Aidan Synnott

Synnott’s antitrust litigation representations include:

• The Nielsen Company, the leading provider of television ratings in the United States in winning summary judgment before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, and confirming the victory on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in a monopolization case brought by Sunbeam Television Corp., the FOX affiliate station in Miami. Sunbeam had claimed that Nielsen’s rollout of a new ratings measurement methodology was a violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Sunbeam Television Corp. Nielsen Media Research, Inc., 763 F. Supp. 2d 1341 (S.D. Fl. 2011), aff’d, 711 F.3d 1264 (11th Cir. 2013);
• Deutsche Bank in multi-regulator, multi-jurisdictional inquiries concerning the setting of numerous Interbank Offered Rates (IBORs) — the largest investigations ever faced by the bank — and in 50-plus individual and class actions concerning IBOR rates in multiple currencies. In September 2025, the District Court granted summary judgment to Deutsche Bank and the other defendants, dismissing the remaining cases in their entirety after 16 years of litigation;
• For the New York City Transit Authority, obtaining dismissal of a claim for attempted monopolization of the market for bus simulators. Doron Precision Systems, Inc. FAAC, Inc., 423 F. Supp.2d 173 (S.D.N.Y. 2006);
• The defense of Sumitomo Chemical Company, one of the largest chemical companies in the world, in the vitamins price-fixing litigation. He has also defended numerous other U.S. and foreign companies in cartel cases; and
• Pfizer Inc. in successful settlements of class and opt-out actions alleging $11 billion in damages for monopolization of the market for Neurontin, a Pfizer pharmaceutical, through an alleged pattern of meritless patent litigations.

Antitrust merger clearance and investigation representations Aidan has led include:

• IMG College, the collegiate division of Endeavor, in connection with the antitrust clearance process for its merger with Learfield Communications, bringing together two of sports’ largest multimedia rights and sponsorship businesses;
• Time Warner Cable in successfully resolving the Justice Department’s Second Request investigation of its proposed $78 billion acquisition by Charter Communications as well as in the prior abandoned proposal by Comcast Corporation to acquire it for $45 billion;
• Hewitt Associates Inc. in a Justice Department investigation of its proposed $4 billion acquisition by Aon, where the Justice Department closed its investigation without imposing any conditions;
• Westcoast Energy in a Justice Department investigation of its $8 billion acquisition by Duke Energy, where the Justice Department closed its investigation without imposing any conditions;
• Fidelity National Financial in the FTC Second Request investigation of its $3 billion acquisition of a title insurance competitor, Lender Processing Services, Inc., which was approved in a consent decree which Aidan negotiated and which required minimal divestitures; and
• MGM in the FTC’s Second Request investigation of its acquisition by Amazon, where the FTC failed to challenge the transaction despite sending a close-at-your-peril letter.

Aidan’s recent bankruptcy representations include:

• Revlon, in its successful emergence from chapter 11 proceedings in the Southern District of New York;
• The Official Committee of Paragon Offshore plc, a U.K. offshore drilling company servicing oil and gas companies with operations in Brazil, Mexico, the North Sea, the Middle East, and elsewhere, in connection with Paragon’s chapter 11 case in the District of Delaware; and

Aidan’s International Arbitration experience includes, for:

• CFE, the Mexican electric authority, and its US subsidiary CFE International, victory, after an ICC five-day evidentiary hearing where Aidan was lead counsel, in an oil and gas dispute arising out of Winter Strom Uri, with WhiteWater Midstream, a Houston-based midstream provider. WhiteWater had filed the arbitration, seeking close to $200 million in damages for breach of contract. The Panel rejected all of WhiteWater’s claims and awarded CFE International over $30 million in damages, including 80% of its attorneys’ fees. White Water Midstream Logistics, LLC CFE International, LLC and Comision Federal de Electricidad, LCIA Arbitration No. 215223, Final Award (May 13, 2024).

Aidan’s commercial litigation representations include:

• PJT Partners, Inc. in:
  • securing the dismissal of a putative securities class action, Barrett PJT Partners Inc., 2017 WL 3995606 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 8, 2017); and
  • after several rounds of litigation in New York Courts, including two arguments in the New York Court of Appeals, settling a claim resulting from a fraud committed by a rogue employee;
• The National Music Publishers’ Association, Inc. (NMPA), the Songwriters Guild of America and the Nashville Songwriters Association International in a trial in the Library of Congress resulting in the setting of advantageous new rates and terms for the mechanical license under Section 115 of the Copyright Act

Synnott is chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee of the New York City Bar Association (2024–present). Synnott is also a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the New York Bar Foundation. He has been an associate editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, a member of the Editorial Board of the American Bar Association’s Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, co-chair of the New York State Bar Association Section of Commercial and Federal Litigation’s Committee on Antitrust and a member of the Executive Committee of the Section. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the State Bar’s Antitrust Section. Synnott teaches a seminar on commercial litigation at Columbia Law School and has been a guest lecturer and speaker at New York University School of Law, The Wharton School and the University of Michigan Law School. He has also published extensively in the areas of antitrust and intellectual property law. Synnott is the co-author of the “United States” chapter in the last several editions of The Public Competition Enforcement Review and served as General Editor of the Sixth through Sixteenth editions.