A recent blog post from Federal Trade Commission staff serves to underscore the important interrelationship between certain types of governance arrangements and antitrust law. In this particular situation, the FTC is concerned with the potentially problematic connection between interlocking directorships with competitors and Section 8 of the Clayton Act.

At the same time, the FTC post also provides a “ping moment” about how governance structures can trigger other legal issues—not just antitrust. General counsel should coordinate with corporate strategists to assure that antitrust, and other legal issues, are addressed before a governance proposal “goes live” internally with the board, or externally in a transaction or similar corporate arrangement.