Eric Posner, a former top adviser to the Justice Department’s antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter, is returning to his previous role at trial law boutique MoloLamken. Posner, who will be rejoining as a part-time counsel, was associated with Kanter for nearly two years before departing from the Justice Department in February 2023 to join the University of Chicago’s law school as a faculty member.
In response to his return, Posner expressed eagerness towards helping the firm to bring more antitrust cases, with a significant focus on worker’s rights. MoloLamken, founded in 2009 in New York, is a specialized litigation firm with offices across New York, Washington and Chicago. The firm was on the defense team for Anywhere Real Estate, culminating in the settlement of two antitrust lawsuits worth $83.5 million in 2023.
Under the Biden administration, antitrust litigation has been a primary area of focus. Posner’s former boss, Jonathan Kanter, allied with the Federal Trade Commission to oppose the $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. by Microsoft Corp., though ultimately unsuccessful. In a separate standoff, Kanter is pushing for Google to pay a minimum fine of $300 million in a case concerning advertising technology monopoly allegations.
MoloLamken’s co-founder, Steve Molo, disclosed that antitrust is becoming a burgeoning area of litigation for the firm – an area of law that did not exist when the firm was founded. Ahead of Posner’s Department of Justice tenure in February 2022, he provided counsel at MoloLamken for approximately four years and has been a law professor at the University of Chicago for over two decades. Even though the future of antitrust regulatory scrutiny remains uncertain as the 2024 presidential election approaches, Posner is confident that private-sector antitrust litigation will continue to thrive. Further, Posner believes that past antitrust victories against larger firms in court often lead to more related cases, as their loss presents them as less formidable opponents.
For the full story, see Bloomberg Law.