100th Anniversary Symposium

Panel 1: Enforcement and Litigation

Julie S. Brill was sworn in as a Commissioner of the FTC in April 2010. Ms. Brill has been one of the nation’s leading advocates for protecting consumer privacy in this era of rapid technological change. She works actively on the full spectrum of issues affecting consumers, including encouraging fair and non-deceptive advertising practices, guarding consumers from financial fraud, and maintaining competition in high tech and healthcare industries. Before her appointment as an FTC Commissioner, Ms. Brill enforced consumer protection and competition laws in Vermont and North Carolina for over 20 years. Ms. Brill has received numerous national awards for her work, testified before Congress, and speaks and writes frequently about privacy, consumer protection and competition issues. She graduated, magna cum laude, from New York University School of Law and from Princeton University.

Kevin Arquit is the head of the Antitrust Practice at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and a leading antitrust lawyer representing clients in high-profile antitrust disputes and transactions. He was formerly General Counsel of the FTC and Director of its Bureau of Competition. Mr. Arquit represents clients before the FTC, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and numerous state and foreign competition authorities. Mr. Arquit is consistently ranked by Chambers USA, Chambers Global, The Legal 500, and Benchmark Litigation as a leader in his field. Law 360 has named him one of the “10 Most Admired Competition Attorneys” and The National Law Journal named him one of 50 of the “Decade’s Most Influential Lawyers.” Mr. Arquit received his JD cum laude from Cornell Law School and his BA cum laude from St. Lawrence University.

Bill Baer was sworn in as the Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Antitrust Division of the DOJ on January 3, 2013. Prior to his appointment as AAG, he was a partner and head of the Antitrust Practice Group at Arnold & Porter LLP in Washington, DC. At Arnold & Porter, Mr. Baer handled both criminal and civil antitrust investigations, including merger and acquisition reviews by antitrust enforcement agencies. Mr. Baer was also a partner at Arnold & Porter from 1983 to 1995 and an associate from 1980 to 1983. Mr. Baer was Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition from 1995 through 1999; he oversaw significant enforcement successes, including blocking mergers in office supply and drug wholesale markets. His work also included successfully challenging exclusionary practices in toy, information technology, and brand name and generic drug markets. Mr. Baer previously worked at the FTC from 1975 until 1980. He received his JD from Stanford Law School in 1975, and served as an editor of the Stanford Law Review. He received his BA from Lawrence University in 1972, where he graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Ed Mierzwinski has worked in the Washington, DC-based federal lobbying office of the Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups (U.S. PIRG) since 1989 and currently serves as the organization’s Consumer Program Director. He often lectures or testifies before Congress, state legislatures, agencies and events on a wide range of consumer issues. Since 2009, he has served on the board of directors of Consumer Reports (formerly Consumers Union), the world’s largest consumer product testing and advocacy organization. He chairs the Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Task Force and is a former member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council. In 2003, Mr. Mierzwinski received Privacy International’s Brandeis Award and, in 2006, the Consumer Federation of America’s Esther Peterson Consumer Service Award.

Lydia Parnes is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. As a former Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, Ms. Parnes oversaw data security enforcement efforts and the development of the FTC’s approach to online advertising. She testified on numerous occasions on the benefits of a uniform nationwide data breach law, the risks of legislating in the technology area, and the need to assist consumers who become victims of identity theft. In 2006, Ms. Parnes served as the deputy executive director of the President’s Task Force on Identity Theft, coordinating the efforts of 17 federal agencies in developing a national strategic plan to combat identity theft in both the private and public sectors. Lydia has been recognized as among the country's top privacy and data security attorneys and she speaks throughout the country on developments in data security and privacy.

