Bio

Michael Dashefsky is Co-Chair of the firm’s Antitrust & Trade Practices Group. For more than two decades, Michael has counseled clients on a wide array of antitrust matters, including investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and antitrust agencies outside the United States; domestic and international antitrust litigation, including multidistrict class actions; and regulatory inquiries before U.S. and foreign regulators. In addition, Michael has extensive experience as an antitrust enforcer in roles with the DOJ’s Antitrust Division and the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, where he managed some of the agencies’ most significant investigations and litigation. Michael is deeply experienced at handling matters before the federal government as outside counsel and as in-house counsel for a Fortune 200 company. Leveraging this diverse experience, Michael counsels and defends clients with a unique perspective on the inner workings of both antitrust enforcement authorities worldwide and a multinational company, enabling him to develop targeted strategic solutions to meet the needs of each client separately. Michael represents clients on antitrust matters involving mergers and acquisitions, non-merger investigations and cases, joint ventures and other strategic transactions. In these matters, he represents and advises companies that are before the DOJ, FTC, state antitrust authorities and foreign competition agencies. Specifically, Michael has obtained antitrust approvals for several billion-dollar transactions before U.S. and international competition authorities. Michael also has significant experience in the payments and financial services industries, leading numerous antitrust investigations and litigation. Michael helps organizations navigate all facets of antitrust law with a special focus on guiding clients through the merger clearance process and advising them on complex antitrust litigation and regulatory inquiries. Further, Michael counsels clients across a broad range of competition issues, including antitrust compliance and pricing, sales and distribution practices. Michael also works with clients to develop and implement competition-related litigation and business strategies. While Michael has extensive experience in the payments and financial services industries, he also has experience in numerous other industries, including technology, healthcare, automotive, chemical, computer hardware and software, semiconductor, consumer products, energy, food and beverage, telecommunications, agriculture, and more. Michael previously served as a lead trial attorney at the Antitrust Division of the DOJ for a decade, where he represented the United States through all phases of antitrust investigations and litigation. While at the DOJ, Michael also worked with numerous foreign competition and regulatory agencies and served as a lead payments counsel for the Division. Michael was also a successful prosecutor with the FTC’s Bureau of Competition where he handled a wide array of antitrust matters, such as leading the FTC’s investigation of the largest computer hardware acquisition at the time. Prior to joining Bass, Berry & Sims, Michael was Vice President and Associate General Counsel of Global Litigation and Competition at a Fortune 200 company. In that role, he managed all types of global antitrust litigation, investigations and regulatory inquiries on behalf of the company. Michael also worked extensively on numerous antitrust issues related to the company’s commercial and strategic transactions, including an international acquisition worth more than $20 billion. Earlier in his career, Michael was a member of the antitrust practice groups at two global law firms where he represented clients before the U.S. antitrust agencies and advised them on a wide range of competition issues.