New York partners George Casey and Beau Buffier were featured in an August 13 Reuters story titled, "Stringent U.S. Antitrust Regime Adds to M&A Hurdles," that looked at the impact of tougher antitrust scrutiny on M&A dealmaking.

Casey, the co-head of Shearman & Sterling's global M&A practice, said sellers should try to build in strong contractual provisions to require a buyer to complete a deal even if there are antitrust issues. "The seller really wants to make sure it gets as much deal certainty as possible in light of the antitrust concerns," he said. "If the buyer is not prepared to offer that type of certainty, that deal may not get structured, because at the end of the day, the issue is who takes that risk?"

Buffier, an antitrust partner, added that he and others are following the current antitrust reviews of several planned mergers. "If you have the economy in the shape that it is with companies in financial distress and with significant uncertainty around the ability to obtain financing, and then you layer on top of that some additional regulatory uncertainty, that can have a negative impact on the enthusiasm for some transactions," Buffier added.