Makan Delrahim

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Makan Delrahim
File:Makan Delrahim official photo.jpg
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division
Assumed office
September 28, 2017
President Donald Trump
Preceded by William Baer
Personal details
Born (1969-11-02) November 2, 1969 (age 54)
Tehran, Iran
Political party Republican
Education University of California, Los Angeles (BS)
George Washington University (JD)
Johns Hopkins University (MS)

Makan Delrahim (born November 2, 1969) is an attorney who is the current United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, at the U.S. Department of Justice.[1]

Early life and education

When Delrahim was almost 10 years old, he and his family immigrated to the United States from Iran as Jewish refugees.[2] Delrahim struggled in elementary school because he did not speak English, and learned English in school. He helped with his family’s business where he worked at his father's gas station outside the metropolitan Los Angeles area.[2] Delrahim excelled in high school and enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology (renamed Physiological Sciences).[2] He also received a Specialization in Business/Economics. In 1995, he received his Juris Doctor, with High Honors, from the George Washington University Law School.[2] Delrahim later earned a Master of Science in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University in 2002.

Law career

While in law school, Delrahim worked at the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and on intellectual property issues at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President. After law school, Delrahim joined the Washingon, D.C. law firm, Patton Boggs, LLP.[2] In 1998, Delrahim became a counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, working under the -Chairman, Senator Orrin G. Hatch (R-UT).[2] Delrahim worked on intellectual property and antitrust issues, including patent reform and the investigation into Microsoft. Delrahim later became the Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel of the Senate Judiciary Committee, until his appointment at the Department of Justice in 2003 Jon Leibowitz, President Obama’s Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, who was previously a Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee aide and worked with Delrahim, remembered him as being creative and a pragmatist.[2]

From 2003 through 2005, Delrahim served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the administration of President George W. Bush.[3] While there, he oversaw the Division’s International, Appellate and Policy sections and was the Chairman of the Merger Working Group of the International Competition Network (ICN).

Delrahim also served as a Commissioner on the bi-partisan blue ribbon Antitrust Modernization Commission, serving with former Chiefs of the Antitrust Division, Sandy Litvak, John Shennefield, and ABA Antotrust Section Chair, Jon Jacobson.

After the DOJ, Delrahim next joined the law firm of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, in Los Angeles, California, where he focused his work on antitrust, intellectual property and appellate matters, and his clients included Anthem Inc., Qualcomm, and Zuffa.[4]

Donald Trump presidency

In March 2016, Delrahim published an op-ed in the New York Post arguing that due to the importance of future U.S. Supreme Court nominations, Republicans should not oppose, and instead should support Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.[5]

After Trump's victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Delrahim was active in Trump's presidential transition. After the inauguration of Donald Trump, Delrahim became Deputy White House Counsel and assisted in shepherding United States Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch through the United States Senate confirmation process.

Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Division

In March 2017, Trump announced his nomination of Delrahim as Assistant Attorney General for the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division.[6][7] This role, which required U.S. Senate confirmation, entails overseeing criminal cartel enforcement as well as corporate mergers and acquisitions.[4] In September 2017, he was approved 73-21 by the U.S. Senate.[8][9] When he arrived on the job he was reportedly gifted a hat with "Makan Antitrust Great Again" written upon it, by the staff of the Justice Department.[10]

When interviewed, Delrahim emphasized that under U.S. law, a monopoly is legal as long as it does not abuse its monopoly power.[2] Delrahim has given speeches arguing that behavioral remedies in consent decrees to remedy an otherwise illegal merger are ineffective and that antitrust enforcers should instead employ structural remedies such as divestment.[11]

On November 20, 2017, Delrahim filed a lawsuit under Section 7 of the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 to block AT&T's $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner.[12] On June 12, 2018, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon rejected the government's claims and refused to block the merger.[13] Department of Justice has since appealed this outcome.[14]

On May 29, 2018, Delrahim required one of the largest structural divestitures, as a condition of approving Bayer's $66 billion acquisition of Monsanto.[15][16]

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Pres. Nom. 249, 115th Cong. (2017).
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by United States Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division
2017–present		 Incumbent
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