Congratulations to David T. Fischer who joined Shook Hardy & Bacon last week.  I’d say more but this is more than enough shameless self-promotion for me.

Congratulations to Jesse Markham Jr., who has left Morrison & Foerster (where he was co-chair of antitrust group) for Holme Roberts & Owen.  The press release is available here and The Recorder has a good article about this move online too.

Congratulations to James F. Lerner who joined Dewey Ballantine’s New York office this week.  According to the press release:

Lerner, formerly with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, has over fifteen years of experience advising clients on antitrust issues relating to mergers and acquisitions and the formation of joint ventures, as well as extensive experience representing clients in foreign and domestic U.S. criminal cartel investigations, and in government and private antitrust actions.

• Amazon, like Apple, will soon sell music from EMI without DRM.
• According to its press release, Bristol-Myers Squibb has “reached an agreement in principle to resolve the previously disclosed DOJ criminal investigation regarding the proposed settlement agreement between Bristol-Myers Squibb, its product partner, sanofi-aventis, and Apotex Inc. ….”
• Josh Wright discovers that the FTC’s scholar-in-residence does not have that much pull.
• Congratulations to the Antitrust Hotch Potch’s Dr. Nicholas Petit.
• Finally, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal “[t]he Tennessee legislature approved a bill Monday banning brokers from giving rebates, gifts or prizes in a real estate transaction despite a strong, rare warning from federal antitrust lawyers that it is anticompetitive and will “cause serious harm to home buyers and sellers.’”

The ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s Nominating Committee has issued its report on new Officers and Council Members (whose nomination must be approved at the Section’s annual meeting in August).  The nominees are:

Officers:

Vice Chair: Ilene K. Gotts

International Officer: H. Stephen Harris

Program Officer: Christopher B. Hockett

Secretary and Communications Officer: Debra J. Pearlstein

Council Members for Three-Year Terms Ending in 2010:

Deborah A. Garza

Jonathan M. Jacobson

Randolph W. Tritell

John E. Villafranco

Gary P. Zanfagna

Non-U.S. Lawyer Council Representative (non-voting position):

Calvin S. Goldman

Congratulations to Roger W. Fones, Susan S. DeSanti, and Meredyth Smith Andrus who will receive a special award from the American Antitrust Institute which honors civil servants who devoted their professional careers to enforcement of the antitrust laws at the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, or in the States.  According to the (emailed only) press release:

Roger W. Fones joined the Depart of Justice’s Antitrust Division in December 1975 as a trial attorney. Most recently he served as Chief of the Transportation, Energy and Agriculture Section.  In matters involving the airline industry, Mr. Fones led or supervised numerous investigations and legal challenges of domestic airline mergers and acquisitions, and domestic and international code-sharing agreements.  Mr. Fones was responsible for all civil antitrust enforcement in the regulated electric power and natural gas industries, as well as in other non-regulated energy industries.  He also had a major impact on competition in the agricultural, transportation, and aluminum industries.  Currently, he is a partner in the Antitrust and Competition Law Practice Group in the Washington, D.C. office of Morrison & Foerster.    Susan S. DeSanti’s began at the Federal Trade Commission as an Attorney Advisor to former Commissioner Dennis Yao. Next, she became Assistant Director of the Bureau of Competition for Evaluation and Policy and then Senior Legal Advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky. From 1995 to 2006 she was Director of Policy Planning and later Deputy General Counsel for Policy Studies. In that role, she spearheaded the FTC’s report on the proper balance between competition and patent law and policy, as well as other reports on the role of competition in health care, business-to-business electronic marketplaces, competition in the new high-tech, global marketplace, and factors that influence gasoline prices. In 2006, she left the Federal Trade Commission to take the position of Senior Counsel at the Antitrust Modernization Commission where she was responsible for drafting the final report.    Meredyth Smith Andrus was an Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General from 1988 to 2006, working primarily in the health care field.  Ms. Andrus played a prominent role in numerous multi-state and joint federal/state investigations and prosecutions in the pharmaceutical industry. She served as a liaison contact between state and federal antitrust enforcers and assisted in facilitating cooperative enforcement efforts in many government antitrust enforcement actions in the pharmaceutical industry. She also served for six years as co-chair of the Pharmaceutical Industry working group of the National Association of Attorneys General. In 2004, Ms. Andrus received the Marvin Award from NAAG for her multi-state enforcement efforts in the pharmaceutical industry. Today, she is an attorney with the Health Care Division of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, which she joined in September 2006.

Congratulations to all three.

Congratulations to Gil Ohana who joined WilmerHale from Cisco Systems where he was director of antitrust and competition.  According to the press release:

Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. Ohana was a senior attorney at Hewlett-Packard Company in their antitrust department and, before that, also served as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice. During his time at Justice, he participated in government merger and non-merger investigations in computer software, computer hardware, interactive services and financial services. He was involved in some of the most high-profile public investigations and cases in the past fifteen years, including US v. Microsoft (monopolization), US v. Microsoft and Intuit (merger) and US v. Computer Associates (merger).

Technorati Tags: antitrust, Ohana, Cisco

Congratulations to Thane D. Scott, former co-chair of the Antitrust Practice Group at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge, who is joining the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen.  According to the press release:

Scott regularly defends business and consumer class actions involving antitrust and business tort claims, including class certification issues. He has served as lead or liaison counsel in numerous multi-district, complex or class-action cases, and he has represented major clients in government investigations.

