WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP today announces that Jon Leibowitz, former Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), is joining the firm as a partner in its Washington, DC office. Mr. Leibowitz served as Chairman of the FTC from 2009 to 2013 and as a Commissioner from 2004 to 2009.
Mr. Leibowitz joins a broad-based antitrust team that is widely recognized as one of the finest in the country. Mr. Leibowitz brings an unequaled breadth and depth of governmental service at the most senior level, strengthening Davis Polk’s position as counsel of choice for the most complex and critical mergers and acquisitions transactions. In addition, Mr. Leibowitz will provide counsel in the developing area of privacy law and his experience with all branches of the federal government will offer invaluable perspectives to Davis Polk’s clients.
“With the addition of Jon, we strengthen our commitment to ensuring that our Washington office is a destination for solving complex antitrust and merger clearance issues,” said Thomas J. Reid, Davis Polk’s Managing Partner. “Jon’s stature and experience at the highest levels of government make him ideally suited to work within our antitrust and M&A practices. We simply could not have found a better fit for us and our clients.”
Jon Leibowitz said, “Davis Polk is one of America’s great law firms, and its M&A and antitrust practices have long been considered among the finest in the world. What attracted me to the firm though, as much as its impressive roster of corporate clients and its reputation for the highest quality legal advice, is its extraordinarily innovative spirit and uniquely strong culture, both of which are critical to thriving in today’s legal profession.”
While at the FTC, Mr. Leibowitz presided over a major revision of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines in collaboration with the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. During his term as Chairman, the FTC won a notable Supreme Court victory involving an allegedly anticompetitive hospital merger and successfully litigated other merger challenges.
Mr. Leibowitz led the FTC in its efforts to police single firm conduct, achieving settlements with both Intel and Google. Under his leadership, the FTC focused attention on the impact of patent assertion entity (PAE) activities on innovation and competition and the implications for antitrust enforcement and policy. In addition, he played a leading role in the FTC’s efforts to protect the privacy of consumers, including a high profile settlement with Facebook.
In the international sphere, Mr. Leibowitz headed multiple delegations of American government officials to international conferences on antitrust and privacy matters. He also helped draft bilateral agreements with the competition authorities of China, India and Russia.
Prior to his tenure at the FTC, Mr. Leibowitz worked on the Senate Judiciary Committee in a variety of capacities, including as a Chief Counsel to the Antitrust and Technology Subcommittees. He also served as a government relations executive at the Motion Picture Association of America.
Mr. Leibowitz joins several other former government officials in Davis Polk’s Washington office, including former Deputy Director and Chief Counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Trading and Markets Susan Ervin, former Deputy Counsel to the President Kimberley Harris, former SEC Commissioner Annette Nazareth, former FTC General Counsel Michael Sohn, former SEC Enforcement Director Linda Chatman Thomsen, and former White House Staff Secretary and Assistant to the President Raul Yanes.
About Davis Polk.
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP is a global law firm. For more than 160 years, its lawyers have advised industry-leading companies and global financial institutions on their most challenging legal and business matters. Davis Polk ranks among the world’s preeminent law firms across the entire range of its practice, which spans such areas as antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, intellectual property, litigation, private equity, tax, financial regulation, investment management, insolvency and restructuring, executive compensation, real estate, technology, and trusts and estates. Davis Polk has more than 780 lawyers in offices in New York, Menlo Park, Washington DC, São Paulo, London, Paris, Madrid, Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo.
About Davis Polk’s Antitrust and M&A Practices.
The firm has among the nation’s leading antitrust and M&A practices, combining broad experience in complex corporate transactions with sophisticated litigation. Working closely with the M&A Group, the firm’s antitrust lawyers represent clients in U.S. and cross-border transactions in an array of industries. The firm handles all types of antitrust matters, including class action litigation, criminal and administrative conduct and merger investigations, and transactions involving private and government challenges. For more information: http://www.davispolk.com.
