Rich Parker is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office and Chair of the Firm's Antitrust and Competition Practice. He has extensive experience in antitrust matters both before the enforcement agencies and in the courts. After Rich served as lead trial counsel and negotiated a very favorable settlement for US Airways that resolved the DOJ’s attempt to block the airline’s merger with American Airlines, Global Competition Review recognized him as “Litigator of the Week” and said that, “[i]f O’Melveny & Myers partner Rich Parker wasn’t already the most famous antitrust litigator in America, he probably is now.” Global Competition Review also named the litigation “Antitrust Matter of the Year” and selected Rich as a finalist for “Lawyer of the Year.”
Rich returned to the Firm in February 2001 after three years at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). During his tenure as Director of the Bureau of Competition, he oversaw the investigations of the Exxon-Mobil, BP Amoco - ARCO, and AOL - Time Warner mergers. During his tenure as Senior Deputy Director, Rich was co-lead counsel for the FTC in obtaining a federal court injunction against the mergers of both Cardinal Health with Bergen Brunswig and McKesson with AmeriSource Health. After his return to O'Melveny, Rich, on behalf of Triton Coal, led a successful defense of the Arch Coal – Triton Coal merger against the FTC in federal court.
Rich is both a trial lawyer and an antitrust regulatory lawyer. He has been involved in many major antitrust representations, including criminal, merger, and government civil investigations, as well as class action litigation. He regularly represents clients before the FTC and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division on mergers, conduct investigations, criminal matters, and policy issues.
Rich has been recognized as a Leading Lawyer in Antitrust by many publications, including Chambers USA, which lists him in its prestigious Tier 1 ranking in the 2013 and 2014 editions and has noted that he is “acknowledged by all corners of the market as ‘a tremendous antitrust lawyer’ who can both litigate and handle deals;” Chambers Global, which has said that he is “renowned for being a phenomenal litigator;” the Legal Times; Global Competition Review; Legal 500 USA; Benchmark Litigation; International Who's Who of Competition Lawyers; Best Lawyers in America; Lawdragon; and Super Lawyers Magazine, which listed him as one of only three antitrust lawyers on Super Lawyers’ “Top 100 Washington, DC Lawyers” in 2012 and 2010.
In addition, Rich was nominated for the 2009 Chambers USA Award for Excellence in Antitrust; was listed in both 2009 and 2011 in Washingtonian magazine’s biennial "Washington's Best Lawyers" list in the antitrust category; and was highlighted as one of Law360’s “10 Most Admired Competition Attorneys," published in August 2010.
