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 handles HSR and non-HSR merger review, antitrust conduct investigations, and third-party practice at U.S. antitrust agencies and State Attorneys General, represents clients in merger challenges and civil antitrust litigation, and counsels on business practices.

Emily's experience spans a range of industries including healthcare, retail, grocery, food service, 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 at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) where she supervised merger investigations and enforcement actions and litigated matters including the FTC’s successful challenges to the Kroger/Albertsons supermarket merger and the Hackensack/Englewood hospital merger, among others. She has also worked as an economic consultant.

Emily regularly speaks and writes about antitrust and competition topics.