A former government lawyer who served 59 years in the Antitrust Division was honored at Justice Department headquarters in Washington on Wednesday with accolades, stories and a toy bulldog.
Bernard Hollander (Andrew Ramonas)
Onetime colleagues of former Senior Trial Attorney Bernard Hollander, 94, described him as a tenacious, dedicated lawyer who was the driving force behind many major antitrust cases from 1949 and 2008, when he retired.
A picture of Hollander can be found in an unabridged dictionary under bulldog, former DOJ official Gerald A. Connell said, drawing laughs from more than 50 of the longtime lawyer’s friends, former colleagues and family members. Connell recalled that he once advised a co-worker to chop off his leg if “if Bernie ever gets his jaws around your ankle.”
“Bernie did what Bernie wanted to do,” Connell said. “Bernie is as dogged and relentless and persistent a person as I’ve ever known. And I think that is one of his shining attributes.”
Hollander handled several groundbreaking cases, including U.S. v. RCA, in which the Supreme Court ruled in 1959 that the DOJ could challenge mergers already endorsed by the Federal Communications Commission. He also received several honors, most notably the first Attorney General’s Award for Lifetime or Career Achievement.
Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney of the Antitrust Division said Hollander is “an extraordinary man” with an “extraordinary career.” Varney said she has become a Hollander fan since she being confirmed to her DOJ post in 2009.
“While I’m late to the school of Bernie admirers, I am now first in class,” Varney said.
John M. Nannes, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division, said Hollander was “the mentor-in-chief to generations of Antitrust lawyers.”
“He taught them and us an important lesson: the law applied to everyone,” said Nannes, now a partner at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in D.C. “The rule of law — not politics or power — was the guiding standard.”
