Biography of Charles F. Rule

Partner, Law Firm of Covington & Burling, 1201 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington DC, 20044, 202-662-5119, crule@cov.com.

Charles F. (Rick) Rule is a former head of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and currently the top antitrust lawyer with the huge Washington DC law firm of Covington & Burling.  He is a free market conservative, and a leading proponent of the "Chicago School" approach to law and economics.  He is presently a legal advisor and spokesman for Microsoft in antitrust matters.

Rule is a partner at the posh Washington law firm of Covington & Burling and is chairman of the firm's Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice Group.  He practices primarily in the areas of U.S. and foreign antitrust law and of economic and trade regulation. He advises clients in a wide range of basic and high-tech industries, including airlines, software, communications, chemicals, and professional sports, and on a broad variety of issues including government investigation, distribution, mergers and joint ventures.

From November 1986 until May 1989, he was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. He previously served as Acting Assistant Attorney General from April to September 1985.  He joined the Division in 1982 as a Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General William F. Baxter and subsequently served first as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Policy Planning and Legislation and later as the Deputy Assistant General for Regulatory Affairs.

He has a Bachelor of Arts from Vanderbilt University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School.  He was a law clerk to the Judge Daniel M. Friedman. He has written and lectured extensively on a variety of antitrust issues. He has also served as a distinguished adjunct professor of antitrust at American University.  He is chairman of the Corporations, Securities and Antitrust Practice Group of the Federalist Society.   He also is a member of other conservative legal organizations, including the Washington Legal Foundation and the Landmark Legal Foundation.

Education

• Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1978.
• University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 1981.

Work Experience

• Law Clerk for Chief Judge Daniel M. Friedman, U.S. Court of Claims (now known as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit).
• Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1982-83.
• Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1984-86.
• Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1986-89.
• Partner, Covington & Burling, currently.

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia.

Other Activities and Memberships

• Member of the Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation.
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Landmark Legal Foundation.
• Chair of the Corporations, Securities, and Antitrust Practice Group of the Federalist Society, 1998.
• Chair of the Economics Committee of the ABA Antitrust Section, 1989-91.

Select Clients

• He represented US Airways in U.S. v. Airline Tariff Publishing Co., 1994-2 Trade Cas. Sec. 70,687 (D.D.C. 1994).
• He represented US Airways in U.S. v. USAir Group, Inc., 1993-2 Trade Cas. Sec. 70,416 (D.D.C. 1993).
• He is a legal advisor to Microsoft on antitrust matters.

Select Publications

• The Last Gasp of a Case that Deserves to Die: The Desperate State of the Government's Case Against Microsoft, by Charles Rule, Address to the National Press Club, September 2, 1998.
• Overview of Section 2 of the Sherman Act And Its Application to Microsoft by Charles F. Rule, April 29, 1998.
• The Case Against the Case Against Microsoft: Why the Justice Department is barking up the wrong operating system by Charles F. Rule, Slate, Nov. 12, 1997.
• "The FTC is Strangling Business Mergers," The Washington Times, May 19, 1997 at A17.
• "Antitrust Liability" (co-author with David L. Meyer), Chapter 11 in Healthcare Corporate Law: Financial and Liability Aspects of Healthcare Organizations (Mark Hall, ed.) (Little, Brown 1994).
• "NAFTA and Antitrust Policy: Competition and Consumer Welfare Issues" (co-author with Ellen K. Snyder) in The North American Free Trade Agreement: Issues, Options, Implications Essays By Practicing Lawyers on Legal and Policy Issues Raised by the North American Free Trade Agreement (ABA February 1992).
• "Patent-Antitrust Policy: Looking Back and Ahead," 59 Antitrust L.J. 729 (1991).
• "Toward a Merger Policy That Maximizes Consumer Welfare: Enforcement By Careful Analysis Not By the Numbers" (co-author with David Meyer), 35 Antitrust Bull. 251 (1990).
• "Criminal Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws: Targeting Naked Cartel Restraints" 57 Antitrust L.J. 257 (1988).
• "An Antitrust Enforcement Policy to Maximize the Economic Wealth of All Consumers" (co-author with David L. Meyer) 33 Antitrust Bull. 677 (1988), reprinted in The Political Economy of the Sherman Act-The First One Hundred Years (Thomas Sullivan, ed. 1991).
• "Government Enforcement: Complying with Government Requests for Information" (co-author with Claudia Dulmage), Chapter 4 in J. Von Kalinowski, ed., 1 Antitrust Counseling and Litigation Techniques (1988).