“Revered for his extensive knowledge and sophistication, Siegel specializes in advising on criminal antitrust matters, particularly in the cartel space.”

Top 10 Powerhouse Antitrust Lawyers Shaping California’s Business Landscape in 2023, Business Today News, July 2023

Marc Siegel is an Antitrust Partner with over 39 years of experience in criminal antitrust (cartel) investigations and litigation, both in private practice and as a senior leader at the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. Marc specializes in defending corporate and individual clients who are under investigation by DOJ for price fixing, bid rigging, wage fixing, no-poach, and other related antitrust crimes across myriad industries.

In private practice, Marc has brought many of his matters to a successful resolution by convincing DOJ not to bring any enforcement actions against his clients. Based on his extensive government experience, Marc has successfully negotiated leniency and immunity deals on behalf of his clients in cartel investigations.

In the last several years, Marc has successfully defended multiple corporate executives and employees who were under criminal investigation for alleged anticompetitive conduct.  Marc’s intimate knowledge of DOJ’s antitrust enforcement policies and practices has led to a string of decisions by DOJ to grant his clients immunity or non-prosecution protection from criminal prosecution.  In spring 2023, Marc successfully obtained, after a six-week criminal trial, an acquittal on behalf of one of the six individual defendants in the aerospace engineering no-poach matter. (U.S. v. Patel).

Apart from his work representing clients under criminal investigation, Marc also regularly advises companies on ways to mitigate antitrust risks when entering into efficiency-enhancing business collaborations with other firms. For instance, Marc has advised financial institutions about antitrust risks associated with their participation in syndicated lending activities. He also advises corporate clients about adopting safeguards when sharing business information with competitors. In addition, Marc has advised more than a dozen large institutions about devising or strengthening antitrust compliance programs. For a major financial institution in the United States, he headed a six-month effort to revamp all aspects of the client’s global antitrust compliance program, including the training of over 1,500 company employees worldwide.

Marc brought his extensive antitrust knowledge and experience to private practice after serving 30 years as a senior leader of DOJ’s Antitrust Division as well as a line federal prosecutor. As Criminal Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, Marc helped supervise a series of bid-rigging trials in the municipal bonds industry. For almost six years as the Director of Criminal Enforcement, he was responsible for managing eight criminal offices and all DOJ cartel investigations and prosecutions nationwide. He has also been intimately involved in formulating DOJ’s criminal enforcement policies affecting grants of corporate leniency, agreements to enter into pleas with corporate and individual targets, and recommendations to indict corporate and individual targets of cartel investigations. Also, as Chief of two of the Antitrust Division’s busiest criminal offices (San Francisco and New York), Marc supervised all aspects of several high-profile international and domestic cartel investigations, including those in the auto parts, Northern California real estate foreclosure auctions, capacitors, and packaged seafood (tuna). Marc also supervised DOJ’s first price-fixing investigation in which companies agreed to adopt the same pricing algorithm.

Marc has been a regular panelist at the ABA International Cartel Workshops and ICN Workshops to speak about DOJ’s cartel enforcement program. He is often a featured speaker at compliance training workshops sponsored by in-house company counsel and industry groups.

While at DOJ, Marc was a recipient of the Assistant Attorney General Award for Distinction on four separate occasions. For seven years, Marc was also an Adjunct Professor at Hastings College of the Law, where he taught a course on Antitrust Law. He is a member of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and the California Lawyers Association.

Representative Engagements

Since joining the firm, Marc has represented clients in a wide range of criminal antitrust matters. Representative engagements include:

• United States v. Patel: Represented a defendant in a DOJ criminal investigation and six-week trial relating to alleged no-poach conduct in the aerospace industry. Obtained an acquittal on behalf of the client after the Court dismissed charges against all defendants at the close of the government’s case.
• Represented a corporate executive in a DOJ market-allocation criminal investigation. DOJ closed its investigation without filing charges against the client.
• Represented a corporate executive in a DOJ market-allocation criminal investigation, who obtained leniency and provided testimony as a government witness at trial.
• Represented a former corporate executive in a DOJ price-fixing investigation.
• Represented a corporate executive in a DOJ no-poach investigation. DOJ closed its investigation without filing charges against the client.
• Represented a former corporate executive in a DOJ bid-rigging investigation.

Government Service

Served with the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division in the following positions:

• Senior Counsel, Criminal Enforcement (2016)
• Chief, San Francisco Office (2014-2016)
• Acting Chief, New York Office (2013)
• Senior Counsel, Criminal Litigation, Washington, D.C. (2010-2012)
• Director, Criminal Enforcement, Washington, D.C. (2005-2010)
• Assistant Chief, San Francisco Office (2003-2004)
• Trial Attorney, San Francisco Office (1986-2002)

Practices

• Antitrust & Competition Law
• Investigations & White-Collar Defense