Ex-FTC lawyers create new antitrust firm

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Wednesday, June 18, 2025

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Ex-FTC lawyers form new firm targeting US antitrust enforcement 'gaps'

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Three former FTC lawyers and a U.S. attorney who resigned in January opened a new plaintiffs law firm focused on unfair competition, price discrimination and other antitrust law violations. Read more from Mike Scarcella.

They are launching the New York-based firm, Simonsen Sussman, as private antitrust litigation has surged in recent years, and as the FTC has shed staff under the second Trump administration.

Catherine Simonsen, Shaoul Sussman and Nicolas Stebinger, who departed senior roles at the FTC in recent months, formed the firm with Kate Brubacher, a former U.S. attorney for Kansas during the Biden administration. The firm said underutilized laws and institutional constraints at federal agencies have left "gaps" in antitrust enforcement that the lawyers hope to fill.

More top news

Elon Musk's X sues New York to block social media hate speech law

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

Elon Musk's X Corp sued New York, challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment and foreign political interference.

X said the law known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act violated the First Amendment and state constitution by subjecting it to lawsuits and heavy fines unless it disclosed "highly sensitive and controversial speech" that New York may find objectionable.

Jonathan Stempel has more on the lawsuit.

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