Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer announced today that Jamillia P. Ferris has joined the firm’s US antitrust, competition and trade practice as a partner based in Washington and a member of the firm’s global antitrust leadership team. She is a respected leader of the regulatory bar who has held senior positions at both the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Ms. Ferris’s practice focuses on the representation of companies across multiple industries in merger control matters and civil conduct investigations before the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with extensive experience with companies in the tech and semiconductor sectors. Prior to her work in private practice, Ms. Ferris oversaw mergers at both the Antitrust Division of the DOJ, where she was chief of staff and counsel to the assistant attorney general of the Antitrust Division, and at the FCC. While at the FCC, she led the review of AT&T’s proposed $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV and was a member of the steering committee overseeing the FCC’s review of Comcast’s proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable.
“With the recent focus on US antitrust enforcement, this is a great opportunity to further deepen our bench of agency-facing partners,” said Thomas Janssens, head of Freshfields’s global antitrust practice. “Jamillia’s experience makes her the perfect fit for our team as we continue to see an increase in complex deals from our US, transatlantic and transpacific practices.”
Ms. Ferris has advised on the antitrust aspects of major matters for clients including:
- Credit Karma in its sale to Intuit
- Bungie in its sale to Sony
- Zynga in its sale to Take Two
- Lumentum in its acquisitions of NeoPhotonics and Oclaro
- DeepMap in its sale to Nvidia
- MaxLinear in its proposed acquisition of Silicon Motion
- Mandiant in its proposed acquisition by Google
Ms. Ferris is recognized by Chambers USA as one of America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and has been named in the current edition of Global Competition Review’s Women in Antitrust as well as in the 2022 edition of their Competition list with Who’s Who Legal. She also currently serves on the board of the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project, which provides comprehensive legal services to victims of domestic violence; on the Advisory Council of Lemonada Media; and on the Council of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association.
“Jamillia is an outstanding addition to our antitrust team, expanding our ability to provide our clients with top-tier antitrust advice alongside our renowned transactional practice, both in the US and globally. Not only does she have an impeccable track record of service to clients, but she also brings the personal qualities and strong leadership skills that have become the hallmark of our firm culture,” said Freshfields’s US Managing Partner Sarah K. Solum.
“The opportunity to join Freshfields’s standout team and provide all of the benefits of the firm’s unmatched global platform to my clients is very exciting. I look forward to working alongside my new colleagues on the complex issues that clients are facing in today’s antitrust enforcement environment,” said Ms. Ferris.