He also litigates competitive intelligence and other cases involving business rivalry, including representing the plaintiff in a recent major federal case challenging a rival’s intrusions into the plaintiff’s management information system. In addition, Scott has served as lead defense counsel in more than 100 government investigations of mergers involving national and international companies.

Here’s a short video of Dan Crane explaining the political backdrop of everyone’s favorite per se case Mobil Socony Vacuum.

Technorati Tags: antitrust, dan crane, cardozo

Congratulations to Deborah A. Garza who has left Fried Frank (tough week for Fried Frank) for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division in which she will serve as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Regulatory Matters.  According to the DOJ press release:

Most recently, Garza has chaired the Antitrust Modernization Commission (AMC), a bi-partisan panel created by Congress to evaluate the U.S. antitrust laws and make recommendations on U.S. antitrust law and policy. The AMC issued its report to the President and Congress on April 2, 2007. Since 2001, Garza has also been a partner in the antitrust practice of Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP’s Washington, D.C. office. Prior to joining Fried Frank, in 1989, she practiced antitrust law at Covington & Burling. At both Fried Frank and Covington & Burling, Garza engaged in a wide range of antitrust counseling and litigation with a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions, including transactions in the transportation, energy, telecommunications, and high-tech industries. Garza previously served in the Antitrust Division as chief of staff and counselor from 1988 to 1989, and as a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General from 1984 to 1985.

Congratulations to Bruce McDonald who joins Jones, Day from the Department of Justice.  According to the press release (which, oddly, is not on the Jones Day website):

Mr. McDonald served as one of two DOJ deputies in charge of civil antitrust enforcement since 2003. Having begun his legal career at Jones Day in 1988, he practiced as an antitrust partner with Baker Botts L.L.P. in Houston before joining the government. … In 2005, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appointed him to the Electric Energy Competition Task Force. Mr. McDonald speaks and writes frequently on antitrust law and has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

Congratulations to Charles “Rick” Rule who joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft from Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson.  As Cadwalader lost its entire antitrust practice earlier this year to Skadden its recruitment of Rule is hardly unexpected.  Also, expect more dominos to fall.  Although the Cadwalader press release only mentions Rule, expect other attorneys from Fried Frank to join Cadwalader shortly.  According to the press release:

Mr. Rule joined Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP in 2001, following his tenure as a partner at the Washington law firm of Covington & Burling where he was chairman of the firm’s antitrust and trade regulation practice group. Prior to private practice, he held various positions with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department, including serving as William Baxter’s special assistant and as acting head of the Division, before, in 1986, becoming the youngest person ever to be confirmed to the position of Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division.

The New York Law Journal has a short article on the move.

Congratulations to Mark Botti who joined Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s Washington, D.C. office from the Department of Justice.  Almost exactly two weeks ago, Antitrust Review noted that DOJ was seeking candidates to fill his position and wondered if this meant he was leaving.  He has.  According to the Akin Gump press release:

During his 13 years of service at the Department of Justice, Mr. Botti served in a wide-range of litigation and policy positions within the Antitrust Division. As chief of the Litigation I Section, he litigated complex antitrust claims on behalf of the United States. He exercised jurisdiction over some of the most vital sectors of the economy, including health care, insurance and agriculture. Mr. Botti brought monopolization cases, horizontal conspiracy suits and merger challenges. His team tried the last successful merger case and the last successful monopolization case litigated to judgment by the Antitrust Division. In addition to appearing in court numerous times on behalf of the Department, he taught litigation skills internally and made many public presentations on antitrust litigation. Prior to heading the Litigation I Section, Mr. Botti served as assistant chief in the Litigation II Section and as a trial attorney in the Professions and Intellectual Property Section and in the Health Care Task Force.

Congratulations to Lee A. Freeman, John F. Kinney, James T. Malysiak, Richard P. Campbell, Joseph P. Adamczyk and Joseph J. Bial who joined Jenner & Block yesterday.  They were previously at Freeman, Freeman & Salzman.  The Jenner & Block press release states:

Among the many accomplishments of the group are its successful representation of major corporations in suits to recover damages against foreign cartels for fixing the prices of vitamins and sorbates purchased in the United States and abroad. The firm also defended Forest Laboratories in the nationwide class action case In re Brand Name Prescription Drugs Antitrust Litigation, which alleged a conspiracy among pharmaceutical companies not to give retail druggists the same discounts offered to hospitals and managed care entities. …  Currently the group is involved in the prosecution of a complex antitrust action on behalf of Omnicare, Inc. against UnitedHealth Group, Inc., which is pending in the Northern District of Illinois.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal had a lengthy article on David Teece of LECG, Inc. (via catallaxy).  Two small excerpts:

For high-profile economists like the 58-year-old Prof. Teece, expert testimony has become a way to earn $2 million or more a year. Their rise has its roots in the Reagan era of the 1980s, when a free-market view of the law inspired by University of Chicago scholars gained ground. Courts now rely far more on economic analysis, with its apparent precision, to reach decisions. As a result, big companies in legal disputes race to enlist top economists on their side, paying top dollar in an arms race for talent.

…

Antitrust cases have been a particular boon for economists. Traditionally, trust-busters focused on blatantly illegal behavior, such as price-fixing, leaving little leeway for an economist’s interpretation once the facts were established, observes Howard University law professor Andrew Gavil. More recent cases, such as the one against Microsoft Corp. in the late 1990s, have involved tricky calculations of how much consumers might be damaged by a company’s market domination.

The entire article is worth reading.