Slava Zayats, PhD

Slava Zayats has nearly 20 years of experience as an economist specializing in antitrust matters. He leads economic analyses and has served as an expert in numerous mergers and acquisitions as well as litigation matters, including before the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as well as on behalf of the DOJ and FTC. Many of his past engagements were complex antitrust matters that involved extensive discovery and data-intensive econometric analyses. Dr. Zayats served as Practice Chair of the Antitrust Practice from 2017 through 2023, a time of exceptional growth in antitrust work at Bates White.

In addition to his deep and extensive antitrust experience with healthcare providers and insurers, Dr. Zayats has led major antitrust engagements in many other industries including (but not limited to) telecommunications, entertainment, commercial risk broking, retail, crude oil, steelmaking, and airlines.

Dr. Zayats has also served as consulting expert to multiple state agencies, including the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office, the California Department of Justice, and the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, advising on a broad range of antitrust issues. He has been published in the Antitrust Law Journal and the Review of Economics and Statistics.

PhD, Economics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

BA, Economics, Belarus State Economic University

• On behalf of the Department of Justice (DOJ), providing economic analysis of market definition, market power, and competitive effects of allegedly anticompetitive conduct by a major high-tech company. Work has been ongoing since 2022.

• Provided economic analysis to NFP Corp. in its $13 billion sale to Aon and assisted with submissions to DOJ. The matter concluded without a Second Request and was consummated in April 2024.
• On behalf of Highmark, Inc., provided empirical analyses of recent changes in health insurer competition in western Pennsylvania and the cost and quality performance of the Allegheny Health Network, owned by Highmark.

• Provided economic analysis to Transdev in its acquisition of First Transit. The deal closed in March 2023 without conditions.

• Provided economic analysis to Regal Rexnord Corporation in its acquisition of Altra Industrial Motion Corp. The deal closed in March 2023 without conditions.

• Provided economic analysis to MGM in its acquisition of the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. The deal closed in 2022 without conditions.
• On behalf of Willis Towers Watson (WTW), assisted at all stages of merger review in connection with the $30 billion proposed merger between Aon and WTW,  including preliminary antitrust risk assessment, Hart-Scott-Rodino–related submissions, and responses to the DOJ's second request to multiple advocacy submissions and presentations to the DOJ and the Canadian Competition Bureau.
• On behalf of the defendant and the intervenor in 21st Century Oncology v. State of Florida and Dr. Michael Katin (US District Court for the Northern District of Florida), supported the expert’s analysis regarding an economic basis for state policies, such as temporarily suspending non-compete enforceability, to prevent or ameliorate high concentration in physician services markets. The court denied the preliminary injunction, allowing the law to stand; the case subsequently settled.
• On behalf of health insurer Anthem, led the team supporting expert testimony in a case concerning Anthem’s proposed $54 billion merger with Cigna.

• Led the team that assisted the Department of Justice in evaluating the potential competitive effects of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed acquisition of Tribune Media.

• In an intellectual property matter involving music royalty payments, co-led the team that processed and analyzed daily stream counts for tens of millions of tracks of music with a focus on, among other things, the entry of new tracks and the distribution of their plays over time. 
• On behalf of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (WFBMC), assessed likely competitive effects of its proposed acquisition of High Point Regional Health.
• On behalf of Humana in connection with its proposed merger with Aetna, co-led a Bates White team that provided support with responses to DOJ’s second request, analyzed likely competitive effects and barriers to entry and exit in the sale of Medicare Advantage products, and analyzed likely competitive effects in the sale of individual health insurance on public exchanges. 
• Served as a consulting expert to the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC), an agency created in 2012 to increase value and access in the delivery of healthcare.