Jones Day Picks Up FTC Competition Director

After spending the past three years at the Federal Trade Commission watching private bar lawyers come before the agency, David Wales says he’s “a pretty educated consumer when it comes to law firms.”
 
When it came time to find a private sector gig for himself, he says Jones Day was an obvious choice, though he had previously practiced at Shearman & Sterling and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft.
 
At the FTC, “I probably saw [Jones Day lawyers] more than just about any firm,” says Wales, who was acting director of the FTC’s bureau of competition until May. Talking to the firm was “a natural choice.”
 
Jones Day announced today that Wales has joined the firm as an antitrust partner in the Washington office. His first day is July 27. For now, he’s vacationing in the Outer Banks.
 
Wales says his work at the firm will amount to “a full-service antitrust” practice centered on mergers, agency work, cartels and litigation. At the FTC, he spent a lot of time dealing with the health care, energy, and high-tech industries, which he says makes those logical areas to continue focusing on in private practice.
 
Prior to becoming acting director in August 2008, Wales was deputy director in the competition bureau. He has also spent time at the Justice Department, serving as counsel to the assistant attorney general in the antitrust division from 2001 to 2003.