Partner, Arnold & Porter
Debbie Feinstein heads the firm's Global Antitrust group, and brings a wealth of experience to her practice in advising clients on a range of antitrust challenges before US antitrust authorities. She recently re-joined the firm from the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she was Director of the Bureau of Competition. In that capacity, she was responsible for supervising the investigation and enforcement of the US antitrust laws against anticompetitive mergers and conduct. During her tenure from 2013 to 2017, the FTC had substantial litigation success and a number of major merger wins, including challenges to Sysco Corp.'s acquisition of rival US Foods Inc., and Staples Inc.'s merger with Office Depot Inc. She had previously served at the FTC from 1989 to 1991 as Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Competition and Attorney Advisor.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
James G. Dinan University Professor, Carey Law School, University of Pennsylvania
Herbert Hovenkamp is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2008 won the Justice Department’s John Sherman Award for his lifetime contributions to antitrust law. In 2012 he served on the ABA’s Committee to advise the President-elect on antitrust matters. His principal writing includes The Opening of American Law: Neoclassical Legal Thought, 1870-1970 (Oxford, 2015); Antitrust Law (formerly with Phillip E. Areeda and Donald F. Turner) (22 vols., Aspen 2008-18); Principles of Antitrust (West, 2017); Creation Without Restraint: Promoting Liberty and Rivalry in Innovation (Oxford, 2012, with Bohannan); The Making of Competition Policy (Oxford, 2012, with Crane); The Antitrust Enterprise: Principle and Execution (Harvard, 2006); Federal Antitrust Policy: The Law of Competition and Its Practice (West, 5th ed. 2015); IP and Antitrust (2 vols., Aspen, 2017, with Janis, Lemley, Leslie, and Carrier); and Enterprise and American Law, 1836-1937 (Harvard, 1991). He has also co-authored casebooks in antitrust, property law, and a free open source casebook on innovation and competition policy. He has consulted on numerous antitrust cases for various government entities and private plaintiffs. He has two sons.
Partner, Litigation Department, Paul Hastings
Michael Murray is co-chair of the Antitrust and Competition practice at Paul Hastings and represents clients in high-stakes mergers and acquisitions and antitrust litigation and investigations. Based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, Michael is Chambers ranked and brings significant government antitrust and competition experience, having most recently served as the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ), where he oversaw the work of approximately 350 lawyers and 50 economists. In that capacity, Michael supervised DOJ’s merger investigations, conduct matters and litigation for several years.
Michael is the rare antitrust lawyer who maintains both an active merger control practice and a bustling litigation practice. In 2025, for example, he shepherded over $65 billion of transactions through global merger control regimes, including a litigated merger challenge in the U.S., while also representing over a dozen clients in major antitrust litigation. In that year, he won awards for both his merger work and his litigation matters. Chambers USA describes Mike for having “an encyclopedic knowledge of antitrust law [who] can recite different issues for different circuits.”
Michael also is a partner in the Appellate, Regulatory and Complex Litigation practices at Paul Hastings. He brings significant government experience to a practice consisting of preparing and litigating challenges to agency rulemaking, adjudication or other activity, having served as an associate deputy attorney general at DOJ, where he oversaw the Civil Division’s defense of high-profile rulemaking challenges and other agency actions. Earlier in his career, Michael clerked for the Honorable Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Honorable Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He also served as an AUSA for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Antitrust Partner, White & Case
Rahul Rao is a partner in the Global Antitrust Practice at White & Case and the former Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition. He advises clients on merger clearance, government investigations, antitrust litigation, and regulatory strategy, with particular depth in healthcare, life sciences, private equity, retail, and labor markets.
At the FTC, Rahul led major merger and conduct investigations, supervised enforcement in critical sectors, and helped shape landmark policy initiatives, including the revised Merger Guidelines and the Commission’s noncompete rulemaking. Earlier, he helped establish the Washington State Attorney General’s Antitrust Division as a national leader in labor market competition enforcement.
Having served on both the federal and state enforcement front lines, Rahul brings clients a unique understanding of agency priorities, risk profiles, and strategies for navigating today’s increasingly dynamic antitrust environment.
Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law; Professor of Law and Business; Affiliate Professor of Business, USC Gould School of Law and Marshall School of Business
D. Daniel Sokol is the Carolyn Craig Franklin Chair in Law and a Professor of Law and Business at the USC Gould School of Law and Marshall School of Business (marketing department). He holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics. He also serves as faculty director of the Center for Transnational Law and Business and the co-director of the USC Marshall Initiative on Digital Competition. Additionally, in a part time capacity, he serves as Senior Advisor at White & Case LLP.
Professor Sokol is among the top 10 most cited antitrust law professors in the past five years. He focuses his teaching and scholarship on complex business issues from early stage start-ups to multinational businesses and the issues that businesses face regarding competition: antitrust, data breaches, corporate governance, digital platforms, compliance, innovation, M&A, digital transformation, and global business regulation.
He is a member of the American Law Institute. He also serves as academic advisor to the United States Chamber of Commerce and as a non-governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network. His work has appeared in a variety of journals: Strategic Management Journal, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Michigan Law Review and Northwestern Law Review, among others.
Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University; Former General Counsel at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Alden Abbott is a Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center. Prior to joining Mercatus, he served as the General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As the Commission’s chief legal officer and adviser, he represented the agency in court and provides legal counsel to the Commission and its bureaus and offices.
Prior to rejoining the FTC in April 2018, Mr. Abbott served in executive positions at the Heritage Foundation (2014-2018) and BlackBerry (2012-2014). He also held a variety of senior positions in the U.S. federal government (in the FTC, the Commerce Department, and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and the Antitrust Division).
He speaks French, Spanish, and Italian.
Professor of Law, University of Cincinnati College of Law
Professor Stephanie Hunter McMahon has taught courses in tax law and legal history at the University of Cincinnati College of Law since 2008, and while doing so has won two of the law school’s teaching awards, its faculty excellence award, and its award for scholarship.
To date, much of her scholarship explores the relationship between taxation and the public’s perception of taxation with respect to families and the application of administrative law to tax. Her interest in the development of tax policy led her to write Principles of Tax Policy for West’s Concise Hornbook Series. In the last two years, she has begun scholarship focusing on the tax treatment of disadvantaged groups, both women seeking abortions in states that do not provide access to care and the discriminatory tax treatment of inmate labor.
Her writings have been published in peer-reviewed journals, The Tax Lawyer (ABA journal), Florida Tax Review, and the Virginia Tax Review, as well as student-reviewed journals, such as Northwestern Law Review, Washington Law Review, and Michigan State Law Review. Professor McMahon received her J.D. from Harvard Law School and PhD in American history from the University of Virginia. Following law school, Professor McMahon practiced in the New York offices of Cravath, Swaine & Moore and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Partner, Jones Day
Ray Wiacek is one of the world’s leading international tax lawyers. He represents multinational corporations on cross-border financings, international acquisitions and reorganizations, and transfer pricing. He is particularly skilled at global planning involving intellectual property. Ray also defends his advice, favorably resolving tax disputes ranging from the proper pricing of foreign autos to the effectiveness of an agreement to share R&D costs worldwide. He is currently challenging the IRS’ anti-inversion regulations in court.
Ray negotiated and closed billions of dollars of cross-border financings for Bank of America against many of the leading banks in Europe. He led the worldwide team integrating Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia with Pfizer after Pfizer’s overhaul of those companies. This included the disposition of nonstrategic assets, such as Schick and Wilkinson Sword to Energizer and Chiclets and Dentyne to Cadbury. Ray also led the team that implemented a worldwide business and tax plan for Halliburton.
In addition to Bank of America, Pfizer, and Halliburton, representative clients have included Bridgestone/Firestone, Celgene, Dow Corning, H.J. Heinz, Isuzu Motors, JP Morgan, Transworld Oil, and United Coal.
Ray has testified many times on international tax matters before Congress and the Internal Revenue Service. He has been listed every year in the Chambers guide to best lawyers, with clients describing him as “pragmatic and deal oriented,” “an excellent negotiator,” with “superb technical skills and analytic ability.”
Of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP
The Honorable Paul J. Ray is currently Of Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP where he advises clients on regulatory opportunities and challenges and helps them formulate and execute advocacy strategies for their regulatory policy priorities before the executive branch and Congress.
