Corporate & Securities Law

Jeff Schmidt to Leave FTC

By Manfred Gabriel

Jeff Schmidt, the current Director of the Bureau of Competition, will leave the FTC. He will be replaced by David P. Wales as Acting Director.

The FTC’s press release states:

Schmidt joined the Commission in February 2005 as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition. As Director, he supervised the Bureau?s merger and non-merger enforcement divisions, played a key role in developing antitrust policy, secured important changes in the Bureau?s infrastructure and merger review processes, and managed Bureau resources during a time when the FTC?s federal court case docket was greatly expanded.

In the merger area, Schmidt directed enforcement efforts against several proposed transactions, including district court challenges in the Whole Foods/Wild Oats, Inova/Prince William Hospital, and Equitable/Dominion matters. He also helped lead the FTC in gaining favorable enforcement results in Allegan/Inamed, Fresenius/Renal Care Group, Boston Scientific/Guidant, Linde/BOC, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain/Owens Corning, Schering Plough/AkzoNobel, Johnson & Johnson/Pfizer, and Carlyle Partners/INEOS Group, Ltd.

In the non-merger area, Schmidt was responsible for supervising challenges in several matters, including Cephalon and Warner-Chilcott in the pharmaceutical industry and MiRealSource and RealComp in the real estate industry.

After leaving the Commission, Schmidt will join the Linklaters law firm as a partner in their New York office.

Full post as published by Antitrust Review on August 07, 2008 (boomark / email).