Thomas B. Leary Named Recipient of 2007 Kirkpatrick Award

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras today named former FTC Commissioner Thomas B. Leary the 2007 recipient of the Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award. Citing his significant contributions to the agency and its mission to protect consumers and encourage competition, Chairman Majoras said, “Today, we recognize the outstanding contributions of a very special lawyer who has worked to make the FTC worthy of Americans’ trust and respect . . . Tom Leary epitomizes what the Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award is about: a career-long commitment to improving antitrust jurisprudence and to an effective, intellectually honest, open, and collegial Federal Trade Commission. . . . Over a tenure that included working with three chairmen and five other commissioners, Tom has set a high standard for collegiality, consensus, and teamwork.”

Leary, an FTC commissioner from 1999 through 2005, brought more than 40 years of experience as an antitrust attorney in the private sector. He had been a partner at Hogan & Hartson, in Washington, DC, since 1983. Before joining that firm, he was an assistant general counsel of General Motors with overall responsibility for antitrust, consumer protection, and commercial law matters, and prior to that he was a partner at White & Case in New York. Leary received his undergraduate degree in economics from Princeton University and a law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor and an officer of the Harvard Law Review.

The Kirkpatrick Award was established in 2001 to honor the commitment, talent, and contributions of individuals who have made lasting and significant contributions to the FTC throughout their public and private careers. It is named for a legendary figure in the antitrust community for his dynamic leadership of the American Bar Association’s 1969 commission to study the FTC. The Kirkpatrick Report resulted in a mandate for substantial reform and reorganization of the agency, including recruitment of highly qualified and motivated new talent.

Previous recipients of the award were Basil J. Mezines, Robert Pitofsky, Jodie Bernstein, Caswell O. Hobbs, III, and Calvin J. Collier.