSC acquisitions that had already closed. He represented International Game Technology in its mergers with Acres Gaming and Anchor Gaming. He represented Eckerd Drugs and Brooks Pharmacy in their US$2.6 billion sale to the Rite Aid drug store chain and the 2007 settlement with the FTC. In 2007, he represented Western Digital in its acquisition of Komag and has represented Western Digital on other transactions. In 2012, he obtained FTC clearance on behalf of Magma Design Automation for its sale to Synopsys. In 2013, he obtained FTC clearance for Regis Corporation in its sale of Hair Club to Aderans Co. and Bosley, Inc, and in 2014 represented CoreLogic, Inc. in negotiating a settlement with the FTC allowing CoreLogic to acquire Marshall & Swift/Boeckh and DataQuick Information Systems.” .

Dave wrote a new chapter in the ABA’s Second Edition of The Merger Review Process and parts of the ABA’s Antitrust Law Developments treatise and one of its supplements. Dave has extensive experience on the procedural aspects of the HSR Act, serving as the firm’s senior HSR expert, and served on an important ABA Task Force which made recommendations on improving the HSR Second Request process. He has also advised FTC staff on HSR issues and represented Gemstar in DOJ’s landmark HSR “gun-jumping” case, which was settled in February 2003, and Valueact Capital in the FTC’s HSR “failure to file” case, which was settled in 2008.

Dave has also practiced for many years in the transportation antitrust and regulatory area. In recent years, he represented Northwest Airlines in the SkyTeam antitrust immunity matter and was a member of the team that represented Northwest in its 2008 merger with Delta Air Lines, Airborne Express at the DOJ in its transaction with DHL, and Flexi-Van Leasing in its acquisition of chassis from XTRA Corporation. Dave also has counseled aviation clients on regulatory issues relating to federal legislation and rulemaking, international negotiations, airport access and development, slots, aircraft noise and foreign investment, and on antitrust issues. He served for many years as an officer in the Federal Bar Association Transportation Section, and was Chairman of that Section for the 1996-97 year.

His antitrust practice includes counseling clients on transactions under the Clayton Act, including joint ventures, and on antitrust issues under the Sherman Act. Among the non-merger antitrust cases Dave has been involved in are the FTC case against Intel and other Intel-related matters on behalf of Advanced Micro Devices, and the FTC’s abuse of monopoly case against Rambus on behalf of SK hynix Inc. Dave also has experience in antitrust matters in Europe and Asia. He currently serves as the Vice-Chair of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Section of International Law.

He has served on the planning committee for the ABA’s International Section Spring Meetings and Fall Meetings for the last several years, was a speaker at the 2008 Fall Meeting in Brussels, and has served on ABA committees preparing comments on various government antitrust policy initiatives. Dave also has been named in recent years by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer in antitrust, and recognized by PLC’s 2010 Which Lawyer Guide as a leading competition/antitrust lawyer.
Professional Activities
Admitted to Practice, U.S. Courts of Appeals, Third and District of Columbia Circuits; U.S. District Court, District of Columbia; U.S. Claims Court
Board Member, Board of Trustees for the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs
Member, Columbia University Law School, Antitrust Project Advisory Board; American Bar Association, Antitrust Section (member of Mergers and Acquisitions and Transportation Industry Committees); American Bar Association, International Law Section
Author, Parts of ABA Antitrust Section, Antitrust Law Developments (2007); Chapters III and IV of ABA Antitrust Section, Antitrust Law Developments Supplement (2003); Chapter 7, ABA Antitrust Section, The Merger Review Process (2d ed. 2001)
Honors, Named to the Washington, DC "Super Lawyers" list (2013, 2014)
Co-Author, “That Stock Grant Could Cost More Than You Think -- The Application of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to Officer and Director Equity Compensation,” O’Melveny Client Alert (2009); “Recent Updates to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act,” 5 DePaul Bus. L. J. 1 (2006); “Should The Shipping Act of 1984 Be Amended to Eliminate Conference Antitrust Immunity?” Federal Bar News & Journal, Volume 36, No. 8, p. 357 (Oct. 1989)
Vice Chair and Steering Committee, ABA International Section, International Antitrust Committee
Former Chair, Federal Bar Association Transportation Section
Former Editor, Federal Bar Association’s TransLaw publication on transportation law