Overview
Despite the recent reporting on departures from the federal antitrust enforcement agencies, it would be wrong to equate this migration with disarmament and take actions based on that idea. Tremendous antitrust remains in the federal and state antitrust enforcement agencies.
According to data published in March by the US Office of Personnel Management, roughly one in five lawyers who worked in the federal government at the end of 2024 had left by March 2026 – meaning that more than 10,000 lawyers have departed from federal employment. The number of attorneys in the Department of Justice (DOJ) overall declined by 21% during that period, reflecting a loss of almost 2,700 lawyers, and industry analysis by one source estimates that the Antitrust Division lost at least 86 attorneys and economists following the start of the second Trump administration. Declines at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have been estimated at around 60 during a similar period.
These departures include very senior, experienced leadership. At the Antitrust Division, Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater left in February, reportedly as a result of tensions with the White House, and current Acting Assistant Attorney General Omeed Assefi is reported to be departing imminently for personal reasons. News organizations reported last summer that two Deputy Assistant Attorneys General at the Antitrust Division were fired for insubordination. More recently, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Hamer, Policy Director David Lawrence, and Litigation Director Catherine Dick, have left the Division, and Economics Deputy Chetan Sanghvi has announced his intention to leave by the end of June.
At the staff level, the Division's leadership positions of Director of Criminal Enforcement, Director of Civil Enforcement, Economics Director of Enforcement, and Director of Litigation are all filled by "acting" officials, as are 10 of the 11 Sections within the Division (with the San Francisco office being the lone Section being run by a permanent Section Chief). And while the time limits of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act do not apply to these positions, which do not require Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation, the sheer number of "acting" leadership positions suggests a level of fluidity and uncertainty that contributes to what has been reported as serious morale concerns.
At the FTC, there are only two of the full complement of five Commissioners at present, and three of the FTC's four merger shops are led by Acting Assistant Directors.
Normal attrition is responsible for only a portion of these significant declines. Some have attributed much of the additional decline to internal power struggles, policy shifts, political considerations, and overall diminished morale. Additionally, until recently there had been a hiring freeze in place at both agencies, so staffing losses could not be backfilled in the ordinary manner.
The reduced level of staffing may have a bearing on the willingness of the DOJ and FTC to negotiate settlements rather than bear the burden, expense, and risk of trial – although the departure from the Biden Administration's unwillingness to settle may also reflect a change in enforcement philosophy. Indeed, DOJ has not brought a single merger litigation since the start of the second Trump administration. It may also limit the DOJ's and FTC's ability to open civil conduct investigations, as the more limited staff must keep up with the regular HSR (Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act) transaction flow, leaving little capacity to focus on conduct matters.
Many Antitrust Division and FTC personnel are making the move to private practice, which is a well-trod path for government lawyers. But a significant number are also leaving to take jobs with state attorneys general, which have increased their hiring as well as their caseload. Some states have doubled or tripled their antitrust resources in the past three years, according to Elizabeth Odette, Minnesota's assistant attorney general for the consumer, wage, and antitrust division, who also serves as the chair of the antitrust task force of the National Association of Attorneys General.
This increase in state attorney general hiring is perhaps commensurate with the increase in high visibility enforcement efforts by the states in recent months. Earlier this year, 34 states won a landmark jury verdict in the monopolization suit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster, continuing their suit after the Antitrust Division settled their complaint mid-trial. A coalition of states, together with DirecTV, persuaded a district court to issue a preliminary injunction freezing the integration of Nextar and TEGNA, after the Federal Communications Commission and DOJ cleared the merger to close. And a coalition of states reached a $700 million settlement with Google resolving allegations of anticompetitive behavior in the Google Play Store, while several states continue to litigate together with the Antitrust Division in the remedies phase of the Google Ad Tech case.
This is not to suggest that federal enforcement is permanently or even temporarily on the wane. While there have been declines in the number of antitrust lawyers at the federal level, available resources may be increasing. Under Gail Slater's leadership, the Antitrust Division gained the ability to retain HSR filing fees in excess of its budget allocation of $245 million. More recently, a House subcommittee advanced proposals to fund the Antitrust Division with a record $313 million, reflecting a 28% budget boost over the prior year. The FTC 2027 budget request to Congress sought funding of $426.7 million, a significant increase over the congressionally approved amount of $383.6 million for FY 2026. And much of the FTC's operating budget is also funded by Hart-Scott-Rodino filing fees.
As of this writing, the FTC and DOJ are recruiting attorneys for several of their merger shops. While the Antitrust Division admits that "increased enforcement activity has stretched [the Division's] staff and technology infrastructure" to its limits, the Division's budget request was to bring the Division back to prior levels of personnel. Meanwhile, Acting Assistant Attorney General Assefi has lauded the "incredible career staff" who are benefitting from opportunities to gain valuable experience in "actually litigating" important cases.
