Gail Slater was confirmed last week as Assistant Attorney General (AAG) for the Antitrust Division; companies should expect a continuation of many Biden-era approaches, with new cases and priorities to advance the Trump administration’s policies. AAG Slater assumes leadership over the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) Antitrust Division with more than 25 years of antitrust experience, including as a federal enforcer, in the private sector, and as an advisor to policymakers. AAG Slater spent a decade at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), serving first as a staff attorney from 2004-2011, and later becoming an advisor to Commissioner Julie Brill from 2011-2014. In the first Trump administration, AAG Slater served as a special assistant to the President for technology, telecommunications, and cybersecurity. After stints at Fox and Roku, in 2024, she became economic advisor to Vice President JD Vance, leading his antitrust policy transition team.
Taking Hold of the Scalpel: Plans for Vigorous Antitrust Enforcement
According to AAG Slater, “antitrust enforcement is a scalpel, and regulation is a sledgehammer.”1 Under AAG Slater, the DOJ is expected to continue active antitrust enforcement, both in civil conduct and mergers. During her February 2025 confirmation hearing process, AAG Slater remarked that this administration will carry on the “through lines” from the prior two administrations, focusing on “the importance of protecting workers, the risks sometimes presented by vertical mergers and dominant firm acquisitions of nascent competitors, and the critical need to prevent the monopolization of digital markets.”2
However, unlike the prior administration, enforcement under the current heads of the antitrust agencies is likely to take shape through investigations, instead of broader regulatory efforts. Even while waiting for AAG Slater’s confirmation, the DOJ has been active in its enforcement agenda. Under the interim AAG, Omeed Assefi, the DOJ brought suit to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.’s proposed acquisition of Juniper Networks, Inc. Commentators had not been expecting the lawsuit, suggesting there is plenty of freedom under DOJ leadership to implement a policy of aggressive antitrust enforcement. More information on the HPE/Juniper case can be found here.
In addition to merger enforcement, the DOJ is likely to continue a focus on antitrust concerns scrutinized during the Biden administration, including but not limited to wage-fixing, no-poach agreements, information-sharing, and algorithmic pricing.
Big Tech Unlikely to Get a Big Break
Given her past policy work focused on the role of antitrust in emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, AAG Slater is likely to keep a close eye on Big Tech and the wide array of related competition concerns. In his X post announcing Slater’s nomination, President Trump remarked, “Big Tech has run wild for years, stifling competition in our most innovative sector,” and that under AAG Slater’s leadership, the DOJ “will help ensure that our competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and FAIRLY, with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies.”3
AAG Slater has echoed the White House’s concerns regarding Big Tech and platform moderation. During her nomination hearing, she expressed concerns that in concentrated platform industries “anybody’s viewpoint can be quickly throttled or suppressed when there is market power.”
Keeping Revised Merger Regime and Bringing Back an Appetite for Structural Remedies
AAG Slater shows no signs of revising the 2023 Merger Guidelines or curbing the expanded HSR filing requirements in the near term. Aligning with FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, AAG Slater agreed that “current merger guidelines simply restate longstanding law” and indicated she will utilize the 2023 Merger Guidelines in reviewing mergers at the DOJ.4 Nor has AAG Slater shown concern about the burden from the new pre-merger filing requirements, which came into effect on February 10, 2025. More information on the new reporting requirements and thresholds for reporting transactions can be found here.
One area where companies might expect to see less burden is in deals where a structural remedy can resolve competitive concerns. AAG Slater has been outspoken in her support for “effective and robust structural remedies” during merger investigations. Under AAG Slater, the DOJ will likely be more open to settlements in merger cases where remedies “can be implemented without excessively burdening the Antitrust Division’s resources.”5 This change from the prior administration may lead to more procompetitive deals closing without burdensome review timelines or federal litigation.
AAG Slater’s team will include Roger Alford serving as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG). Principal DAAG Alford previously served as DAAG for International Affairs during the first Trump administration. As DAAG, Alford was responsible for the Antitrust Division’s Multilateral Framework on Procedures, an initiative to promote fundamental due process in global antitrust enforcement. Principal DAAG Alford is a proponent of enforcement and warns against agencies relying on markets to self-correct anticompetitive issues. In his December 17, 2024, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Principal DAAG Alford stated that the second Trump administration will “vigorously enforce the antitrust laws and reject the bias accepted in previous Republican administrations toward underenforcement.”
AAG Slater also plans to bring in Bill Rinner as Deputy AAG. Deputy AAG Rinner was the Chief of Staff to AAG Makan Delrahim in the first Trump administration. In that role, he was involved in a variety of key cases and policy initiatives, including drawing clear boundaries at the intersection of antitrust and IP law, as exhibited in the DOJ’s amicus brief in FTC v. Qualcomm. Since serving in the Antitrust Division, Deputy AAG Rinner has been Senior Regulatory Counsel at Apollo Global Management Inc.
For more information on what is to come for U.S. antitrust agency litigations, investigations, and policy decisions, please contact Maureen Ohlhausen, Jamillia Ferris, Taylor Owings, or any member of Wilson Sonsini’s antitrust and competition practice.
[1] Statement of Gail Slater, Nomination Hearing (Feb. 12, 2025), available at https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/02/12/2025/nominations.
[2] Gail Slater, Responses to Written Questions of Senator Mazie K. Hirono for Hearing on ‘Nominations,’ submitted February 17, 2025, available at https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2025-02-12_-_qfr_responses_-_slater.pdf.
[3] Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), X (Dec 4, 2024), https://x.com/trump_repost/status/1864359733853081897.
[4] On the Effective Date of the new HSR Pre-Merger Filing Requirements, Acting AAG Assefi issued a memo to DOJ staff stating that “should [Slater] be confirmed—the Antitrust Division plans to continue using the 2023 Merger Guidelines.”
