Overview
While President Trump's choices to lead the Federal Trade Commission (Andrew Ferguson) and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (Gail Slater) have been making headlines, less attention has been paid to the rest of the enforcement agency leadership. Consistent with our belief that personnel is policy, today we bring you a brief profile of the recently announced FTC and DOJ leadership teams and discuss what these appointments might tell us about the future of antitrust enforcement under Trump 47.
Federal Trade Commission
Bureau of Competition
Although the FTC may have two fewer Commissioners, Chairman Ferguson’s leadership team is settling in and getting to work.
- Daniel Guarnera - Director: Guarnera joins the FTC from the DOJ's Antitrust Division where he served as chief of the Civil Conduct Task Force. Under his leadership, the Task Force pursued monopolization suits against Google and Apple, as well as multiple cases involving labor markets.
Ferguson is not hiding the ball on his thinking with regard to this appointment, noting, "[f]ew lawyers in America have as much experience taking on Big Tech as Dan. He also has experience using the antitrust laws to promote competition in labor and healthcare markets—two of my top priorities." - David Shaw - Principal Deputy Director: Shaw, an experienced antitrust lawyer, served in various roles within the DOJ's Antitrust Division during the first Trump administration, including trial attorney and acting chief of staff. Notably, he was part of the trial team that litigated the first vertical merger challenge in forty years. While in the DOJ's front office, he held a leadership role in the Big Tech investigations and coordinated a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general in joining the DOJ complaint in the Google search monopolization case.
- Taylor Hoogendoorn and Kelse Moen - Deputy Directors: Ferguson's picks for deputy directors provide us with less insight into Chairman Ferguson's enforcement priorities. Before the appointment, Hoogendoorn was an associate at Susman Godfrey. According to the FTC, Hoogendoorn, who clerked for Justice Alito, "is a talented litigator with expertise in a wide range of litigation." We believe that Chairman Ferguson views himself as a litigator first and values those with litigation experience who can speak to the practical implications of bringing a case. Moen is also a seasoned antitrust attorney with experience in both government and private practice. Most recently, he served as senior counsel to Senator Lindsey Graham on the US Senate Judiciary Committee, focusing on antitrust, technology, and intellectual property issues.
Bureau of Consumer Protection
- Christopher Mufarrige - Director: Mufarrige, Commissioner Melissa Holyoak's Chief of Staff and Attorney Adviser, has been appointed as director of BCP. Mufarrige served in the first Trump administration as a senior adviser to the Director and Deputy Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In his announcement of the appointment, Chairman Ferguson stated, "The Bureau of Consumer Protection with Chris at the helm will work every day to protect the American consumer from fraud, and to safeguard children when they are online."
Department of Justice Antitrust Division
Meanwhile, Gail Slater has been busy getting the team back together so to speak, filling key leadership positions with experienced antitrust professionals, many of whom served under previous administrations. While these appointments align with Slater’s commitment to vigorous antitrust enforcement, they may also provide a sense of continuity.
- Roger Alford - Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General: Alford, a law professor at Notre Dame, served as the deputy assistant attorney general for International Affairs with the Antitrust Division from 2017-2019 during President Trump’s first term. Alford consulted for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in Texas’s antitrust lawsuit challenging Google’s advertising technology business.
- Mark Hamer - Deputy Assistant Attorney General: Mark Hamer, a Baker McKenzie partner, worked as a Justice Department antitrust litigator during the Obama administration from 2010 to 2016.
- Bill Rinner - Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement: Rinner, formerly the senior regulatory counsel at the private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc., also served in the Antitrust Division during President Trump’s first term, from 2017-2020, in several capacities including counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, chief of staff, and senior counsel. He will apparently head up merger enforcement.
- Omeed Assefi - Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement: Assefi, who had been serving as the DOJ's acting antitrust chief ahead of Gail Slater's confirmation, is slated to oversee criminal enforcement.
- Chetan Sanghvi - Chief Economist: Sanghvi, a senior managing director at NERA, has been identified to lead the Division's economic analysis. Sanghvi, who served twice at the Federal Trade Commission, overlapped with Slater when they both worked for then Democratic Commissioner Julie Brill. Sanghvi was the FTC's lead economist in its antitrust challenge to Whole Foods' acquisition of Wild Oats. Sanghvi's scholarly publications provide some valuable insights into the analytic approach he is likely to favor.
Slater has assembled an impressive leadership team with diverse backgrounds. Slater also has noted her openness to remedies as a means to resolve antitrust challenges to proposed transactions, and this team will provide valuable insights as she evaluates proposed solutions.
Lastly, we cannot end this week's post without mentioning one more policy development of potential significance. Last week, the Justice Department launched the "Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force" (or what some are referring to as the "deregulatory task force"). According to the DOJ, the Task Force will "advocate for the elimination of anticompetitive state and federal laws and regulations that undermine free market competition and harm consumers, workers, and businesses . . .supporting ongoing efforts across the Trump administration to unleash competition by eliminating unnecessary, burdensome, and wasteful government regulations." The task force will seek information from the public about laws and regulations that make it more difficult for businesses to compete effectively, and will focus particularly on industries that most directly affect consumers, including housing, transportation, food and agriculture, healthcare, and energy. This one could be interesting…
