Jim Phillips is a partner in the firm’s Winston-Salem office where he focuses on the areas of antitrust, international trade, and intellectual property law. He has extensive experience advising US and foreign clients on all aspects of antitrust compliance, merger control analysis, collaborations between competitors, sales and distribution, pricing and advertising, trade association activities, and intellectual property protection in the US and international marketplaces. Jim has represented companies in federal (DOJ, FTC) and state investigations relating to price-fixing, mergers and acquisitions (including Hart-Scott-Rodino filings), and false advertising.
Jim’s professional background includes several experiences serving as in-house counsel to Fortune 500 companies, including a one year stint in 2011 - 2012 as interim general counsel for an $850 million manufacturing company. These experiences have expanded his broad business background and shaped his pragmatic approach to client service by underscoring senior business executives’ need for efficient, practical, and cost-effective advice and solutions from their legal advisors.
Over the past decade, Jim also served as a member of the (US) Firm Management Committee and played a leadership role in the firm’s development of its international practice capabilities.
Jim has been voted by his peers to Best Lawyers in America (2014 – 2017) and Business North Carolina magazine’s Legal Elite (2015) in the field of Antitrust Law.
Professional Activities
- American Bar Association - International Law and Practice Section, Antitrust Section
- North Carolina Bar Association - Antitrust Section, International Law and Practice Section, Council Member 1995-2004
- Forsyth County Bar Association
Honors and Awards
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (BL Rankings) in the fields of Antitrust Law, Commercial Transactions / UCC Law, 2014 – Present
- Received the Best Lawyers™ Antitrust Law "Lawyer of the Year" award in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 2017
Experience
Any result the lawyer or law firm may have achieved on behalf of clients in other matters does not necessarily indicate similar results can be obtained for other clients.
- Represented international man-made fiber manufacturer in defense of price-fixing investigation by US Department of Justice and related civil actions.
- Assisted US consumer products companies in development and implementation of resale pricing policies and international distribution networks.
- Represented US consumer products company and coordinated with French and German counsel in defense of multijurisdictional patent infringement litigation.
- Represented US consumer products company in defense of price discrimination lawsuit under Robinson-Patman Act.
- Assisted US and foreign clients and coordinated with deal counsel in M&A transactions in assessment, preparation and filing of HSR premerger notification reports and resulting DOJ and FTC inquiries.
