Brian F. Burke
Biography
Brian brings over 25 years of experience advising clients on all aspects of antitrust law. Known for his strategic and pragmatic approach, Brian helps clients achieve their commercial objectives while minimizing antitrust risk across a wide range of industries—including industrials, healthcare, technology, energy and infrastructure, finance, and consumer products.
Brian is particularly recognized for his ability to guide clients through complex merger clearance processes before both US and international competition authorities. He also represents third parties in antitrust investigations and provides counsel on civil non-merger and criminal enforcement matters, commercial litigation, compliance programs, risk assessments, and pricing and distribution strategies. His reputation for delivering practical solutions to high-stakes issues has made him a trusted advisor to clients navigating today’s dynamic regulatory landscape.
Practice Focus
Brian has deep experience in all antitrust issues arising from mergers and commercial combinations. He routinely appears before the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state-level competition authorities. He has successfully led domestic and multinational teams through the regulatory review of hundreds of transactions.
His transactional counseling is comprehensive and includes guidance on deal structuring, pre-closing notification requirements, premerger coordination limits, antitrust risk-allocation provisions, and navigating substantive reviews or challenges by enforcement agencies. Brian’s ability to anticipate regulatory concerns and craft tailored strategies has helped clients secure approvals efficiently and with minimal disruption to their business goals.
Representative Legal Matters
- Represented Methanex in its USD 2 billion acquisition of OCI’s global methanol business.
- Represented Sika AG on its USD 6 billion acquisition of MBCC Group.
- Represented Zen-Noh Grain Corp. in its USD 300 million acquisition of certain grain elevator assets from Bunge North America, Inc.
- Represented Safran in its USD 1.8 billion acquisition of the flight control and actuation business of Collines Aerospace from RTX Corporation.
- Represented Lonza AG on multiple transactions.
- Represented Chr. Hansen in its USD 12.3 billion merger with Novozymes.
- Represented Trane Technologies on multiple transactions.
- Represented Cigna on its USD 5.4 billion divestiture of its personal accident, supplemental health and life insurance businesses in certain Asia Pacific countries to Chubb.
- Represented The Freeman Company in connection with the sale of its subsidiary Encore Event Technologies to Blackstone.
- Represented Hitachi in its USD 6 billion acquisition of the global power-grid business from ABB Ltd.
- Represented Gebr. Knauf in connection with its USD 7 billion acquisition of USG Corporation.
- Represented German-based commercial vehicle component manufacturer in its proposed acquisition of a leading rival.
- Represented Fortune 200 consumer products company in multiple matters involving licensing, distribution, and M&A activity.
Professional Associations and Memberships
- American Bar Association - Section on Antitrust Law
- New York State Bar Association - Member
- District of Columbia Bar - Member
Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit~United States
- U.S. Supreme Court~United States
- U.S. District Court, District of Columbia~United States
- District of Columbia~United States
- New York~United States
Education
- Georgetown University Law Center (JD)
- James Madison University (BA, Honors)
Languages
- English
- Spanish