During the first Trump Administration, Paul held various senior positions at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, including as acting, and then Senate-confirmed, head of the office. As OIRA Administrator (the "regulations czar"), Paul supervised the review of hundreds of regulations from across the government, drafted numerous executive orders governing the regulatory process, and led the Administration’s regulatory reform effort. As a result of this experience, Paul is well-positioned to help clients understand and achieve regulatory policy priorities in the context of the government’s regulatory agenda and ongoing reform efforts.
Most recently, Paul was also the Director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation. In that role, he supervised the formulation of the Foundation’s economic and regulatory policy recommendations and provided technical assistance to congressional committees and staff regarding legislative changes to the regulatory process. In addition to his role at The Heritage Foundation, Paul also served as a Senior Advisor at a strategic advisory firm. Before his time in government, Paul practiced law at a law firm in Washington, specializing in administrative law matters.
Prior to his role at the White House, Paul was Counselor to the Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor. There he led departmental efforts in high-profile rulemakings and helped formulate the Department’s legal positions and strategy.
Paul served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and as a law clerk to the Honorable Debra Livingston of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Paul is a thought leader in the conservative legal movement and is a frequent commentator and speaker on regulatory policy and reform matters, including at law schools, professional gatherings, and other venues. He is the Chairman of Innovations in Peacebuilding International and the Regulatory Process Working Group of the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. Paul is also an adjunct lecturer at the Hillsdale College School of Government.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Svetlana S. Gans is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP where she helps clients navigate complex consumer protection, privacy, and competition related regulatory proceedings before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), , U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, State Attorneys General and other enforcement bodies. Ms. Gans also assists on litigation matters and provides strategic counseling and advice related to public policy issues.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, she served as the Vice President & Associate General Counsel at NCTA, the Internet & Television Association, where she helped lead the association’s consumer protection and competition policy work. Prior to joining NCTA, Ms. Gans served with distinction as Chief of Staff to Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen at the FTC. As the agency chief of staff, Ms. Gans managed and oversaw agency operations, including bureau and office heads reporting to the Chairman, a seven-member office staff, and an agency budget of over $300 million. She also served as the Acting Chairman’s key advisor on consumer protection and competition investigations and litigation, working with a diverse team of attorneys and economists to preserve competition and protect U.S. consumers. She created, executed, and oversaw several strategic initiatives for the agency, including the agency process reform, regulatory reform, and data security transparency initiatives. Previously, Ms. Gans had the unique experience of serving in both litigating bureaus of the FTC: the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Prior to her time in government, Ms. Gans worked as an antitrust associate at major law firms. Her practice focused on defending consumer product, financial services, and trade association clients in regulatory and private investigations alleging conspiracy and violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Ms. Gans has been an active leader in the ABA Antitrust Law Section (“Section”) for two decades, and currently serves as the Section’s Marketing Officer. Ms. Gans helped create the Section’s Young Lawyer Representative Program, now in its 10th year, and the Section’s Law Ambassador Program, each aimed at developing and promoting the next generation of consumer protection and competition attorneys. Ms. Gans is also active in the Federal Communications Bar Association, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiative and the Women’s Leadership Committee.
Ms. Gans received her law degree with high honors from the University of Denver College of Law. During law school, Ms. Gans served as a Judicial Intern to the Honorable John L. Kane, Jr. and as an Honors Program Paralegal for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Merger Taskforce. Ms. Gans earned her undergraduate degree cum laude from Boston University.
Counsel, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP; Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom
Bilal Sayyed represents clients before the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in significant merger, civil and criminal antitrust matters. A significant portion of his practice involves representing investment funds on antitrust and Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act compliance matters; he has also provided expert witness services related to HSR compliance. Bilal also counsels clients before the FTC in consumer protection and privacy investigations. He maintains an active amicus and appellate brief writing practice in antitrust litigation and antitrust merger matters.
