B.S., California Institute of Technology; M.S., California Institute of Technology; J.D., University of Chicago
After 42 years of service, Professor Collins retired from Shearman & Sterling LLP at the end of 2020. In 1981, he was awarded a White House Fellowship and served as special assistant to then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. Thereafter, Professor Collins served as a special assistant and later deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice under William F. Baxter. Professor Collins has taught antitrust courses at Yale Law School and New York University School of Law.
Professor Collins has represented numerous companies in high profile transactions, including Textron Cessna’s acquisition of Beechcraft; Ardagh’s acquisition of Verallia North America from Saint Gobain; Citigroup’s sales of EMI’s Music Publishing to SonyATV and Mubadala and EMI Recorded Music to Vivendi’s Universal Music Group; NASDAQ OMX’s attempted hostile contested takeover of NYSE Euronext; Thomson’s acquisition of Reuters; Merrill Lynch’s acquisition by Bank of America, DaimlerChrysler’s sale of Chrysler; Blockbuster’s contested hostile takeover bid for Hollywood Video; Viacom’s acquisition of CBS and its contested acquisition of Paramount; Georgia-Pacific’s acquisition of Fort James and hostile acquisition of Great Northern Nekoosa; and Phelps Dodge’s simultaneous hostile bids for Cyprus Amax and Asarco. He has been actively involved in a number of antitrust litigations in the United States as well as investigations conducted by the European Commission and other non-U.S. competition agencies.
Professor Collins conceived and served as editor-in-chief of Issues in Competition Law and Policy, a three-volume treatise that comprehensively surveys the issues facing modern competition law in the United States, Europe and around the world. For 15 years, he served as a committee chair, council member and officer in the ABA Section of Antitrust Law and he has chaired the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee of New York City Bar.
Professor Collins has a B.S. and M.S. from the California Institute of Technology, a J.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Minnesota, where he studied mathematical economics. He is a life member of the American Law Institute and a member of the American Bar Association, the American Economic Association, and the Council on Foreign Relations.