US Airways/American Airlines

O’Melveny represented US Airways in connection with its merger with American Airlines, both in structuring a complex set of labor agreements to secure union support for the deal, and as lead trial counsel in the Department of Justice’s attempt to enjoin the merger on antitrust grounds. To ensure the merger did not wither in the face of drawn out litigation, O’Melveny secured a trial date just over three months after the complaint was filed, and some six months before the DOJ said it could be ready to challenge what it called “one of the largest mergers ever adjudicated.” Through focused and intense litigation, O’Melveny put tremendous pressure on the government, which ultimately agreed to a settlement favorable enough to the airlines that “consumer advocates decried the government's surrender,” according to The American Lawyer. US Airways closed its merger with American Airlines on the eve of 2014 and became the world’s largest airline.