Morrison & Foerster Keeps Up DOJ Hiring with Antitrust Official

Morrison & Foerster continued the buildup of its antitrust ranks with the addition of Alexander P. Okuliar from the Justice Department, where he was deputy assistant attorney general for civil enforcement in the Antitrust Division.

He was the third senior DOJ official to join the firm in 2021, and will co-chair the firm’s antitrust practice group along with Jeff Jaeckel and Lisa Phelan in Washington.

Law firms have been recruiting officials with antitrust experience at a rapid pace in preparation for an anticipated uptick in activity in the area under the Biden administration.

Morrison & Foerster’s Jaeckel said in a statement that the firm anticipates “increasing antitrust enforcement at the U.S. federal, state and international levels.”

Okuliar earlier had been an antitrust partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, where he represented large technology companies on antitrust issues involving mergers. Prior to that, he was an attorney advisor to Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen in the area of merger reviews, investigations, and privacy and competition policy developments. He also worked as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division, focusing on the technology and financial sectors, and earlier as counsel to O’Melveny & Myers.

With Okuliar’s arrival, Morrison & Foerster has added nine new senior antitrust lawyers since 2019, in addition to other Justice Department officials, including Phelan, a former Antitrust Division official.

She said in a statement that Okuliar’s “in-depth knowledge of the role of data in connection with merger review and competitor conduct, technology platforms, privacy and antitrust, as well as the intersection of IP/trade secrets and antitrust, will give our clients a significant advantage with their complex antitrust matters across multiple industries.”