Peter Sullivan is a partner of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in its New York office. He is Co-Chair of the firm's Antitrust Practice Group.
Mr. Sullivan has been practicing in the antitrust area for almost thirty years. His practice involves all aspects of antitrust enforcement, including civil, class action, international, criminal and merger matters and governmental investigations, as well as related unfair competition and consumer issues. Mr. Sullivan's clients include entities in the U.S., Netherlands, Japan, the UK, Switzerland, Germany and Canada in the high technology, airline, motor vehicle, restaurant, distribution, television, entertainment, packaging, chemical, manufacturing and communications industries.
Mr. Sullivan counsels clients on competition concerns as well as provides strategic advice and direction on competition matters. He also regularly advises clients on distribution issues, particularly with respect to the relationships between manufacturers and other sellers with their dealers and distributors including: joint ventures, joint purchasing arrangements, price discrimination, dealer agreements, dual distribution, territorial and customer limitations, terminations, exclusive arrangements, dealer pricing, research and development ventures, and the like.
Chambers' 2008 Guide to America's Leading Lawyers has listed Mr. Sullivan as a leading antitrust litigator. He is listed in other publications that rank the world's leading antitrust practitioners as well, including Euromoney Legal Group's Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers and Mondaq's Guide to Leading Competition Attorneys. Recently, Mr. Sullivan was named as a leading antitrust lawyer in the 2008 and 2009 editions of The Best Lawyers in America.
Mr. Sullivan has defended one of America's most prominent high tech companies in a series of monopolization cases in the United States and the European Union, a coal company in a price-fixing and monopolization case, a major airline in a conspiracy case, a major food distributor in a price discrimination case (Robinson-Patman). Mr. Sullivan has extensive trial experience. He has represented entities in high profile trials in antitrust, intellectual property and class action matters in federal and state courts across the country.
Mr. Sullivan's representative matters include:
Representation of Hewlett-Packard Company in antitrust litigation (in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California) by a competitor alleging that HP engaged in monopolization of printer supplies, illegal conspiracy and tying arrangements, among other things. After a three-month jury trial, the jury found for HP on all of the antitrust claims. This litigation was followed by a consumer class action against HP brought in California State Court. Mr. Sullivan obtained summary judgment in HP's favor in this antitrust class action.
Representation of Nissan Motor Ltd. and Nissan North America, Inc. in antitrust litigation brought by gray market importers of Nissan parts which claimed that Nissan engaged in tying arrangements, exclusive dealing and other antitrust violations with respect to sales of parts to Nissan dealers. The United States District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment in favor of the Nissan entities and dismissed the antitrust claims.
Representation of Greyhound Exposition Services, the country's largest provider of exposition services in wide-ranging litigation which contended that it had engaged in monopolization and other alleged violations of the antitrust laws. This case was ultimately settled on very favorable terms to Greyhound.
Representation of Hewlett-Packard Company in a series of consumer class actions brought in fourteen different states. In the California case, the California Superior Court denied class certification and granted summary judgment in favor of HP. While a court in North Carolina certified a class, a unanimous jury found in favor of HP on all counts.
Representation of a high tech company in a multi-million dollar litigation pending in Colorado involving claims of breach of contract. This case was successfully tried to a jury by Mr. Sullivan.
Representation of Foster & Kleiser, the nation's largest outdoor advertising company, in a criminal antitrust case involving claims of horizontal market division. This matter and its follow-on civil cases were settled advantageously to F & K.
Representation of Nissan Canada, Inc. in antitrust litigation brought against it in scores of federal and state courts around the United States. Every court that has considered the matter has dismissed Nissan Canada from the case on grounds that it lacked personal jurisdiction over Nissan Canada.
Representation of Sunclipse, Inc. in a series of litigations involving the theft of confidential business information by former employees. All of these litigations were resolved favorably to Sunclipse.
Representation of Nissan North America in a tying litigation. This case pending in the District of Maryland was dismissed on summary judgment. The Fourth Circuit affirmed.
Representation of Metromedia Long Distance in its merger with an entity which became WorldCom.
Representation of Enterprise Rent-A-Car in its acquisition of Vanguard Rent-A-Car (National and Alamo brands) to form the largest daily rental car business in the United Staters. This transaction was cleared without a second request.
Representation of Russian steel manufacturer, OAO TMK, in its acquisition of IPSCO Steel from a Swedish enterprise. This complicated transaction represents TMK's first venture into the United States.
Mr. Sullivan regularly provides antitrust counseling to some of the world's most prominent entities. These include: Teijin Twaron, Bulova Watch, Hewlett-Packard, Western Digital, Ameron, K-Swiss, Kubota Tractor, and Nissan North America, Inc.
Mr. Sullivan lectures extensively on competition issues around the world. Most recently, Mr. Sullivan was a panelist on a "Private Litigation of Competitive Claims – Getting the Balance Right" at the Second Spring Antitrust Conference sponsored by the Law Council of Australia and the International Bar Association in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Sullivan has appeared as a commentator on CNN and for newspapers and legal publications on antitrust issues. He is the co-author of the second edition of Antitrust Laws and Trade Regulation, a multi-volume treatise recognized as authoritative by the U.S. Supreme Court and cited in over 100 court decisions. Mr. Sullivan is author of twin monographs, Pricing Practices and Distribution Practices as well as A Guide to Joint Ventures and Other Cooperative Business Endeavors. He is the original author of "State Antitrust Law and Intellectual Property" which appears in California Antitrust And Unfair Competition Laws (Third) (2003) published by the Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section of the California State Bar. Mr. Sullivan co-authored "Merger Notifications: The Prospects for Convergence" published in International Merger Control: Prescriptions for Convergence published by the International Bar Association. Most recently, he co-authored a chapter on "Confidentiality in the United States" for Privilege and Confidentiality: A Legal Handbook. Mr. Sullivan is also a regular contributor to antitrust periodicals which are distributed in the United States, Europe and Asia. For many years, Mr. Sullivan was the Editor of the Antitrust & Trade Regulation Report, a periodical distributed to antitrust lawyers throughout the world. He is now General Editor Emeritus of the Report.
Mr. Sullivan received his Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1977 from Fordham Law School, where he was an Articles Editor of the Law Review. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University.
Mr. Sullivan is a member of the New York and California Bars, the ABA, IBA and the Antitrust Section of the California State Bar. Mr. Sullivan is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the Federal Circuit and the Second, Fourth, Ninth and District of Columbia Circuits.