Prior to joining Cadwalader, Bilal was the Director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning (OPP) (2018-2021). In that role, he provided legal and policy advice to the Chairman and Commissioners on antitrust and consumer protection matters and worked closely with the senior and career leadership of the FTC’s Bureaus of Competition, Consumer Protection, and Economics. Bilal previously served as an Attorney Advisor to FTC Chairman Timothy J. Muris from 2001 to 2004. In that role, Bilal advised the Chairman on matters involving a wide spectrum of industries, including chemical and mining, petroleum and natural gas, health care and pharmaceutical, defense and transportation, gaming, various consumer products and retail operations, and professional associations and standard-setting organizations.
Bilal has taught antitrust and competition law at the George Mason University School of Law since 2011.
Bilal received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and the State of New York, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for the District of Colorado and the District of Columbia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Fifth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bilal is the host of Rethinking Antitrust, a podcast published by TechFreedom that examines the economics, institutions, law, legislation, and policy goals of antitrust enforcement.
Executive Director, Committee for Justice
Ashley Baker is Executive Director of the Committee for Justice and founder of the Alliance on Antitrust coalition. Her work focuses on antitrust law, technology regulation, administrative-agency authority, the Supreme Court, and judicial nominations. She closely follows the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, with particular attention to merger review, agency procedure, and the effects of regulation on American innovation and competitiveness. She is also founder of the Alliance on Antitrust Coalition.
Ashley has testified before the United States Senate on antitrust law. Her writing has appeared in Fox News, USA Today, The Boston Globe, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, The American Spectator, and other national publications. She also provides policy analysis through congressional testimony and correspondence, regulatory comments, and public commentary.
Ashley serves on the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project and Antitrust and Consumer Protection Practice Group Executive Committee. She is also active in the Republican National Lawyers Association and has spoken on the Supreme Court and the federal judiciary. An authority on the judicial-confirmation process, she worked closely on the successful confirmation efforts for Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, as well as multiple federal appellate judges.
Vice President, Cornerstone Research, Economic and Financial Consulting and Expert Testimony
Greg Eastman analyzes complex economic and accounting issues related to tax, mergers, securities and financial products, and healthcare. He has extensive trial and arbitration expertise and directs large teams supporting multiple experts. As a testifying expert, Dr. Eastman has addressed profitability, cost efficiencies, class certification, valuation and damages, and unjust enrichment issues. He has provided testimony before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dr. Eastman has more than twenty years of experience consulting in a range of industries, including electric utilities, energy, financial institutions, insurance, medical services, nuclear utilities, oil, private equity, and transportation.
In his tax controversy work, Dr. Eastman has analyzed the economic substance and business purpose of transactions. He has reviewed structured transactions, assessed a multinational company’s debt capacity, analyzed guarantee fee payments, and evaluated the risk management functions of a multinational financial institution. In addition, he has worked on cases involving transfer pricing, the relative value of software components, and the manufacturing and Food and Drug Administration approval processes for medical devices.
Dr. Eastman’s tax accounting work has covered stock option awards, uncertain tax benefits, deferred tax assets, and net operating loss carryforwards. He supported experts on tax accounting and poison pill issues in the Selectica, Inc. v. Versata Enterprises, Inc., and Trilogy, Inc. trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Dr. Eastman has been retained as a testifying expert to assess merger-specificity and verifiability of claimed efficiencies in multiple industries. He helped to estimate the profitability of the individual commercial health insurance business in the Aetna–Humana merger. Dr. Eastman has also been retained to perform profitability analyses and to assess whether firms are failing and their assets are likely to exit the relevant market. He was the DOJ’s testifying expert in United States v. EnergySolutions Inc. et al.
Dr. Eastman has led a variety of consulting projects involving accounting and financial reporting issues. In these matters, he has evaluated the adequacy of disclosures, fair value and asset impairments, materiality, goodwill, accounting for loan losses, concentrations of risk, revenue recognition, and other issues pertaining to whether financial statements were prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) and whether audit and review procedures complied with generally accepted auditing standards (GAAS).
Dr. Eastman has conducted liability and damages analyses in securities class actions, including In re Vivendi Securities Litigation, In re Omnicom Securities Litigation, and In re Williams Securities Litigation. In financial cases, he has analyzed issues related to debt and equity securities, derivative contracts, mutual fund trading, cost of capital, real estate investments, private equity investments, and valuation. He worked with experts on insider trading and failure to report transactions in the SEC v. Samuel E. Wyly et al. trial. Dr. Eastman also supported multiple experts in a trial involving risks and investment returns in a large portfolio of high-yield bonds.
