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Abbott (Tad) Lipsky Biography

Latham &
Watkins

attorney profile

Abbott "Tad" Lipsky, Jr

Partner, Litigation Department

Abbott

Education

J.D., Stanford Law School, 1976

M.A. (Economics), Stanford University, 1976

A.B. (Physics), Amherst College, 1971

Areas of Expertise

Mr. Lipsky is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Latham & Watkins. His thirty-year career, devoted entirely to antitrust, spans virtually every facet of competition law -- monopolization, vertical and horizontal relationships, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, civil and criminal practice, regulated industries, exemptions and immunities, intellectual property issues, legislation and policy -- from both public and private, U.S. and foreign, and in-house and law firm perspectives.

From 1981-83 Mr. Lipsky served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General under William F. Baxter. In that position he supervised the Executive Branch role in a series of groundbreaking Supreme Court antitrust cases that revolutionized antitrust law during the first Reagan Administration. He organized and supervised preparation of the Department of Justice Merger Guidelines (1982) and the Antitrust Division's review of United States v. IBM Corp., which culminated in a joint stipulation of dismissal of the marathon case in 1982.

Following government service Mr. Lipsky developed a broad US and international antitrust practice, successfully managing a variety of important matters including BellSouth's participation in the First Triennial Review of the Bell System Divestiture Decree (United States v. Western Electric Co) (leading ultimately to the only broad vacatur of major Decree restrictions on the Bell Operating Companies), the hostile acquisition of J.P. Stevens Co. by West Point-Pepperell, Inc./Magnolia Partners, and both Fourth Circuit and Supreme Court consideration of Brooke Group v. Broim & Williamson Tobacco, the only plenary Supreme Court decision on predatory pricing law within a generation.

After moving in house to become the chief global antitrust lawyer for The Coca-Cola Company in 1992, he conducted and supervised competition matters before courts and antitrust authorities in the U.S., Canada, the E.U., E.U. Member States and dozens of other jurisdictions in Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. Since joining Latham & Watkins in 2002 (together with antitrust-law colleagues from Coca-Cola), Mr. Lipsky has continued to develop a broad based and diverse domestic and international civil and criminal antitrust practice in a wide variety of industries, including aviation, computer software, ocean shipping, pharmaceuticals and petroleum products, among many others. He is a frequent author and speaker on antitrust topics. For over ten years he was a member of the governing Council of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law. Among other Officer positions, Mr. Lipsky was the first International Officer of the Section, and now serves on the Section's International Advisory Board. He is admitted to practice in California and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Supreme Court and various federal appellate courts.

Updated January 2, 2024