Professor Robert Pitofsky Receives the Justice Department’s 2010 John Sherman Award

Attorney General Eric Holder presented the 2010 John Sherman Award to Robert Pitofsky for his lifetime contributions to the teaching and enforcement of antitrust law and the development of antitrust policy. Professor Pitofsky is a Joseph and Madeline Sheehy Professor of Trade Regulation Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and is of counsel in the Washington, D.C., office of Arnold & Porter LLP.

On April 20, 2010, Attorney General Holder honored Professor Pitofsky with the department’s highest antitrust award in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building. Members of the judiciary, officials of several federal agencies and members of the antitrust bar attended the award ceremony.

"His dedication to the law and the fundamental ideals of antitrust enforcement is unparalleled," said Christine Varney, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. "Having worked with Bob at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and known him as a mentor for 15 years, I cannot think of anyone more singularly appropriate upon which to bestow this honor."

Professor Pitofsky collaborated on the American Bar Association Commission’s 1969 Report and wrote a ground-breaking 1977 article, "Beyond Nader: Consumer Protection and the Regulation of Advertising," both of which supplied much of the intellectual framework for today’s FTC. Professor Pitofsky held three posts at the FTC, including Chairman (1995-2001); Commissioner (1978-1981); and Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection (1970-1973). In 2002, the FTC awarded him the second annual Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime FTC Achievement.

In addition, Professor Pitofsky served as dean of the Georgetown University Law Center (1983-1989), Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (1975-1976) and a professor at New York University School of Law (1963-1970). He is a principal author of one of the most widely used trade regulation casebooks, "Trade Regulation: Cases and Materials," now in its fifth edition.

Created in 1994, the John Sherman Award is presented by the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division to a person or persons for outstanding and substantial contributions to the field of antitrust law, the protection of American consumers and the preservation of economic liberty.

The Award is named for the author of the Sherman Act of 1890, the nation’s first and foremost antitrust law. John 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 Herbert Hovenkamp (2008), Robert H. Bork (2005), Richard A. Posner (2003), Milton Handler (1998), Thomas E. Kauper and William F. Baxter (1996), Phillip E. Areeda (1995) and Howard Metzenbaum (1994).