After just a year and a half at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Joe Wayland is getting a big promotion.
Yesterday, the DOJ announced that Wayland, a senior official in the department’s Antitrust Division, will take over as acting assistant attorney general for the division. Wayland succeeds the division’s current acting AG, Sharis Pozen, who previously announced that she would step down on April 30.
So far, Wayland has played a big role in some major DOJ triumphs. Last year, he led the team that sued H&R Block Inc. over its acquisition of TaxAct, which was the agency’s first successful court challenge to a merger in a decade. He also helped the agency fight AT&T Inc.’s proposed $39 billion merger with Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile USA Inc.
Wayland’s promotion comes as Congress hasn’t yet named a permanent director for the Antitrust Division. In February, the Obama administration nominated Arnold & Porter Partner William Baer, a former top official at the Federal Trade Commission.
