Jonathan Klarfeld, Deputy Assistant Director for the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Competition, to Join Ropes & Gray in Washington, D.C.

Jonathan S. Klarfeld, a veteran antitrust enforcer who led many significant merger investigations and challenges over the past 13 years at the Federal Trade Commission, is joining the Washington, D.C. office of Ropes & Gray, one of the world’s leading corporate law firms.

Mr. Klarfeld, 44, is currently a deputy assistant director in the Mergers I division in the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition in Washington, D.C. He will join Ropes & Gray’s antitrust practice as a partner in August. At the FTC, Mr. Klarfeld supervised and led milestone antitrust cases.

“Jonathan Klarfeld brings an unparalleled depth of knowledge and experience from the trenches that will be of enormous benefit to clients, just as we are experiencing a surge in merger activity around the world,” said Mark Popofsky, head of the antitrust practice at Ropes & Gray. “We are thrilled to welcome Jonathan to our premier team of antitrust lawyers at Ropes & Gray.”

An attorney with the FTC since 2000, Mr. Klarfeld has overseen matters in several merger and non-merger divisions and has participated in and led antitrust investigations of mergers and acquisitions in the medical devices, medical testing, pharmaceutical, hospital, high technology, food products and defense industries. In addition, Mr. Klarfeld has won several awards for his work at the agency, including most recently the FTC’s Excellence in Supervision Award. He also has taken part in technical assistance missions for the FTC in Mexico and Vietnam.

Mr. Klarfeld also has served as a special assistant U.S. attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where he participated in all aspects of criminal prosecutions, including arraignments, plea negotiations, trials and oral arguments, witness preparations and sentencings. Mr. Klarfeld served as a judicial law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York and began his legal career in private practice as a litigation associate at Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol, a firm which is now part of Ropes & Gray.

The Ropes & Gray antitrust practice provides its clients with the highest-level representation across the full range of antitrust matters. Built around veterans of the U.S. Department of Justice and FTC, and including litigators and former prosecutors with deep antitrust experience, the Ropes & Gray team has the experience, knowledge, and practical understanding of business practices to counsel clients on their most important business arrangements. The practice is highly ranked in publications such as Chambers USA and U.S. News & World Report.

About his move to Ropes & Gray, Mr. Klarfeld said, “I am excited to join the active and growing antitrust practice at Ropes & Gray and the opportunity to work alongside some of the most talented antitrust lawyers I have come up against during my years of government service.”

About Ropes & Gray LLP

Ropes & Gray is one of the world’s premier law firms, with more than 1,100 lawyers and legal professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology and government.

The firm has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, London, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, and has consistently been recognized for its leading practices in many areas, including private equity, M&A, life sciences, health care, finance, investment management, hedge funds, tax, intellectual property, litigation, securities litigation, government enforcement and privacy & data security.