Maureen K. Ohlhausen
Maureen K. Ohlhausen is a partner and co-chair of the antitrust and competition practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Her work focuses on antitrust, consumer protection, privacy, and technology regulation, particularly matters involving the Federal Trade Commission and high-profile merger and conduct investigations.
Ohlhausen previously served as a partner and global co-chair of the antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts. Earlier, she was a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission and served as the agency’s acting chairman, overseeing merger review, conduct enforcement, and consumer-protection actions, including major privacy and technology cases.
Before her appointment as commissioner, she served at the FTC in several senior staff roles, including director of the Office of Policy Planning, where she led initiatives addressing e-commerce and internet-access policy and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force. She also worked as technology policy counsel at the Business Software Alliance and practiced law as a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP.
She began her legal career clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and serving as a staff attorney at that court. She has also taught as adjunct faculty at George Mason University School of Law.
Her honors include the Federal Trade Commission’s Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award, the Phoenix Center Public Service Award, the Internet Association’s Internet Freedom Award, and George Mason University’s Distinguished Alumni Award.
Ohlhausen earned a J.D. from George Mason University School of Law and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia.
Maureen K. Ohlhausen & Ben Rossen
Jul 13, 2022
Introduction The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has long steered the direction of competition law by engaging in case-by-case enforcement of the FTC Act’s prohibition on unfair methods of competition (UMC). Recently, some have argued that the FTC’s exclusive reliance on case-by-case adjudication is too long and arduous a route and have urged the commission to ... Dead End Road: National Petroleum Refiners Association and FTC ‘Unfair Methods of Competition’ Rulemaking
Maureen K. Ohlhausen & James F. Rill
Jul 07, 2022
Since its founding in 1914, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has held a unique and multifaceted role in the U.S. administrative state and the economy. It possesses powerful investigative and information-gathering powers, including through compulsory processes; a multi-layered administrative-adjudication process to prosecute “unfair methods of competition (UMC)” (and later, “unfair and deceptive acts and practices ... Pushing the Limits? A Primer on FTC Competition Rulemaking
