It would be easier to understand if antitrust practice is divided into two categories:
1) litigation/investigations
2) Mergers
In the first one, an attorney can think of using the tools of a litigator to help a client either defend or prosecute antitrust violations, or to go for a counsel or a person/company with the help of investigations. The litigation matters may take the form of one competitor within an industry calling for unfair monopolistic or price-fixing behavior on the part of a different competitor. A litigator might also look towards working with economic experts in order to establish or defend the client's case. At times the experts do the thorough analysis of product or geographic markets; it is the job of the attorney to showcase this analysis in a compelling way to the fact-finder.
The second category, mergers, asks antitrust attorneys to advise their client in the pendency of a mergers & acquisitions deal. Attorneys will file documents with the necessary regulatory authorities for the merger, perform "due diligence" in context to the merger to learn about related facts regarding the product and geographic market, advise on probable regulatory issues, and if required, agree on an outcome that enable the merger to go through. Since this practice is related to the life cycle of M&A deals, clearance work is more prominent when the economy is good, as deal flow generally are greater at these times. Generally, merger clearance happens on a more accelerated timeline as compared to litigation or investigations; an attorney in this field can look towards resolving matters quickly and then start on a different project.
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