DOJ’s acting antitrust chief, Sharis Pozen, to resign
By Cecilia Kang, Published: January 23
LINK

Sharis A. Pozen, the acting head of antitrust at the Justice Department, is leaving the agency to return to practice private law, according to a government official.

Pozen will leave the agency at the end of April. The lead candidate to succeed her is William Baer, an attorney at Arnold Porter in Washington and former head of the antitrust division of the Federal Trade Commission, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made public.

Pozen was appointed acting attorney general for the antitrust division in August, replacing Christine Varney. Pozen is known for her bold decision to reject AT&T’s $39 billion merger with T-Mobile, saying the merger would harm competition and lead to higher cell phone bills for consumers.

Under Pozen, the Justice Department has also begun an investigation of Verizon Wireless’ purchase of wireless network spectrum from cable companies including Comcast and Time Warner Cable. A person familiar with the agency’s review said the companies’ co-marketing agreement has raised concerns that the deal could lead to less competition.

Pozen joined the Justice Department in 2009 from law firm Hogan & Hartson LLP, where she served as a director of the firm’s antitrust practice.

Related:

How AT&T fumbled its $39 billion bid for T-Mobile

JANUARY 23, 2012, 3:18 PM
An Antitrust Chief at Justice Is Leaving
By PETER LATTMAN
Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
LINK

Sharis Pozen’s resignation could result in a battle between Congress and President Obama over her successor.

A shuffling at the top of the Justice Department’s antitrust unit could lead to an election-year fight between President Obama and Senate Republicans.

Sharis A. Pozen, the acting assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, has informed the attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., that she will leave by the end of April, the Justice Department announced late Monday.

The leading candidate to replace Ms. Pozen is William J. Baer, head of the antitrust group at the law firm Arnold & Porter and a former director of the Federal Trade Commission’s competition bureau, said two people with direct knowledge of the matter who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Antitrust experts said that Mr. Baer would continue the government’s reinvigorated enforcement of the antitrust laws, recently seen in its vocal opposition to the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile USA that collapsed last month. Mr. Baer did not respond to requests for comment.

The nomination of a permanent antitrust chief could lead to a battle between the White House and Congress. The post requires a Senate confirmation vote, and those normally slow to a trickle during a presidential election year. The White House has expressed frustration with partisanship on Capitol Hill and the slow pace of Congress in confirming judicial nominations and executive branch positions.

The Justice Department has been without a permanent antitrust head since last August, when Ms. Pozen became the interim antitrust chief. She succeeded Christine A. Varney, who was named the government’s top antitrust lawyer by President Obama in January 2009. Ms. Varney left the Justice Department to join the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

When Ms. Pozen succeeded Ms. Varney, she told the White House that she did not want the permanent post but would stay on until the resolution of the AT&T-T-Mobile deal. Ms. Pozen joined the Justice Department in 2009 from the law firm Hogan & Hartson, where she worked with Ms. Varney. She is expected to return to private practice, though it is unclear where.

A change at the top of the Justice Department’s antitrust unit would also come at a time when the White House is strengthening antitrust enforcement. During the administration of George W. Bush, the government was considered to have had a weak record in policing mergers and bringing monopolization cases. Over the last several decades, the federal courts have also reduced the scope of the antitrust laws.

The government’s newfound toughness was highlighted last month with the scuttling of AT&T’s proposed $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile. Facing hostility from the Obama administration, the two telecommunications companies scrapped the deal.

The Justice Department also collected more than $1 billion in fines and other monetary assessments in 2011, according to a recent report by the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. It was only the third time that the government has surpassed the $1 billion mark for such collections. A recent victory was the division’s securing a dozen guilty pleas in a long-running investigation into bid-rigging in the municipal bond market.

Legal experts say that an antitrust unit under Mr. Baer would remain aggressive. A director of the F.T.C.’s antitrust division from 1995 to 1999, Mr. Baer was seen as a strict enforcer of the antitrust laws, challenging mergers that included the combination of Staples and Office Depot.

