Overview
Elai Katz is a strategic antitrust lawyer with over two decades of experience handling mergers and acquisitions, litigation, counseling and government investigations. He represents buyers and sellers across a range of industries, including financial services, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, online retail, beverage, airline, and media and telecommunications.
Clients value Elai’s ability to provide concise and pragmatic advice, explaining complex issues in simple terms. They turn to him for a practical, creative and informed lens on their antitrust matters. As clients have noted, “Elai is known for his great working relationship with regulators, wonderful legal services and deep industry knowledge” and he “keeps a cool head in critical situations.”
Elai successfully guides his clients’ transactions through antitrust and foreign investment regulatory reviews in the United States and internationally. His efficient approach has garnered a strong record of obtaining quick and positive resolutions during the early phases of merger reviews. Elai is particularly attuned to global antitrust trends, and he uses such insights to the benefit of his clients when negotiating and completing mergers and acquisitions.
In addition to his transactional work, Elai represents clients in a variety of antitrust disputes, including complex class actions alleging price fixing and monopolization, as well as matters involving distribution arrangements and price discrimination. He also regularly advises on joint ventures and trade associations, as well as marketing, pricing and distribution strategies.
Well regarded as a thought leader on antitrust trends, Elai writes an antitrust column in The New York Law Journal, edited The Antitrust Compliance Handbook and has written chapters in Antitrust Law Developments and New York Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law. He is a regular panelist and moderator at the New York State Bar Association’s annual meeting, as well as the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section Spring Meeting, where he covers timely topics such as merger enforcement, information exchange and financial market manipulation.
At the start of his legal career, Elai clerked for Justice Mishael Cheshin of the Supreme Court of Israel.
Results
- Obtained regulatory clearance in multiple acquisitions for numerous clients in the financial services, insurance, healthcare, life sciences, digital commerce, beverage and airline industries, among others*
- Successfully defended a global financial services company in a foreign exchange markets class action, winning a jury verdict following an eight-day trial*
- Represented scholars and experts in antitrust economics as amici curiae in the Supreme Court of the United States case Ohio v. American Express Co.*
- Defended a global bank in LIBOR-related litigation and investigations*
- Defended an IPOs underwriter in a price-fixing class action*
- Represented a major foreign bank in benchmark manipulation antitrust suits*
- Obtained dismissal of an exclusive-dealing monopolization complaint in NicSand v. 3M before the en banc US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit*
- Represented an online retailer in a search-ad keyword investigation by the FTC*
- Persuaded DOJ to close investigation of a completed acquisition of a leading technology and engineering firm*
- Represented the nation’s largest private psychiatric hospital provider in the FTC’s investigation of its acquisition by a competitor*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott
Recognitions
- Best Lawyers in America, Antitrust Law, 2017-2025
- New York State Bar Association, William T. Lifland Award, 2025
- Chambers USA, 2008-2024
- Legal 500, Recommended, 2024
- Lexology Index, Competition, Recommended & Thought Leader, 2024-2025
- Benchmark Litigation, National Practice Area Star and Litigation Star, 2023-2024
- Lawdragon 500, Leading Litigators in America, 2022 and 2025, Leading Global Antitrust & Competition Lawyers, 2025
Community
- American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, vice chair of the International Comments and Policy Committee
- Yale Library Associates, trustee
- Yale University Library Council, member
- New York State Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section, former chair of the Executive Committee
Credentials
Education
Columbia Law School, JD, 1996
Yale University, BA, 1992
Admissions
New York
Courts / Agencies
US Supreme Court
US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Eastern District of New York
