WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A. Douglas Melamed, newly appointed Acting Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, announced that John M. Nannes will be Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General beginning immediately.

Nannes has been serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General since February 1998, supervising the Civil Task Force, the Computers and Finance Section, and the Transportation, Energy, and Agriculture Section. As Acting Principal Deputy, he will continue those activities and also become responsible for policy matters, including relationships with other federal agencies on issues relating to competition. "John came to the Antitrust Division with almost 25 years of antitrust experience, and he has played a major role in many of the Division's most important civil enforcement matters during the past two and a half years. He is the obvious choice for Principal Deputy," said Melamed.

Nannes will fill the vacancy created when Melamed assumed leadership of the Antitrust Division from former Assistant Attorney General Joel I. Klein.

Nannes came to the Antitrust Division in February 1998 from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, where he had been a partner since 1981. He had previously worked in the Division between 1975 and 1977, when he served as a Special Assistant to the Assistant Attorney General. Prior to that time, he clerked for Justice William H. Rehnquist at the Supreme Court (1974-1975) and for Circuit Judge Roger Robb of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (1973-1974).

Nannes earned his undergraduate degree with high distinction from the University of Michigan School of Business Administration in 1970 and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1973. He has taught at the Georgetown University Law Center as a distinguished visitor from practice and as an adjunct professor of law. He is currently a trustee of the Legal Aid Society of Washington, D.C. and of the Supreme Court Historical Society. He recently completed six years of service on the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Committee (formerly the Public Service Activities Committee), the most recent two as vice-chairman.

Nannes lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife and two children.