Rob Lipstein is a partner in Crowell & Moring's Antitrust, International Investment, Trade and Arbitration (ITA), and Intellectual Property Groups, and is co-chair of the Antitrust Group and chair of the ITA Group Steering Committee. As chair of the Finance and Contingent Fee Review Committees, Rob also leads the firm's value-based billing initiatives, working across practice areas to craft and implement a wide range of alternative fee agreements.
In private practice in Washington, D.C. since 1978, Rob counsels clients on all aspects of antitrust and trade regulation issues, with particular expertise on mergers and acquisitions, including pre-merger notification and pre-merger integration planning procedures; product distribution; and the interaction of antitrust and intellectual property laws. Rob has industry specialization in telecommunications, chemicals and industrial gases, hazardous waste, consumer electronics, and musical instruments. Rob is the architect of distributor and dealer agreements that have become the standards in several industries, and has assisted companies to establish and enforce unilateral Minimum Advertised Price and Minimum Retail Price policies.
Rob has been recognized by Chambers USA 2010 as a leading lawyer who is "highly regarded for his litigation skills, as well as his skill in guiding clients through FTC investigations." He has been named by his peers for more than 10 consecutive years as one of The Best Lawyers in America in the area of International Trade and Finance Law, is also named in Best Lawyers in the are of Antitrust Law, and was featured in the 2004, 2006 and 2010 Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers.
Rob regularly counsels and represents clients before the FTC and the Antitrust Division of the DOJ regarding mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, competitor collaborations, and compliance with the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Recent transactions include representing Reed Elsevier Group plc in connection with its $4 billion purchase of ChoicePoint, Inc., its $4 billion sale of Harcourt Education Group, and its $950 million sale of Harcourt Assessment, Inc., as well as SBC's $16 billion acquisition of AT&T, and AT&T's $86 billion acquisition of Bell South. Rob also represented Yamaha Corporation of America in the FTC's investigation into MAP prices for musical instruments, and the Air Liquide group in connection with the termination of a decades-old consent decree applicable to the distribution and sale of carbon dioxide.
In addition to his M&A and distribution focus, Rob specializes in counseling at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property, advising leading patent pool administrators on antitrust issues. And with twenty-five years of trademark and copyright prosecution and litigation experience, Rob also assists clients to protect their valuable intellectual property rights, and to enforce those rights against misuse, particularly on the Internet.
Rob also represents clients in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations and reviews before the Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission, as well as the Court of International Trade and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He has written several commentaries on the antidumping law, and on the interaction of the antidumping and antitrust laws, and has also spoken on international panels on these topics.
Rob graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1975, and obtained his law degree in 1978 from Stanford Law School, where he was Associate Managing Editor of the Stanford Law Review. Rob is a fourth degree black belt and volunteer instructor in tae kwon do.