Dr. Eastman has performed drug valuations in multiple contexts, including in appraisal and breach of contract cases. As the testifying expert in an international arbitration, he estimated damages related to allegations of breach of contract to market a drug. He has also analyzed medical devices, cord blood services, cancer treatment services, and other healthcare-related industries. Dr. Eastman worked on firm profitability and cost efficiencies issues in the Aetna–Humana and Anthem–Cigna proposed mergers. He was retained as a testifying expert to analyze cost efficiencies and failing firm defenses in a hospital and physician practice merger.
Partner, White & Case
Mr. Grannon helps clients with antitrust matters, including civil and criminal defense as well as counseling for mergers and acquisitions and settlements of pharmaceutical patent litigation. Since 2001, he also has helped clients with concerns under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-corruption issues. Mr. Grannon began at the firm as a summer associate in 1997 and has been a partner since 2007.
A former prosecutor, Mr. Grannon returned to White & Case after serving as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2003-04, where he helped formulate US antitrust enforcement policy and manage the civil and criminal investigations and court cases brought by the Antitrust Division. He ended his DOJ service with a detail as a Special Assistant US Attorney in the District of Columbia, trying twenty bench and jury trials as lead counsel.
In private practice, Mr. Grannon has argued on behalf of clients in district courts across the country, including a successful verdict for defendants in an antitrust jury trial, argued appeals in the Eleventh and DC Circuits, and worked on eleven matters before the US Supreme Court, ten of which were antitrust cases.
Mr. Grannon clerked for the Honorable Walter K. Stapleton, US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, 1999-2000, and the Honorable Federico A. Moreno, US District Court for the Southern District of Florida, 1998-99.
He is a member of the Legal Policy Board of the Washington Legal Foundation.
Mr. Grannon served a three-year term, 2015-18, on the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Amicus Curiae Briefs.
He previously served as Vice-Chair of the Health Care and Pharmaceuticals Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law, and prior to that as Vice-Chair of its Compliance and Ethics Committee.
Mr. Grannon has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Howard University School of Law, where he taught a seminar on advanced antitrust law.
Partner,, White & Case LLP
George Paul is an antitrust lawyer who advises clients on a range of international competition issues, with a particular focus on merger clearances, cartel defense and litigation.
As reported by The Legal 500 US, clients said George's "'depth of experience, ability to make the complex simple and business-oriented and succinct approach' make him 'an in-house lawyer's dream.'" Further acclaimed as a "world-class" practitioner, George's reputation is based on his "impressive track record", spanning more than 20 years. He has played a key role in numerous high-profile cases, which have often involved multiple competition agencies across the globe. George provides clarity to clients in a complex area that requires highly detailed and technical knowledge, and where regulations change rapidly and can even conflict across jurisdictions.
Merger Clearances
George is regularly involved in antitrust counseling and litigation arising from US and cross-border mergers and joint ventures. He advises clients on merger control filings for cross-border transactions and coordinates their HSR and international filings efforts. George has handled complex antitrust issues across an array of industries, including retail/consumer goods, healthcare and medical devices, paper and pulp, petrochemicals, broadcasting and electronics. His work on complex, cutting edge matters has received Deal of the Year recognition by numerous publications, such as the Financial Times, the American Lawyer Legal Awards, The Deal and M&A Advisor.
George has particular experience advising clients on global transactions with multiple merger clearance requirements. He is co-editor of Worldwide Merger Notification Requirements, a comprehensive survey of merger notification and control laws across 217 jurisdictions, and regularly writes and speaks on antitrust and competition law matters.
Cartels
George regularly counsels companies and individuals on criminal antitrust matters before enforcement agencies around the world, including the US Department of Justice (DOJ), US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the EU, Australia, Japan and South Korea. He was counsel to Stolt-Nielsen in its landmark action against the DOJ, which revoked Stolt's amnesty and indicted the company and its senior executives. The case was the first time a court enforced an antitrust amnesty agreement.
