Niall Lynch

Niall E. Lynch is a partner in the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins, and is the local Co-Chair of the firm’s Litigation & Trial Department. He is a recognized antitrust litigator with in-depth experience in cartel matters, and has represented multinationals and their managers in criminal and civil price-fixing investigations in the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, Brazil, Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Having spent 15 years as a prosecutor in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), Mr. Lynch is able to draw upon his in-depth experience when counseling clients with issues pertaining to international antitrust and competition matters, including cartels, merger review, civil conduct, and criminal investigations. His expertise spans a variety of industries including semiconductors, information technology, consumer electronics, chemicals, oil and gas, consumer products, and food additives.

Prior to joining Latham, Mr. Lynch served as Assistant Chief in the San Francisco Field Office of the DOJ. He led several of the Division’s most significant criminal prosecutions including the Liquid Crystal Display and dynamic random access memory (DRAM) grand jury investigations, which resulted in US$1.6 billion in criminal fines and dozens of individual prosecutions. He also prosecuted numerous cases in the General Crimes Section while serving as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. Mr. Lynch tried several jury trials and received numerous awards during his tenure at the DOJ, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, the second-highest award for DOJ employee performance. In 2013, 2014, and 2015, he was recognized as one of the world’s foremost competition practitioners by The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists. In 2017, Chambers USA noted Niall Lynch’s “brilliant” cartel practice. He also acts on civil matters and is described as “extremely creative and dedicated” by market sources.

Mr. Lynch is a member of the American Bar Association, Antitrust Section’s International Cartel Task Force and is on the Executive Committee of the California State Bar’s Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the ABA’s Cartel and Criminal Practice Committee and the Compliance and Ethics Committee.