“If the rumor turns out to be true, Bill Baer would be a very well-qualified nominee,” said Albert A. Foer, the president of the American Antitrust Institute. “He is organizationally and politically savvy, has top-level experience on the private side and is also unusually personable.”

Mr. Baer, a graduate of Stanford Law School, worked at Arnold & Porter before and after his government service during the 1990s. He has had a number of prominent representations in private practice, including successfully defending General Electric from the government’s price-fixing accusations in 1994.

Other contenders to replace Ms. Pozen are Richard Parker, a partner at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers, and Seth Bloom, a longtime aide to Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin and the head of the Senate antitrust subcommittee.

Biography
LINK

Sharis Pozen was appointed Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division in August 2011.

Ms. Pozen joined the United States Department of Justice on February 16, 2009, as Chief of Staff and Counsel, and served as a key deputy to Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney. In these positions, Pozen played a leading role on several enforcement and competition matters, including in the healthcare, technology, energy, and agriculture industries.

Immediately prior to joining the Department, Ms. Pozen was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan & Hartson LLP, where she served as a Director of the firm’s Antitrust Practice Group. In that capacity, Ms. Pozen’s practice focused on trade regulation and antitrust issues across a broad spectrum of national and multinational industries—including technology, healthcare, and life sciences—utilizing her expertise in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, the Robinson-Patman Act, distribution issues, and the Federal Trade Commission Act.

Prior to joining Hogan & Hartson in 1995, Ms. Pozen held several positions at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), where she began her professional career in 1989 as a staff attorney in the FTC’s Merger Litigation Division, followed by Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Competition, Attorney Advisor to FTC Commissioner Dennis A. Yao, and finally, Attorney Advisor to FTC Commissioner Christine Varney.

As the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, Ms. Pozen provides leadership and oversight of all of the Division’s programs and policies and her responsibilities include the Division’s merger review, criminal and nonmerger civil enforcement, competition advocacy, and international coordination programs. Ms. Pozen manages an annual budget of over $160 million and staff of over 800, including more than 360 attorneys, 55 economists, and 180 paralegals—located in Washington D.C., and the Division’s field offices in Atlanta, Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.

Ms. Pozen received her Juris Doctor from Washington University Law School in St. Louis in 1989 and her Bachelor of Arts from Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut in 1986.

William Baer Bio

William J. Baer
Partner
Washington, DC
tel: +1 202.942.5936
fax: +1 202.942.5999
Brussels
tel: +32 (0)2 290 7821
fax: +32 (0)2 290 7899

William.Baer@aporter.com

Bill heads the firm's highly regarded antitrust group. In 2010, the National Law Journal named him one of the "The Decade's Most Influential Lawyers." Bill also has twice been named the leading competition lawyer in the world by Who's Who Legal. He represents a broad range of companies in US and international cartel investigations, mergers and acquisition reviews by antitrust enforcers (US Federal Trade Commission, US Department of Justice, and the European Commission), and antitrust litigation. He currently divides his time between the firm's Washington, DC and Brussels offices. Bill frequently speaks at programs and conferences in the US, Europe, Canada, and Japan.

Government Experience

Director, Bureau of Competition, US Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Assistant General Counsel & Director of Congressional Relations, FTC
Attorney Advisor to the Chairman, FTC
Representative Matters
General Electric Company, including mergers and acquisitions, litigation, and other matters.
Intel, in connection with its 2011 acquisition of McAfee, and resolution of its recent litigation with the Federal Trade Commission.
GrafTech International, a leading manufacturer of graphite electrodes, in connection with its acquisition of C/G Electrodes and Seadrift Coke.
Corporate and individual clients, in various cartel investigations, including financial services, auto parts, air cargo, and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM).
Cisco Systems, in mergers & acquisitions.
Visa, in litigation and other matters.
Monsanto, in connection with various antitrust matters.
Solvay in various litigation matters.
Micron Technology Inc., in government investigations, litigation and standard setting issues.