Bio

Renata Hesse is co-head of the Firm’s Antitrust Group. Her practice focuses on antitrust counseling, cartels and merger clearance. Ms. Hesse is frequently recognized as a leading and influential antitrust lawyer, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property matters in high-tech industries. In addition to her work on civil antitrust matters, Ms. Hesse also has an active practice involving criminal antitrust investigations, including advising clients on no-poach agreements and other wage-fixing and labor market investigations. She is Vice Chair and Diversity Officer of the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Section and is a frequent speaker at antitrust and legal forums. Ms. Hesse joined Sullivan & Cromwell following a distinguished career in government, including leading the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice twice as Acting Assistant Attorney General and serving that division for more than 15 years. During her time at the Division, Ms. Hesse worked on a number of high profile transactions, as well as other key initiatives related to the licensing and enforcement of standards-essential patents. While serving as Acting Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Hesse, in collaboration with the FTC, was responsible for the issuance of the DOJ’s and FTC’s landmark “Antitrust Guidance For Human Resource Professionals”, which lays the groundwork for criminal prosecution of antitrust violations stemming from wage-fixing or no-poaching agreements. She also had oversight of the criminal program as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, where she was a decision-maker on a range of significant criminal matters. Ms. Hesse was previously Chief of the Networks and Technology Section (now the Technology and Financial Services Section) and a Trial Attorney in two Division sections, and has worked extensively with antitrust and competition law enforcement agencies at the highest levels across Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America. Ms. Hesse also served as Senior Counsel to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, where she advised Chairman Genachowski on transactions pending FCC approval. She co-authored the United States chapter of “The Intellectual Property and Antitrust Review” in 2017-2020.