Litigation/Anticompetitive Practices
George has represented clients before the competition agencies as plaintiffs and defendants in federal and state courts in the US. He has been involved in a number of US agency merger challenges, and has successfully defended clients in non-merger investigations related to alleged market allocation, consumer protection requirements and monopolization. George has represented overseas manufacturers against charges of an alleged global price-fixing cartel, and has also represented clients in numerous antitrust class action proceedings.
Former United States National Security Advisor
John R. Bolton served as Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor from April 2018 to September 2019.
Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Bolton served as a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI); of counsel at Kirkland & Ellis; a contributor to FOX News Channel and FOX Business Network; and his op-ed articles were regularly featured in major media publications.
Ambassador Bolton was appointed as United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations on August 1, 2005 and served until his resignation in December 2006. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Bolton served as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security from May 2001 to May 2005.
Other positions he has previously held include Assistant Secretary for International Organization Affairs at the Department of State, 1989-1993; Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice, 1985-1989; Assistant Administrator for Program and Policy Coordination, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1982-1983 and General Counsel, U.S. Agency for International Development, 1981-1982.
Ambassador Bolton is the author of Surrender is Not an Option: Defending America at the U.N. and Abroad, published by Simon and Shuster (November 2007) and How Barack Obama is Endangering our National Sovereignty, published by Encounter Books (April 2010).
Ambassador Bolton was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from Yale College in 1970, and received his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1974. He currently resides in Maryland with his wife, Gretchen. They have one daughter, Jennifer Sarah, who also graduated from Yale College, and received her MBA and SM degrees from MIT in 2014 and is currently a senior manager at Nissan’s facility in Nashville.
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
Pasco Middleton Bowman II is a federal judge on senior status on the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. He joined the court in 1983 after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat vacated by Jesse Smith Henley. Bowman assumed senior status on August 1, 2003.
Senior Faculty, Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford Law School
Joseph A. Grundfest, JD ’78, is a nationally prominent expert on capital markets, corporate governance, and securities litigation. His scholarship has been published in the Harvard, Yale, and Stanford law reviews, and he has been recognized as one of the most influential attorneys in the United States. Professor Grundfest founded the award-winning Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, which provides detailed, online information about the prosecution, defense, and settlement of federal class action securities fraud litigation. He launched Stanford Law School’s executive education programs and continues to co-direct Directors’ College, the nation’s leading venue for the continuing professional education of directors of publicly traded corporations. He is also a senior faculty member with the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance. Additionally, he is co-founder and director of Financial Engines and a director of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co.
Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1990, Professor Grundfest was a commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, served on the staff of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors as counsel and senior economist for legal and regulatory matters, and was an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. Early in his career he was a research associate at the Brookings Institution and an economist and consultant with the RAND Corporation.
William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Saul Levmore came to the Law School from the University of Virginia. He was the Dean of the University of Chicago Law School from 2001 to 2009, and is the William B. Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law. He has been a visiting professor at Yale, Harvard, Michigan, and Northwestern. He has taught and written about torts, corporations, copyright, non-profit organizations, comparative law, public choice, corporate tax, commercial law, insurance, and contracts. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a past president of the American Law Deans Association, and a past trustee of the Law School Admissions Council and of the Skadden Foundation. He is currently the President of the American Law and Economics Association. Away from law, he has been an advisor on corporate governance issues and on development strategies and although his work continues to be related to law and economics, and especially public choice, across many fields he has also written books on aging and on games and puzzles.
Dean Emeritus, George Mason School of Law
Lauded as a cultural laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia, former Mason dean Henry G. Manne was the driving force behind the many innovations in legal education implemented at George Mason.
Professor Manne was designated one of the "founders" of the field of law and economics by the American Law and Economics Association. He launched the Law and Economics Center at Emory University and the University of Miami before bringing it to George Mason.
His monograph, An Intellectual History of the School of Law, George Mason University, traces the development of the law and economics movement and highlights the special contributions made by George Mason University School of Law to the movement. Professor Manne's other writings include such seminal works as Insider Trading and the Stock Market; Wall Street in Transition (with E. Solomon); and "Mergers and the Market for Corporate Control", Journal of Political Economy, April 1965. Professor Manne also designed and implemented at George Mason the nation's first system of fully integrated law school specialty track programs.
