William Kovacic

William Evan Kovacic (born 1952) is an American lawyer and legal scholar who was a commissioner of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission from 2006 to 2011. Kovacic is a professor at George Washington University Law School and the director of their Competition Law Center. He is a Non-Executive director of the UK Competition and Markets Authority. He was the Commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission from January 4, 2006 to October 3, 2011. President George W. Bush designated him to serve as FTC Chairman on March 30, 2008.^[1] President Barack Obama designated Jon Leibowitz as Chairman on March 2, 2009, replacing Kovacic. Kovacic replaced Deborah Platt Majoras.^[2]

Early life and education[]

Kovacic's father was a chemical engineer who worked for the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C..

Kovacic graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1970. He graduated from Princeton University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts in public and international affairs. He spent one year on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly (now Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights), then attended the Columbia Law School, graduating in 1978 with a Juris Doctor and as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.^[3]

Career[]

Following his term at the FTC, Kovacic returned to George Washington University Law School where he teaches antitrust, contracts, and government contracts. He is the Director of the Competition Law Center at GWU.^[4]

Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, Kovacic was the E.K. Gubin Professor of Government Contracts Law at George Washington University Law School, where he began teaching in 1999. He previously taught antitrust law at George Mason University.^[5] He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through the end of 2004. Kovacic earlier worked at the Commission from 1979 to 1983, first with the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas. After leaving the FTC in 1983, Kovacic was an associate with the Washington, DC, office of Bryan Cave, where he practiced in the firm’s antitrust and government contracts departments, until joining the George Mason University School of Law in 1986.

Earlier in his career, he spent one year on the majority staff of the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was chaired by Senator Philip A. Hart.^[6]

Since 1992, Kovacic has served as an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. He also currently serves on the International Committee of the Institute of Competition Law.

Kovacic was appointed as a Non-Executive Director to the UK Competition and Markets Authority on July 15, 2013.^[7] He is also a visiting professor at the Dickson Poon School of Law at King's College, London.^[8]

He lives in Virginia, with his wife, Kathryn Fenton, an antitrust attorney.

See also[]

• US antitrust law
• EU competition law
• List of former FTC commissioners

References[]

External links[]

• Appearances on C-SPAN