William Kovacic

William Kovacic
Name	William Kovacic
Birth date	1952
Birth place	Cleveland, Ohio
Occupation	Lawyer, Scholar, Administrator
Known for	Chair of the Federal Trade Commission, Antitrust Scholarship
Employer	George Washington University Law School, Federal Trade Commission, Covington & Burling

William Kovacic is an American legal scholar and regulator known for his work in antitrust law, competition policy, and regulatory reform. He served as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission and has held faculty positions at prominent law schools, contributing to scholarship on antitrust enforcement, international competition law, and government regulation. Kovacic's career spans practice at major law firms, service in federal agencies, and leadership in international organizations concerned with competition policy.

Early life and education

Kovacic was born in Cleveland, Ohio and raised in a family active in local civic life. He attended Kenyon College for undergraduate studies and received a legal education at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he studied alongside peers who later served in roles at the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, Office of the United States Trade Representative, and state attorney general offices. After law school, he clerked and worked in private practice at Covington & Burling and engaged with scholars from Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Stanford Law School, and Columbia Law School through conferences and collaborative projects.

Legal and academic career

Kovacic joined the faculty of the George Washington University Law School, teaching courses that connected antitrust law with comparative and international perspectives alongside colleagues from New York University School of Law, University of Chicago Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and UCLA School of Law. He practiced at Covington & Burling and served in roles at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, collaborating with attorneys who had served in administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. Kovacic participated in programs with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Competition Network, and the World Trade Organization, connecting academic research with enforcement officials from the European Commission, Competition and Markets Authority, Bundeskartellamt, and national competition authorities in Japan, Brazil, Canada, and Australia.

He has held visiting appointments at institutions including University of Michigan Law School, Duke University School of Law, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, and London School of Economics, and has collaborated with scholars affiliated with the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, Cato Institute, and Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Federal Trade Commission service

Kovacic served multiple terms as a Commissioner and later as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission during the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. As Chair, he worked with Commissioners who had backgrounds at the Department of Justice, Federal Communications Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, and state attorney general offices from New York, California, and Texas. He led initiatives interacting with international counterparts at the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Japan Fair Trade Commission, and the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense.

During his FTC tenure, Kovacic addressed merger review matters involving corporations like Microsoft, Google, Apple Inc., AT&T, and Time Warner, and enforcement actions implicating industries regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, Department of Transportation, and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He testified before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce on antitrust and consumer protection matters, and engaged with international fora including the G7 competition meetings, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and the International Competition Network.

Scholarship and publications

Kovacic has published extensively on antitrust enforcement, competition policy, and the intersection of law and public administration in outlets associated with Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Columbia Law Review, and specialty journals such as the Antitrust Law Journal and Journal of Competition Law & Economics. His books and articles analyze precedents from the Sherman Act, Clayton Act, and decisions by the Supreme Court of the United States in cases like United States v. Microsoft Corp., Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, and FTC v. Actavis, Inc..

He has edited volumes with contributions from scholars at Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and leading university presses, and his work has been cited by courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the Supreme Court of the United States. Kovacic has lectured at international venues such as the European University Institute, Cournot Centre, Max Planck Institute for Competition and Innovation, and the World Bank.

Awards and honors

Kovacic has received awards and recognition from institutions including the American Bar Association, American Antitrust Institute, Antitrust Writing Awards, and Federal Bar Association. He has been elected to fellowships and advisory positions with the Institute for Policy Integrity, Center for American Progress advisory boards, and honored by academic societies connected to Cornell Law School, Princeton University, and the National Academy of Public Administration.

Category:Antitrust lawyers Category:American legal scholars Category:Federal Trade Commission chairs