In August 2012, Dean Manne gave an oral history of his life, including his time at the Law and Economics Center, to the Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society. An audio recording of the interview and transcript are available on the Society's website: audio (mp3); edited transcript (pdf).
He received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University (1950), J.D. from the University of Chicago (1952), J.S.D. from Yale University (1966), LL.D. from Seattle University (1987), and LL.D. from the Universidad Francesco Marroquin in Guatemala (1987).
Former United States Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice
William Bradford served as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division from 1981 to 1988.
Reynolds was Senior Counsel in BakerBotts Antitrust and Competition division. He graduated with a LL.B. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1967 where he was Order of the Coif and Editor-in-Chief of the Vanderbilt Law Review. In 1964, he received a B.A. from Yale University.
Reynolds passed away on September 14, 2019, in Seabrook Island, South Carolina at age 77.
Vice President of Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, Cogeco Inc.
Paul Beaudry is Vice President, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs at Cogeco Inc. He leads Cogeco’s regulatory function in Canada and the United States, and represents the company in proceedings before the CRTC, the Federal Communications Commission and other government departments and regulatory agencies. He also oversees compliance with regulatory requirements imposed on the company at each level of government, in both countries. In addition, Paul leads Cogeco’s Sustainability team and the strategy for public disclosure of ESG matters. He joined Cogeco in November 2020 and has since held progressively larger leadership roles within the organization.
Prior to joining Cogeco, Paul served as Director of Regulatory Affairs at TELUS in Calgary. He also practiced competition and foreign investment law at Stikeman Elliott LLP and Ogilvy Renault LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and served as a senior policy advisor to Canada’s Minister of Industry.
Paul is a graduate of the University of Montreal Faculty of Law and is a member of the Quebec Bar. He serve on the boards of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec, the Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC), La Fondation La Rue des Femmes and the Canadian chapter of the International Institute of Communications. He also sits on the Governors Council of Golf Canada.
Chief Executive Officer, OUTtv
Brad Danks is the CEO of OUTtv a Canadian specialty channel and OTT Platform that broadcasts in Canada and around the World. His day to day activities include overseeing all aspects of the channel including all matters relating to dealing with cable companies and affiliates, programming acquisitions and sales, marketing and sales and new media. In addition, he is deeply involved in the development and financing of new film and television properties. He is also an educator that teaches Entertainment and Media issues at a number of institutions and is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Victoria.
Senior Research Fellow, Center for Growth and Opportunity
William Rinehart is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.
He specializes in telecommunication, Internet, and data policy, with a focus on emerging technologies and innovation. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Wired, Morning Consult, The Hill, Forbes, Reason, Marginal Revolution, Overlawyered, and on BBC Radio and NPR, just to name a few. Rinehart speaks regularly on topics related to tech policy and has been cited in regulatory orders from the FCC as well as Supreme Court petitions.
Rinehart came to the Center from the American Action Forum, where he served as Director of Technology and Innovation Policy. He was also previously a Research Fellow at TechFreedom and the Director of Operations at the International Center for Law & Economics. Additionally, he worked for the Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement as the Research Assistant in Technology and Civic Engagement. Rinehart is currently a Frédéric Bastiat Fellow at the Mercatus Center and previously a Fellow at the Internet Law & Policy Foundry. Additionally, he served on the Federal Communications Commission’s Broadband Deployment Committee and Consumer Advocacy Committee.
Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
Svetlana S. Gans is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP where she helps clients navigate complex consumer protection, privacy, and competition related regulatory proceedings before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), , U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, State Attorneys General and other enforcement bodies. Ms. Gans also assists on litigation matters and provides strategic counseling and advice related to public policy issues.
