William Baer Biography

Director of the Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission, 6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, 20580.

Education..

• St. Lawrence University, B.A. cum laude, 1972.
• Stanford Law School, J.D., 1975.

Work Experience.

• 1975--1980, Federal Trade Commission.
• 1980--1995, Arnold & Porter.
• 1995--present, Federal Trade Commission.

William J. Baer is the head of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition, which is the unit charged with enforcing antitrust laws.  His most significant act has been to bring an antitrust action against chip maker Intel.

William Baer was appointed as Director of the Bureau of Competition by FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky in April of 1995.  At the FTC he has also overseen the Commission's challenges to the proposed Staples/Office Depot merger, the Time Warner acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System, the Ciba-Geigy/Sandoz merger, and the exclusionary tactics of Toys 'R' US.

Prior to rejoining the FTC in 1995, Baer was a partner, and before that an associate, in the law firm of Arnold & Porter for fifteen years. His legal practice principally involved criminal and civil antitrust and trade regulation matters and legislation.   He represented clients before the FTC, the Justice Department and the courts in mergers and acquisitions, grand jury matters and civil actions.

Just prior to rejoining the FTC, he was counsel to General Electric, along with Dan Webb and Jeff Kindler, in the 1994 trial of United States v. General Electric on price fixing charges.

Bill received a B.A. cum laude in 1972 from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and his J.D. in 1975 from Stanford Law School, where he was Senior Article Editor of the Stanford Law Review.  He worked at the Federal Trade Commission between 1975 and 1980, where he held a number of positions, including Trial Attorney in the National Advertising Division, Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Attorney Advisor to the Chairman, and, finally, Assistant General Counsel and Director of Congressional Relations. He joined Arnold & Porter in 1980.

Select Speeches.  (Links to FTC website.)

• Antitrust Enforcement and High Technology Markets, before the American Bar Association, Sections of Business Law, Litigation, and Tort and Insurance Practice, San Francisco, California, November 12, 1998.
• Report from the Bureau of Competition, before the American Bar Association, Antitrust Section Spring Meeting 1998, Federal Trade Commission Committee, Washington, D.C., April 2, 1998.
• New Myths and Old Realities: Perspectives on Recent Developments in Antitrust Enforcement, before the Bar Association of the City of New York, New York, N.Y., November 17, 1997.
• Report from the Bureau of Competition, before the American Bar Association, Antitrust Section, Spring Meeting 1997, FTC and Clayton Act Committees, Washington, D.C., April 9-10, 1997.
• Reflections on 20 Years of Merger Enforcement under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, before The Conference Board, Washington, D.C., October 29, 1996 and before The 35th Annual Corporate Counsel Institute, Northwestern University School of Law, Corporate Law Center, San Francisco, CA, October 31, 1996.
• The Dollar and Sense of Antitrust Enforcement, before the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association, New York, New York, January 25, 1996.
• Report from the Bureau of Competition: Looking Back and Going Forward before the 44th Annual Antitrust Spring Meeting, Federal Trade Commission Committee, Washington, D.C., March 28, 1996.
• A Report on Recent Antitrust Developments at the Federal Trade Commission, before the American Bar Association's Antitrust Law Section, Chicago, Illinois, August 9, 1995.