The Honorable William J. Baer to Receive Justice Department’s 2024 John Sherman Award

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will present the Honorable William J. Baer with the John Sherman Award for his lifetime contributions to the substantive development of antitrust law and the preservation of economic liberty. The John Sherman Award is the division’s highest honor.

Mr. Baer will deliver remarks and receive the award during a ceremony at 3:30 pm on Dec. 12 in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building. The ceremony will mark the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the John Sherman Award. The public is invited to watch the ceremony livestream at www.justice.gov/live.

“Few living Americans have contributed more meaningfully or substantially to the life and enforcement mission of our federal antitrust agencies than Bill Baer,” said Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “His storied career was characterized by a deep sense of professionalism, sharp intellect and kindness that propelled Bill to reshape competition law enforcement to better serve the American people, and we are all the beneficiaries. Bill is a generational talent and visionary who could not be more deserving of the John Sherman Award.”  

Mr. Baer is the only individual to have served as the top antitrust enforcer at both U.S. antitrust agencies — first as the Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 1995 to 1999 and later as the Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division from 2013 to 2016.

During his tenure as Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Baer promoted robust antitrust enforcement by successfully prosecuting civil and criminal violations of the antitrust laws, including by dusting off long-dormant theories of harm and investing in the division’s litigation prowess. Under his leadership, the division halted anticompetitive mergers in a variety of markets, including health insurance and beverages, and secured an unprecedented number of fines from companies engaging in illegal cartel activity. He also served as Acting Associate Attorney General, where he oversaw the work of the department’s civil litigating and grant-making components. In that role, he successfully led the effort to hold financial institutions accountable in the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities crisis, securing record penalties and consumer redress.

Mr. Baer’s storied antitrust career began in 1975 as a Trial Attorney in the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. He later served as Attorney Advisor to the Chair and Assistant General Counsel for Legislation and Relations. After a successful stint in private practice, he returned to the FTC to serve as Director of the Bureau of Competition from 1995 and 1999. During this time, Mr. Baer led the Commission to an unprecedented string of litigation victories and set records for the number of mergers reviewed and challenged. The FTC honored Mr. Baer with the Miles W. Kirkpatrick Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. When not in public service, he practiced at Arnold & Porter where for many years he headed the antitrust group. Mr. Baer is currently a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.

Mr. Baer received his B.A. from Lawrence University, which would later award him its Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as senior article editor of the Stanford Law Review.

Created in 1994, the John Sherman Award is presented by the department's Antitrust Division to a person or persons for outstanding contributions to the field of antitrust law, the protection of American consumers and the preservation of economic liberty. It is named for Senator John Sherman of Ohio, the author of the Sherman Act of 1890, the nation’s first and foremost antitrust law. Sherman, a former congressman and senator, also served as Secretary of the Treasury from 1877 to 1881 and as Secretary of State from 1897 to 1898.

Previous recipients include Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg (2020), Judge Diane P. Wood (2015), James F. Rill (2012), Robert Pitofsky (2010), Herbert Hovenkamp (2008), Robert H. Bork (2005), Judge Richard A. Posner (2003), Milton Handler (1998), Thomas Kauper and William Baxter (1996), Phillip Areeda (1995) and Howard Metzenbaum (1994).