Penguin Publishing House has turned to O'Melveny & Myers and its vice chair Daniel Petrocelli to defend its proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster against an antitrust lawsuit brought by the U.S. Justice Department.

Petrocelli is a storied litigator who was the lead counsel for AT&T when it won a rare courtroom antitrust victory against the DOJ in 2018. A judge rejected the Trump administration's attempt to block the proposed merger of AT&T and Time Warner.