Rob’s Washington, DC-based competition and trade regulation practice involves counseling on the competitive implications of business strategies, regulatory matters, and litigation. He defends clients in complex litigation and in merger and regulatory reviews by agencies such as the US Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, and Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Rob’s clients include media and telecommunications companies, health systems and providers, national retailers, trade associations, life sciences companies, and technology companies.

Rob specializes in clearly explaining strategic risks and their relative values in order to help senior executives make informed decisions. He provides advice to clients from across the country and around the world in high-profile matters including:

Complex litigation (class action and otherwise)
Antitrust issues in mergers and acquisitions / second requests
Strategic business planning and risk management
Regulatory issues arising from foreign investments in US businesses (particularly Chinese investment)
Federal and state regulatory investigations
Policy advocacy and notice-and-comment rulemaking
Appellate review of agency action
Trade association counseling
Privacy and data security
Consumer protection and unfair/deceptive trade practices

Rob represents clients in numerous markets, including:

Media content and distribution
Wireless communications
Health care providers and services
Life sciences
Technology
Retail and consumer products
Trade associations and nonprofits

He has written and spoken widely on litigation risk management and cost containment and on issues faced by businesses when they interact with federal and state enforcers and administrative agencies.

Rob is an active supporter of the firm’s pro bono program, providing representation to numerous indigent clients before the Social Security Administration and in local family and domestic relations courts. He has provided corporate and business planning advice to the National Network to End Domestic Violence and other nonprofit clients. He is also an active supporter of the firm’s mentoring and sponsorship program.

Prior to his career in the law, Rob was an on-air radio personality and station production director in Lexington, Kentucky.

Co-lead trial counsel in the 2020 jury trial of a nationwide class action alleging global price fixing in sales of capacitors.
Lead US antitrust counsel for Qiagen N.V. in its $11 billion sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific, announced in March 2020.
Successfully represented a global contract manufacturer before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in its 2020 acquisition by a Chinese investor.
Serves as ongoing antitrust counsel to one of the nation’s largest and most respected integrated physician/hospital provider network on matters including mergers, affiliations, investigations, and litigation.
Represented the nation’s premier retail pharmacy chain in its $27 billion industry-transforming acquisition of a “big three” pharmacy benefits manager.
Serves as ongoing antitrust counsel to several of the world’s leading genetic and molecular diagnostic test developers and providers.
Lead counsel for three separate cable operators in sprawling multidistrict litigation involving more than 30 separate suits filed around the country relating to the alleged tying of cable set-top boxes to certain cable services.
Serves as ongoing antitrust counsel to one of the world’s largest and most recognizable brands in health care equipment and technology.
Serves as ongoing antitrust, regulatory, and litigation counsel to several of the nation’s leading cable, media, and wireless telecommunications companies and trade associations.
Provides ongoing antitrust and foreign investment counsel to dozens of early-stage companies in biotech, health care, green energy, and high-tech manufacturing.

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FTC and DOJ Issue Proposed Updates to Antitrust Guidelines for Licensing IP

October 14, 2016 | Blog | By Michael Renaud, Robert Kidwell, Andrew DeVoogd, Marguerite McConihe

For the first time in 26 years, the FTC and DOJ (the “Agencies”) have issued proposed updates to the Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property, last revised in 1995.

October 3, 2016 | Blog | By Samantha Kingsbury

On Friday, Robert Kidwell and Bruce Sokler, members of the Firm’s Antitrust and Federal Regulatory practice group, presented a webinar on the Third Circuit’s hotly anticipated decision on the FTC’s appeal of the District Court’s denial of its request for a preliminary injunction on the merger of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and Pinnacle Health System.

September 28, 2016 | Blog

Join us this Friday at 1:30 pm EDT for a webinar with two of our Antitrust colleagues, Robert Kidwell and Bruce Sokler. They will discuss recent events in the Hershey Hospital merger and their impact on FTC's hospital merger enforcement program. Learn more about these recent updates from the comfort of your computer in our one-hour webinar.

September 27, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell

Last week, in In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) vacated a $147 million jury award against Chinese vitamin C sellers Hebei Welcome Pharmaceutical Co. and North China Pharmaceutical Group Corp. (“Defendants”) for price fixing and supply manipulation, ordinarily violations of US antitrust laws.

August 15, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Lydia Turnier

Last week, in In re Aluminum Warehousing Antitrust Litigation, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (“Second Circuit”) rejected a claim by certain downstream end-users of aluminum that their price manipulation antitrust suit should be allowed to proceed.

August 3, 2016 | Advisory | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short

In recent years, federal antitrust enforcers and businesses that accept payment cards have been waging a slow war against payment card fees and the card network rules that protect them. The payment card industry’s antitrust battles are nothing new, dating back to antitrust lawsuits against the predecessor to Visa in the early 1970s.

July 14, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short

The Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced this week that an activist investment manager has agreed to pay a record $11 million to settle allegations that it violated the requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 (the “HSR Act” or “Act”) by improperly relying on the “investment-only” exemption to avoid reporting the transaction and observing the appropriate waiting period.

May 11, 2016 | Advisory | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Dionne Lomax, Farrah Short

Judge takes “the healthcare world as it is, and not as the FTC wishes it to be.”

January 24, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short

An ophthalmologist cooperative in Puerto Rico settled charges with the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) last week that it orchestrated an illegal boycott of a health plan.

January 22, 2016 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on January 21, 2016 increased jurisdictional thresholds for premerger notification filings under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the HSR Act).