Neil Ray

Neil Ray is dual qualified as an English solicitor and a California attorney in the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice Group of Sheppard Mullin's San Francisco office.

Areas of Practice

Mr. Ray practices in the area of international antitrust and trade regulation, and specializes in European competition and telecommunications matters.  Prior to joining Sheppard Mullin, Mr. Ray worked in the London office of one of the UK's leading business law firms.  He has represented numerous international companies, both as principal parties and complainants, before the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission, the European Commission, and the European Community Courts.  Mr. Ray's antitrust practice also includes defending corporations under federal grand jury investigation for alleged price-fixing and other anti-competitive conduct; litigating cases under state, federal and international antitrust laws; and counseling on a broad spectrum of international business matters including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing, and distribution systems.  Mr. Ray is currently an advisor on the State Bar of California International Law Section Executive Committee.

Education

• LLB., London School of Economics and Political Science, 1998
• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, The College of Law, London, 1999

Languages

• French

Representative Matters

Representing Samsung in DRAM memory chip antitrust price fixing DOJ criminal investigation, and related national federal MDL civil class actions and state indirect purchaser class actions.

Representing an international shipping transport company in a criminal grand jury investigation involving price fixing allegations in the tank container industry.

Representing an Asian Airliner in a criminal grand jury investigation involving price fixing allegations in the international airline cargo industry.

Defending Samsung in California state court antitrust, unfair competition and IP claims involving computer memory chips brought by NYSE technology firm. Rambus v. Samsung et al.

Representing MasterCard International Incorporated in a series of actions challenging foreign currency conversion practices under California's Unfair Competition Law.

Representing risk arbitrage managers of various institutional investors and investment funds in connection with US and EU antitrust and regulatory advice on strategic investments and sophisticated trading strategies in the securities of publicly traded companies that are parties to either hostile or friendly mergers.

Representing US corporations on EU antitrust compliance programs, and on the application of Article 81 and the EU block exemption for vertical agreements to distribution agreements with European retailers.

Represented numerous US and international corporations on Form CO merger filings with the European Commission, and merger notifications to the UK's OFT.

Represented KPMG in international telecommunications litigation against German and U.S. telecommunication carriers.

Represented Europe's leading European business broadband company on various telecommunications regulatory matters.

Articles

• Author, "Regulating VoIP: An Overview of the Main Regulatory Challenges Governing the Deployment of VoIP Services in the US and EU", Telecom Law Best Practice: Leading Lawyers on Regulatory Compliance, Tax Planning, and the Federal Communications Commission, Aspatore Books, January 2006.
• Co-Author, "Role of Customer Complaints and Testimony in Merger Enforcement Post-Arch Coal and Oracle", The Sedona Conference Journal 2005.
• Co-author, "E.U. Electronic Communications Law," Richmond Law & Tax, London, August 2004.
• Author, "Modernizing the UK Competition Regime", Chartered Secretary Magazine, May 2002.
• Contributor, "Regulatory Aspects of Acquisitions in the UK and EU", Tolly's Company Acquisitions Handbook, June 2001.