Emily Blackburn

• Counsel to DIRECTV in the landmark private antitrust challenge to the Nexstar-TEGNA merger (In re Nexstar-TEGNA Merger Litigation). DIRECTV and a bipartisan coalition of 13 State AGs obtained a TRO and Preliminary Injunction in the largest local broadcast merger challenge in history.
• Advised AT&T Inc. in transactions including its $5.75 billion acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ Mass Markets Fiber-to-the-home business, its $23 billion acquisition of wireless spectrum licenses from EchoStar, and its $85.4 billion litigated vertical merger with Time Warner.
• Advise clients in the food & beverage, retail, telecom, fashion, defense/aerospace (and many other) industries on antitrust issues including pricing, information sharing, competitor collaborations, compliance best practices, and emerging enforcement risks around AI/algorithmic coordination.
• Representing a defendant in the Nuclear Power Generation Antitrust Litigation, an antitrust class action accusing the nuclear power generation industry of colluding to suppress employee wages and share competitively sensitive compensation information.
• Represented Cantaloupe, Inc. in securing FTC approval for its transaction with 365 Retail Markets.
• Represented independent pharmacy plaintiffs in price-fixing case against Pharmacy Benefit Managers (obtained settlement).

Emily Blackburn is a deal lawyer and litigator whose practice focuses on antitrust/competition matters and complex civil litigation.  She counsels companies in all aspects of merger clearance before the U.S. antitrust agencies and State attorneys general, represents them before federal and administrative courts in merger challenges and civil antitrust litigation, and provides sophisticated, pragmatic advice about transactions and business practices.

Emily's experience spans a broad range of industries including healthcare, retail/supermarkets, distribution, consumer products, telecommunications and media, semiconductors, rail, aviation, defense and aerospace, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, e-commerce, and social media.  Before joining King & Spalding, she was a senior staff attorney in the Mergers I and Mergers IV divisions at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she led and worked on numerous complex, high-profile merger investigations and enforcement actions, including playing a key stand-up trial role in the FTC’s successful challenge to the Kroger/Albertsons supermarket merger.  She has also worked in the antitrust group of a global law firm in Washington, D.C. and as an economic consultant.