David C. Vladeck is a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches federal courts, civil procedure, administrative law, and a seminar on First Amendment litigation. Professor Vladeck returned to the law school after serving for nearly four years as the Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. Before joining the law school faculty full-time in 2002, Professor Vladeck spent over 25 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, a nationally prominent public interest law firm, handling and supervising complex litigation. He has briefed and argued over 70 appellate cases, including cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeal, and state courts of last resort. He is a Senior Fellow of the Administrative Conference of the United States, a member of the American Law Institute, and serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Law, Technology and Science.

Panel 2: Research, Policy and Advocacy

Maureen K. Ohlhausen is a Commissioner of the FTC since 2012. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Ohlhausen was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP where she focused on FTC issues, including privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity. Ms. Ohlhausen previously served at the Commission for 11 years, most recently as Director of the Office of Policy Planning from 2004 to 2008, where she led the FTC's competition advocacy program, as well as the Internet Access Task Force. From 1998 to 2001, Ohlhausen was an attorney advisor for former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle, advising him on competition and consumer protection matters. She started at the FTC General Counsel’s Office in 1997. She has served as a Senior Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Competition and Public Policy. Ms. Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from George Mason University School of Law in 1991 and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1984.

Susan Creighton is a partner in the Washington, DC office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. She served as Deputy Director and then Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition from 2001 to 2005. Susan has represented clients in a number of high profile matters, including representing Google in connection with the FTC’s search investigation of the company, and drafting the Netscape white paper credited with having triggered the Justice Department’s investigation of Microsoft in the 1990s. She was named 2013 Lawyer of the Year by Global Competition Review, and for several years has been named one of Lawdragon’s 500 leading lawyers in America. She has co-authored a number of papers including “Cheap Exclusion” and “Twenty Five Years of Access Denials.” Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Susan served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connnor.

Janis K. Pappalardo is the Assistant Director for Consumer Protection in the FTC’s Bureau of Economics, a position she has held since 2008. As Assistant Director, she oversees the economic analysis of all consumer protection matters before the Commission. Ms. Pappalardo began her career at the FTC in 1986, after earning a Ph.D. from Cornell University. She has studied the role of consumer information and regulation in many markets, including food, drug, household appliance, and mortgage markets. Two articles co-authored by Jan on health claim regulatory policy received the outstanding article award from the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing. Her work appears in the American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, Antitrust Law Journal, Journal of Consumer Affairs, Marketing Science, and Review of Industrial Organization. She recently served on the White House Task Force on Smart Disclosure.

C. Lee Peeler is President and CEO of the Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC) and Executive Vice President, National Advertising, Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). Mr. Peeler is responsible for leading the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation, a system dedicated to fostering truth and accuracy in advertising. Mr. Peeler joined ASRC and BBB in 2006, following a 33-year FTC career where he held a number of management positions including Associate Director, Division of Advertising Practices (1985-2001) and Deputy Director, Bureau of Consumer Protection (2001-2006). He has spoken and testified widely on consumer protection issues including truth in advertising, consumer credit, electronic commerce, privacy and data security. Mr. Peeler received his BA and JD degrees from Georgetown University.

Ronald Stern received his AB from Brown University in 1971 and his JD from Harvard Law School in 1974. He clerked after law school, first for Judge Harold Leventhal (U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit) from 1974 to 1975, and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart from 1975 to 1976. Mr. Stern joined the firm of Hughes Hubbard & Reed in 1976, leaving in 1978 to serve as Special Assistant to the AAG, Criminal Division, DOJ for two years. He rejoined Hughes Hubbard in 1980 and became partner in 1981. He joined Arnold & Porter as a partner in 1988 and moved to General Electric (GE) in 1991 as Senior Counsel–Antitrust based in Washington, DC. Mr. Stern became a GE Vice President in 1997. Before his recent retirement from GE, Mr. Stern was active in a broad range of international competition law matters on behalf of GE. In addition, he has served as a member of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Antitrust Aspects of Defense Industry Consolidation and as a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network.

