Mayer Brown Taps Antitrust FTC Vet

Mayer Brown is the latest law firm to beef up its antitrust offerings in anticipation of aggressive US and international enforcement, announcing on Tuesday, May 18, that it has hired a former Federal Trade Commission (FTC) official as a practice leader, reported Reuters. 

Former FTC deputy director Gail Levine has joined Mayer Brown as a co-leader of its global antitrust and competition practice, working out of the firm’s Washington, DC, office. Levine helped oversee the FTC’s competition bureau, supervising a team of 100 attorneys and handling merger reviews, anticompetitive conduct investigations and antitrust litigation.

Prior to joining the FTC in 2018, Levine held high-ranking roles at Uber Technologies, where she served as head of US regulatory affairs and as director for competition, and Verizon, where she was vice president of public policy.

Levine said she joined Mayer Brown following her stint in government due to the firm’s attorney roster and its expertise in the areas where she hopes to focus her practice: technology, pharmaceuticals, health care, and life sciences.

“It wasn’t so much as going to a law firm versus going back in-house, it was really about the opportunity to go to Mayer Brown, in particular, that made the difference for me,” she said.

Her hire comes as law firms have been snatching up partners with antitrust experience from the US government and each other. Shearman & Sterling, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have all added Justice Department and FTC alums in recent months.

Levine’s own supervisor, former FTC competition bureau director Ian Conner, joined Latham & Watkins in March. It was Levine and Conner’s bureau that launched the FTC’s lawsuit against Facebook, accusing the social media platform of using a “buy or bury” strategy to snap up rivals and keep smaller competitors at bay. The lawsuit and parallel cases brought by US states could force Facebook to sell off WhatsApp and Instagram.

On the international front, Weil, Gotshal & Manges added a longtime Clifford Chance partner in London last week.

“Antitrust is robust as ever,” said Britt Miller, a co-leader of Mayer Brown’s global antitrust practice. “There’s an expectation that that robustness, both on the regulatory and litigation and M&A sides, is going to continue to grow over the next few months and possibly years. It makes sense for firms to expand their antitrust offerings.”

Mayer Brown is currently representing the Big Ten Conference, software company CDK Global, and Indiana Packers in a variety of antitrust and competition matters.

Want more news? Subscribe to CPI’s free daily newsletter for more headlines and updates on antitrust developments around the world.