Before joining Gibson Dunn, she served as the Vice President & Associate General Counsel at NCTA, the Internet & Television Association, where she helped lead the association’s consumer protection and competition policy work. Prior to joining NCTA, Ms. Gans served with distinction as Chief of Staff to Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen at the FTC. As the agency chief of staff, Ms. Gans managed and oversaw agency operations, including bureau and office heads reporting to the Chairman, a seven-member office staff, and an agency budget of over $300 million. She also served as the Acting Chairman’s key advisor on consumer protection and competition investigations and litigation, working with a diverse team of attorneys and economists to preserve competition and protect U.S. consumers. She created, executed, and oversaw several strategic initiatives for the agency, including the agency process reform, regulatory reform, and data security transparency initiatives. Previously, Ms. Gans had the unique experience of serving in both litigating bureaus of the FTC: the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Prior to her time in government, Ms. Gans worked as an antitrust associate at major law firms. Her practice focused on defending consumer product, financial services, and trade association clients in regulatory and private investigations alleging conspiracy and violations of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Ms. Gans has been an active leader in the ABA Antitrust Law Section (“Section”) for two decades, and currently serves as the Section’s Marketing Officer. Ms. Gans helped create the Section’s Young Lawyer Representative Program, now in its 10th year, and the Section’s Law Ambassador Program, each aimed at developing and promoting the next generation of consumer protection and competition attorneys. Ms. Gans is also active in the Federal Communications Bar Association, currently serving as Co-Chair of the Diversity Pipeline Initiative and the Women’s Leadership Committee.
Ms. Gans received her law degree with high honors from the University of Denver College of Law. During law school, Ms. Gans served as a Judicial Intern to the Honorable John L. Kane, Jr. and as an Honors Program Paralegal for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Merger Taskforce. Ms. Gans earned her undergraduate degree cum laude from Boston University.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
A leading lawyer in tech regulation, consumer protection, and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement, Duane Pozza advises clients on key legal issues, advocacy positions, and regulatory compliance involving consumer uses of developing technology. He advises on matters involving blockchain, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), fintech, mobile payments, and other tech-related innovation, and counsels on a range of legal and regulatory issues including privacy and data governance, advertising law, and consumer financial laws and regulations. Prior to joining Wiley Rein, Pozza was an Assistant Director in the Division of Financial Practices at the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, where he led consumer protection efforts in financial technology and other sectors, and supervised investigations and enforcement actions involving consumer protection issues on technology platforms. He also led the FTC’s fintech forum series, focusing on financial regulatory, data privacy and security, and other consumer protection issues in AI, peer-to-peer payments, online lending, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain.
Revisiting Philadelphia National Bank: The Structural Presumption and the Future of Merger Review
Explainer Episode 83 - The Failed Spirit-JetBlue Merger: The Past and Present Approach to Mergers
Alden F. Abbott
In November 2024, Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy after a federal judge blocked their proposed...
Regulation and Red Tape: Tax Inversions: Unpacking the Pfizer Case
Stephanie McMahon, Raymond Wiacek, Paul J. Ray
In 2014, the pharmaceutical company Pfizer initiated a restructuring, only to encounter impediments from the...
Fireside Chat with Bilal Sayyed, former FTC Director, Office of Policy Planning
Svetlana Gans, Bilal Sayyed
The Federalist Society's Corporations, Securities & Antitrust Practice Group and Regulatory Transparency Project are pleased...
Explainer Episode 19 – The Burden of Proof in Competition Law
Ashley Baker
The House Committee on the Judiciary recently released a report on the state of competition...
Topics
Net Neutrality Should Not Live On Through Asymmetrical Merger Commitments
According to the Communications Act, the Federal Communications Commission has concurrent authority with the antitrust...
The Antitrust "Failing Firm” Defense in the Wake of the COVID-19 Crisis
Greg Eastman, Eric Grannon, George L. Paul
Since 1930, the Supreme Court has recognized a failing firm defense to an otherwise unlawful...
Workshop on Problems of Insider Trading and Merger Regulations [Archive Collection]
John R. Bolton, Pasco M. Bowman, Joseph A. Grundfest, Saul Levmore, Henry G. Manne, Wm. Bradford Reynolds
On January 30-31, 1987, the Federalist Society hosted its annual National Lawyers Convention at the...
Vertical Integration in Broadcasting: A Cause for Concern?
Paul Beaudry, Brad Danks, William Rinehart
The broadcasting market used to be straightforward. It functioned on a linear model consisting of...
FTC’s 21st Century Hearings: Paving the Way for Principles and Guidance
Svetlana Gans, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Duane Pozza
With the conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission’s 21st Century Hearings, the agency is finalizing...