Panel 3: Remedies

Joshua D. Wright was sworn in as a Commissioner of the FTC on January 11, 2013. Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Wright was a professor at George Mason University School of Law and held a courtesy appointment in the Department of Economics. Mr. Wright is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, and consumer protection, with numerous publications and editorial credits. Mr. Wright previously served the Commission in the Bureau of Competition as its inaugural Scholar-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008, where he focused on enforcement matters and competition policy. His return to the Commission marks his fourth stint at the agency, after having served as an intern in both the Bureau of Economics and Bureau of Competition in 1997 and 1998, respectively. Mr. Wright received his JD from UCLA in 2002, his Ph.D. in economics from UCLA in 2003, and graduated with honors from the University of California, San Diego in 1998.

Deborah L. Feinstein serves as Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition in Washington, DC. Previously she was a partner at Arnold & Porter LLP, where she was head of the U.S. Antitrust practice group and specialized in representing clients before the FTC and DOJ. From 1989 to 1991, she worked at the FTC as an assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Competition and as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner Dennis A. Yao. She is a 1983 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and a 1987 graduate of Harvard Law School.

Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in 1986, served as Chief Judge from 2001 until 2008, and took senior status on October 14, 2011. He was graduated from Cornell University (BS 1970) and from the University of Chicago Law School (JD 1973). Following law school, he clerked for Judge Carl McGowan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. From 1975 to 1983, he was a professor at Harvard Law School. He then served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Regulatory Affairs, Antitrust Division, DOJ, from 1983 to 1984; Administrator, Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, from 1984 to 1985; and AAG, Antitrust Division, DOJ, from 1985 to 1986.

Ken Heyer has served since summer 2012 as Deputy Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics. He previously served for 29 years as an economist in the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. Mr. Heyer has worked on investigations in a variety of industries, implicating a wide range of antitrust issues – from merger analysis, to investigation of monopolization claims, to constructing and implementing appropriate and efficient remedies for competitive problems. In 1999, Mr. Heyer became the first recipient of the Antitrust Division’s William F. Baxter award for outstanding contributions in the area of economic analysis. He has co-authored articles in the Review of Industrial Organization on economic activities at the Antitrust Division, and has published in the Antitrust Law Journal and in Competition Policy International on antitrust enforcement and policy issues. His most recent article, “Consumer Welfare and the Legacy of Robert Bork,” is forthcoming in the Journal of Law and Economics.

William C. MacLeod is a partner in the Washington, DC and Chicago offices of the law firm Kelly Drye & Warren LLP and chair of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation practice group. He focuses his practice on competition law, trade regulation, advertising, privacy, and security. He is the Vice Chair of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law and Vice Chair of the BIAC Consumer Policy Task Force. Mr. MacLeod previously served at the FTC as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Director of the Chicago Regional Office, and attorney advisor to the Chairman. He was also advisor to the AAG, Antitrust Division of the DOJ. Mr. MacLeod received his BA from Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, and his JD from the University of Miami.

Panel 4: Guidance and Education

Terrell McSweeny was sworn in as an FTC Commissioner on April 28, 2014. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. McSweeny served as Chief Counsel for Competition Policy and Intergovernmental Relations for the DOJ Antitrust Division. She joined the Antitrust Division after serving as Deputy Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President from January 2009 until February 2012, advising President Obama and Vice President Biden on policy in a variety of areas. Ms. McSweeny’s government service also includes her work as Senator Joe Biden’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director in the U.S. Senate and as Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee. She also worked as an attorney at O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Ms. McSweeny is a graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law School.

Jodie Z. Bernstein is of counsel in the Washington, DC office of Kelley Drye & Warren LLP. She is widely respected among consumer groups, industry organizations, and the private bar as one the country’s leading lawyers. She counsels clients across the spectrum of privacy and consumer protection law. Ms. Bernstein previously served as Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. During her tenure at the FTC, Ms. Bernstein expanded the Bureau’s prosecution of unfair and deceptive marketing practices, and the FTC became the leading enforcer of federal privacy laws. She targeted issues including Internet privacy and identity theft; she developed the Commission’s privacy enforcement policies; and she directed the FTC’s implementation and enforcement of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. Her public service also includes appointments as General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency and General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services. Ms. Bernstein received her JD from Yale Law School and her BA from the University of Wisconsin.

