Partner

Howard Morse is a partner and co-chair of Drinker Biddle's Antitrust Practice Group.  He regularly represents businesses before the Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice, and State Attorneys General, in investigations involving mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures as well as alleged monopolization and restraint of trade cases.  He also counsels clients on antitrust issues and represents companies in private antitrust litigation.

Howard has been at the forefront of applying antitrust law to the high-tech sector and the growing intersection of antitrust and intellectual property law, including issues related to innovation markets, patent pools, standard setting and settlement of intellectual property litigation.

The Chambers USA 2009 Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers describes Howard as "a tireless advocate for his clients" who "impresses with his superb analytical and communications skills."

Before joining the firm, Howard served for 10 years at the Federal Trade Commission as deputy assistant director for policy and assistant director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition.  At the FTC, he was responsible for more than 50 enforcement actions including Hart-Scott-Rodino civil penalty and merger enforcement actions against Boston Scientific, Ciba-Geigy, Fresenius and Roche in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and against Adobe, Autodesk, Cadence and Silicon Graphics in the computer hardware and software industries.  Howard received the FTC’s Award for Superior Service for “furthering the Commission’s Merger Enforcement Program” and for “advancing the antitrust mission of the Federal Trade Commission in innovation markets and high technology industries.”

Counseling, Investigation and Litigation.  At Drinker Biddle, Howard has guided numerous clients' mergers and acquisitions through government review and has encouraged government challenges to other transactions on behalf of clients.  He has successfully defended targets of agency investigations and has represented plaintiffs, defendants and third parties in antitrust litigation.

Representative matters include:

    Mergers and Acquisitions

• Start-up semiconductor equipment manufacturer – obtained clearance for sale of company with promising products expected to become a significant competitor to leading firm, after second request investigation.
  
  
• Automotive parts manufacturer – obtained clearance for sale of automotive battery business, a transaction that combined two of three leading firms.
  
  
• Various clients – counsel on numerous acquisitions, obtaining clearance without a second request by proactively engaging with antitrust agencies, coordinating global competition filings and reviews in multiple jurisdictions.
  
  
• Encouraging government enforcement – successful in convincing the government to take enforcement action against acquisitions in the computer hardware and software and medical device industries, including Adaptec-Symbios, SunGard-Comdisco and Boston Scientific-Guidant.
  
  
• Counsel to companies acquiring assets required to be divested under government antitrust consent decrees.

    Anticompetitive Practices

• Monopolization litigation – obtained dismissal of monopolization and related claims against NetJets Inc. in McCagg v. Marquis Jet Partners, Inc.
  
  
• Federal investigations – persuaded Justice Department to close investigation into practices of specialized and professional accrediting agency.
  
  
• State attorney general investigation – persuaded authorities to close multi-state investigation of licensing practices of leading computer software developer.
  
  
• Antitrust counterclaims in patent litigation – successfully asserted antitrust counterclaims in litigation over introduction of the first MP3 player in RIAA v. Diamond Multimedia Systems, Inc.
  
  
• Various pharmaceutical companies – counsel on settlement of patent litigation, including filing notifications under Medicare Modernization Act.

    Consumer Protection Matters 

• False advertising – obtained favorable settlement for alleged false advertising by leading dietary supplement supplier after establishing efficacy of products.
  
  
• Consumer class actions – defeated class certification in blast faxing litigation in City Lights School, Inc. v. T-MobileUSA, Inc.

In General.  Howard is Chair of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section's Federal Civil Enforcement Committee. He previously chaired the Section’s Intellectual Property, Computer Industry and Exemptions & Immunities Committees and has served on the Section Council. Howard has testified before Congress, the Antitrust Modernization Commission and the DOJ/FTC hearings on Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy.  He is a frequent speaker and has published extensively on antitrust issues.  He has also served as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught a seminar on current developments in antitrust law.