Overview
Charles Ramsey is a Washington, D.C.-based partner in Paul Hastings’ Antitrust & Competition practice. His practice focuses on domestic and international merger control proceedings and related strategy.
Charles represents clients across industries on a variety of antitrust issues, including providing advice and counselling on U.S. merger control reportability, overseeing Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) filings, providing preliminary assessment of non-U.S. merger control filing obligations, overseeing and supporting local counsel in non-U.S. merger control proceedings, and drafting for advocacy before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He also provides antitrust compliance advice and supports clients on pre-closing integration activities and post-closing hold-separate arrangements, including drafting non-disclosure agreements and developing associated employee training.
Prior to returning to private practice, Charles worked as an attorney advisor at the DOJ Antitrust Division. During his time at the DOJ, he advised on a range of antitrust-related policy, as well as regulatory and legislative projects and initiatives, particularly as they related to U.S. merger control policy and legal issues. He also worked on merger and non-merger enforcement actions and investigations.
Charles is also fluent in German.
Education
- University of Michigan Law School, J.D. (cum laude)
- University of Hamburg (Germany), M.A.
- University of Notre Dame, B.A. (magna cum laude)
Representations
- Advent and Cinven on merger control and other regulatory aspects of the agreed combination of Kone and TK Elevator (TKE), creating one of the world’s leading elevator and escalator companies, for an enterprise value for TKE of €29.4 billion.
- AST SpaceMobile on the repurchase of a $225 million principal amount of convertible notes and a $503 million registered direct offering of Class A common stock.
- Cencora on its acquisition of Retina Consultants of America for cash, based on an enterprise value of approximately $4.6 billion.
- CrowdStrike on its $740 million acquisition of SGNL and its acquisitions of Seraphic Security, Onum, Pangea and Adaptive Shield.
- DSV on its €14.3 billion acquisition of Schenker AG from Deutsche Bahn.
- Evonik Industries in connection with the FTC’s investigation into Evonik’s $630 million acquisition of the precipitated silica business from J.M. Huber.
- Fever-Tree on its strategic partnership with Molson Coors Beverage Company in the U.S.
- Hewlett Packard Enterprise on the U.S. merger control aspects of its $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks.
- Infineon Technologies on its $830 million acquisition of GaN Systems.
- Japan Tobacco on its $2.4 billion acquisition of U.S. cigarette maker Vector Group.
- Johnson & Johnson on its $850 million acquisition of Proteologix, a biotechnology company focused on bispecific antibodies for immune-mediated diseases, and its $2 billion acquisition of Ambrx Biopharma, a biotech company developing next generation ADCs for prostate cancer.
- Jungheinrich AG on its $375 million acquisition of Storage Solutions Group.
- Kiekert AG and its North American subsidiary in the global auto parts price-fixing investigations, including a negotiated plea agreement with the DOJ and follow-on litigation in the U.S.
- Lowe’s Companies on its $8.8 billion acquisition of Foundation Building Materials.
- Messer Group and CVC Capital Partners with respect to their $3.3 billion acquisition of North American industrial gas assets required to be divested as a result of the FTC’s investigation of Linde/Praxair.
- Novartis on the merger control aspects of its $1.75 billion acquisition of U.S. radiopharmaceutical company Mariana Oncology.
- Novartis on its $2.89 billion takeover of MorphoSys AG.
- Penske Automotive Group on its approximately $520 million acquisition of Longo Toyota and Longo Lexus.
- Roivant Sciences on its $7.1 billion sale of Telavant, the developer of treatments for IBS.
- Sanofi S.A. on its acquisition of Vigil Neuroscience.
- Salesforce on its acquisition of Convergence.ai, an AI agent company recognized for developing advanced systems that perform complex, human-like tasks in digital environments.
- ServiceNow on its $7.75 billion acquisition of Armis, its acquisitions of Veza, Mission Secure and Logik.ai, and its joint $1.5 billion investment, alongside Salesforce, in Genesys.
- Standard BioTools on the sale of its SomaLogic business to Illumina for $425 million in cash and milestone payments.
- Starbucks on global merger control and ongoing competition compliance aspects of its $7.15 billion global coffee alliance with Nestle.
- Subsea7 on the U.S. merger control aspects of its proposed multibillion combination with Saipem (offshore energy construction and maintenance sector).
- Terns Pharmaceuticals in its $6.7 billion acquisition by Merck.
- Viterra and its shareholders on global merger control of its transformative merger with Bunge. This $34 billion transaction marks the largest grain trading merger in over a decade, establishing a cutting-edge global agribusiness leader.
- Yokohama Rubber on its acquisition of Trelleborg Wheel Systems Holding AB for an enterprise value of over €2 billion and on Yokohama''s $905 million acquisition of Goodyear’s off-the-road tire business.
Matters may have been completed before joining Paul Hastings.