Carolyn Shanoff served as Associate Director for Consumer and Business Education (DCBE) in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection from 2000 to 2014. Under her leadership, DCBE produced award-winning multi-media communications campaigns to give consumers tools to make informed decisions in the marketplace and to give businesses tools to comply with the law. Her campaigns were noted for their practical and actionable guidance, their plain language style in both English and Spanish, and colorful, creative and easy-to-navigate websites. Ms. Shanoff’s team was chosen as a finalist for the 2008 Service to America Medals for the national Deter, Detect, Defend campaign on identity theft, and she was part of the team that won another Service to America Medal for implementation of the national Do Not Call Registry. Ms. Shanoff holds an MA in journalism from Northwestern University and a BA from the University of Vermont.

Christine A. Varney is a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP and serves as the chair of the firm’s antitrust practice. Ms. Varney has been widely recognized as one of the leading antitrust lawyers in the United States in both private practice and in government service. Ms. Varney has served as both the AAG for the DOJ Antitrust Division and as an FTC Commissioner. From 1997 when she left the FTC until her appointment as AAG in 2009, Ms. Varney was in private practice, representing major corporations before the DOJ and FTC and advising her clients on a wide variety of legal and business issues. Prior to becoming FTC Commissioner, Ms. Varney served as Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Cabinet in the Clinton Administration.

Marc Winerman came to the FTC from the Antitrust Division and, during 32 years at the Commission, he served in the Bureau of Consumer Protection, the General Counsel’s Office, the Office of Commissioner (and Chairman) William Kovacic, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen. Mr. Winerman was the Victor H. Kramer Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School in 2004-05, and he received the FTC’s Distinguished Service Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, Outstanding Scholarship Award, and Outstanding Service Award. He has published extensively on FTC and antitrust history, and currently serves on the editorial boards of the ABA Antitrust Law Journal and the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. Mr. Winerman graduated from Princeton (AB, history, cum laude), Yale (MA, history of science), and Harvard Law School (cum laude).

Roundtable: Former FTC Chairmen

Edith Ramirez was designated by President Barack H. Obama to serve as Chairwoman of the FTC effective March 4, 2013, having been previously sworn in as a Commissioner of the FTC on April 5, 2010. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms. Ramirez was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, where she handled a broad range of complex business litigation, including successfully representing clients in intellectual property, antitrust, unfair competition, and Lanham Act matters. She also has extensive appellate litigation experience. Ms. Ramirez graduated from Harvard Law School, cum laude, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and holds an AB in History, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.

Calvin J. Collier began his career with the federal government, where he held positions at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1973, Mr. Collier became General Counsel of the FTC. In 1975, Mr. Collier left the FTC to become General Counsel of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, but returned in 1976 to serve as the FTC’s Chairman. After working as a partner in Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s Washington, DC office from 1978 to 1988, Collier has been Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary for Kraft Foods. Collier has also served as an emeritus member of the Board of Visitors of Duke University and a member of the boards of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc., the Private Adjudication Center of Duke University, and the National Advertising Review Council. Mr. Collier received his JD from the Duke University School of Law.

William E. Kovacic is the Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy at the George Washington University Law School and director of its Competition Law Center. Since August 2013, he has served as a non-executive director on the board of the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority. With Ariel Ezrachi, he edits the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. From January 2006 to October 2011, he was a member of the FTC and chaired the agency from March 2008 until March 2009. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through 2004 and worked for the FTC from 1979 until 1983, first in the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to Commissioner George W. Douglas.

