Sharis Pozen, a key deputy in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, will temporarily take over as acting head of the division when the current chief makes her exit, Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday.
Pozen will take over next week as Assistant Attorney General Christine Varney leaves the department for the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.
“I am confident that she will continue to lead the Antitrust Division in its mission to vigorously enforce the antitrust laws,” Holder said in a statement. “Sharis has been actively engaged in all significant antitrust matters before the division, and her appointment will ensure that the decision-making on pending antitrust matters is seamless.”
The White House hasn’t nominated a permanent replacement, but sources told the Wall Street Journal that Pozen will likely remain as acting head through the end of President Barack Obama’s term, signalling that the administration has decided on continuity in the division and chosen to avoid any struggle over confirmation in the Senate.
The Journal also reported that leaders within the administration were discussing potential candidates for the permanent appointment should the president win a second term, including William Baer, an antitrust attorney at Arnold & Porter LLP.
Before coming to the division in February 2009, Pozen worked as a partner at Hogan & Hartson’s — now Hogan Lovells — Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Protection Group from 1995 to 2009. Before that, she worked for five years at the Federal Trade Commission, which also enforces federal antitrust laws, as an attorney advisor, director and staff attorney.
