Kirkland & Ellis has recruited a veteran of the Federal Trade Commission as a partner in Washington DC, making it the latest law firm to add antitrust talent from the government. 

Stephen Mohr has joined Kirkland’s antitrust practice as a partner after 14 years at the FTC. He was most recently assistant director in its Bureau of Competition, where he led the Mergers I Division overseeing merger investigations and litigations across the pharmaceuticals, medical devices, healthcare advertising, defence, aviation and consumer industries. 

Mohr’s hire comes as Big Law firms bolster their antitrust benches against a background of the FTC and US Department of Justice pursuing more merger challenges. In September Weil added Mark Seidman, an FTC veteran who had previously led its Mergers IV Division, while in June Milbank recruited James Weingarten, former chief trial counsel for the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. Other firms adding antitrust talent in Washington DC in recent months include Skadden, Foley & Lardner, Cleary and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. 

“Steve joins Kirkland at a pivotal time as our clients navigate an increasingly nuanced landscape of antitrust review on transactions,” said Matt Reilly, antitrust partner at Kirkland. “Continuing to expand our team with exceptional lawyers like Steve ensures we are primed to meet our clients’ changing needs with our full-service antitrust offering.”

Kirkland also bolstered its antitrust bench in January with the hire of a co-head of King & Spalding’s global antitrust practice, Norman Armstrong Jr, in Washington DC, while at the same time recruiting Daniel Zach, a former FTC assistant director, from Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York. 

Mohr has joined Kirkland amid an uptick in the value of global M&A compared to 2023, when Kirkland topped London Stock Exchange Group’s year-end league tables for M&A by deal value after advising on deals worth more than $400bn globally. The firm placed second behind Skadden in the rankings for the first nine months of this year, after working on deals worth just over $315bn. 

“Kirkland advises on an incredible volume of high-level, transformative transactions and high-stakes antitrust litigation,” Mohr said. “It’s the perfect platform to start the next chapter of my career, and I couldn’t be more excited to join the team.”