Jon Leibowitz is a partner in Davis Polk’s Washington DC and New York offices. His practice focuses on the complex antitrust aspects of mergers and acquisitions, as well as government and private antitrust investigations and litigation. He also provides counsel in the developing area of privacy law. Mr. Leibowitz was Chairman of the FTC from 2009 through 2013. He served as a Commissioner from 2004 to 2009. While at the FTC, Mr. Leibowitz presided over a major revision of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines in collaboration with the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. In the international sphere, he headed multiple delegations of American government officials to international conferences on antitrust and privacy matters, including China and EU. During his term as FTC Chairman, the agency won notable U.S. Supreme Court victories involving an allegedly anticompetitive hospital merger and so-called “Pay for Delay” pharmaceutical arrangements. He also played a leading role in the FTC’s efforts to protect the privacy of consumers and its efforts to police single firm conduct. Mr. Leibowitz received his JD from New York University School of Law and his BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Phi Beta Kappa.

Deborah P. Majoras leads a global legal department of nearly 600 lawyers and other professionals, responsible for the broad scope of legal and government relations functions for all of Proctor & Gamble, and is a member of the Company’s Global Leadership Council. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Valero Energy Corporation. From 2004 to 2008, she served as Chairman of the FTC. She previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the DOJ Antitrust Division, and as a partner at Jones Day. In 2014, the National Law Journal named Ms. Majoras to its list of 50 Outstanding General Counsel, and she received Inside Counsel’s Mary Ann Hynes Pioneer Award.

James C. Miller, III led the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1988, where he managed America’s trillion-dollar-plus federal budget. Mr. Miller served as Chairman of the FTC from 1981 to 1985. He was also a member of the National Security Council during President Reagan’s time in office. He later chaired the Miller Commission, an independent commission appointed to address the fiscal and economic health of the Cayman Islands, and founded the consulting firm Cap Analysis Group, where he was chairman from 2003 to 2006. Mr. Miller was chair of Citizens for a Sound Economy from 1988 to 2003. Early in his career, he was administrator of the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where he instituted and led the first broad-scale centralized review of federal regulations. Mr. Miller was twice a candidate for U.S. Senate.

Timothy Muris is of counsel to Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Foundation Professor at George Mason University School of Law. Mr. Muris was Chairman of the FTC from 2001 to 2004. Under his leadership, the FTC created the National Do Not Call Registry, brought successful cases against firms for misusing government processes to raise prices, brought numerous lawsuits against physicians for price-fixing, challenged fraudulent and deceptive advertising and health claims to protect U.S. consumers, and increased antitrust scrutiny of intellectual property issues. Mr. Muris previously served the FTC as Director of the Bureau of Competition from 1983 to 1985 and Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection from 1981 to 1983. He is the only person ever to direct both of the FTC's enforcement bureaus. From 1974 to 1976, Tim was the assistant to the Director of the Office of Policy Planning and Evaluation.

Daniel Oliver is a partner at Wallison & Wallison LLP in New York City and a Senior Director of White House Writers Group, a Washington, DC firm that specializes in high-stakes communications and formulating corporate strategies. Prior to serving as Chairman of the FTC (1986-1989), Mr. Oliver served as General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Education (1981-1983) and General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1983-1986).

Robert Pitofsky served as Chairman of the FTC from April 1995 to June 2001 after previously serving as an FTC Commissioner from 1978 to 1981 and as Director of its Bureau of Consumer Protection from 1970 to 1973. He practiced law as counsel to the DC firm of Arnold and Porter and was an attorney with Dewey, Ballantine, Bushby, Palmer & Wood. As a Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Pitofsky taught courses in Antitrust, Consumer Protection, Federal Courts, and Constitutional Law. In addition, he served as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference to the United States and the Board of Governors of the DC Bar Association. Mr. Pitofsky has also chaired the Defense Science Board Task Force on Antitrust Aspects of Defense Industry Downsizing. He is a graduate of New York University and the Columbia University School of Law.