Amanda L. Wait

Amanda’s over twenty years of government and private practice experience focuses on global antitrust and competition matters. A former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) lawyer, Amanda leads global antitrust and competition strategy for companies pursuing complex, high-value transactions and guides clients through high-stakes antitrust investigations before the FTC, Department of Justice (DOJ), and state attorneys general.

Before joining Michael Best, Amanda was a partner at a global law firm, where she guided Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders through market-shaping deals. Known for her practical and business-minded approach, Amanda is a trusted advisor to senior executives and is regularly called upon by clients and the media to provide perspective on market-shaping deals.

In addition to her legal practice, Amanda is deeply engaged in philanthropic leadership. She serves on the Executive Committee of the University of Cincinnati Foundation Board of Trustees, where she helps guide philanthropic strategy and institutional advancement for one of the nation’s leading public research universities.

Solutions in action

Amanda has represented clients in the following matters:

• Served as trial counsel to a French merchant firm in the DOJ challenge of the sale of a cane sugar refining company's refinery to an agriculture company, and obtained a complete win at the district court, enabling the successful completion of the acquisition.

Healthcare

• Advising multiple healthcare systems on potential federal and state antitrust review of transformational alliance and other transactions.
• Advising non-party witness in landmark FTC challenge to alleged health care “roll up” strategy.
• Advised a health technology company in the successful acquisition of bolt-on technology firm; after review, the Federal Trade Commission closed its investigation without action.
• Successfully advised a major health system in its strategic combination in review by the FTC. After considering potential horizontal overlap, cross-market theories, and labor market impacts, the FTC closed its investigation without action.
• Represented a health technology company as a non-party witness in the DOJ's investigation and litigation challenge of the proposed acquisition of the health technology company by a healthcare services company’s subsidiary and successfully advocated to remove the client from the trial witness list and prevented all client documents from becoming public trial exhibits.
• Served as counsel to a not-for-profit, faith-based healthcare system in the FTC investigation and litigation of its proposed acquisition of a hospital from a healthcare company.
• Obtained antitrust clearance after an FTC investigation for a strategic laboratory outsourcing arrangement for a major Texas hospital system.

Energy

• Advised a major U.S. energy company in a vertical acquisition that received a second request from the Federal Trade Commission.
• Negotiated a consent decree for an energy corporation after a DOJ investigation into alleged premature exercise of control, raising novel theories of antitrust violations under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.
• Advised a major energy company before the FTC in multiple strategic refining divestiture transactions and obtained early termination of the HSR waiting period in each to enable the client to move forward with an extensive integration process relating to the sale
• Advised a major energy company in multiple FTC investigations, including into another energy company's proposed acquisition of a company that distributes and markets petroleum products.

Retail & Consumer Products

• Developed and led the global merger clearance strategy for a transportation industry manufacturer in a strategic, multi-billion-euro transaction; by anticipating the likely questions, the client obtained clearance during the initial review periods in all reviewing jurisdictions.
• Developed and led the strategy to obtain merger clearance in four jurisdictions for a global packaging company in a strategic transaction valued more than U.S. $1 billion, and the deal cleared in all reviewing jurisdictions after the initial advocacy without issuance of a second request or equivalent in foreign jurisdictions.
• Successfully obtained premerger clearance for an international retailer's strategic acquisition to expand product offerings into an adjacent product and service areas in a deal valued in excess of U.S. $500 million.
• Negotiated a settlement with the FTC for strategic divestitures to obtain clearance after a second request for one of the world's largest retail supermarket chains.
• Advised a leading provider of funeral and cemetery services in its U.S.$1.4 billion strategic merger reviewed by the FTC and several state attorneys general, where the reviewing agencies cleared the transaction with divestitures after a second request.
• Advised a music corporation in its U.S. $1.9 billion acquisition of the recorded music business of another music company; after a second request and an extensive investigation, the FTC voted to close its investigation without requiring divestitures or other remedies.
• Served as trial counsel to a computer company in a patent infringement case that went to full trial on the merits of antitrust counterclaims.
• Served as counsel to a major airline before the DOJ in its successful acquisition of another airline; following a second request and extensive investigation, the DOJ closed its investigation without requiring any divestitures or other remedies.
• Served as trial counsel to the FTC in its challenge to the proposed merger of a supermarket chain and a producer of natural and organic food distributed through partnerships in the U.S.