FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2004	(202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV	TDD (202) 514-1888

ANTITRUST DIVISION NAMES NEW DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

Thomas O. Barnett to Serve as Deputy Assistant Attorney General

for Civil Enforcement

WASHINGTON, D.C. – R. Hewitt Pate, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division, today announced that Thomas O. Barnett has been appointed to serve as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in charge of civil enforcement for the Division. Barnett will oversee three of the Division's civil sections in this important leadership position.

"Tom's mergers and acquisitions experience, as well as his litigation expertise, will make him a valuable addition to the Division,"said Pate. "The Department is extremely fortunate to have someone of his intellect and expertise on its antitrust enforcement team."

Since 1990, Barnett has practiced at the Washington, D.C. office of Covington & Burling, where he became a partner in 1997. He served as Vice Chair of the firm's Antitrust and Consumer Protection Practice Group. At Covington & Burling, Barnett provided counsel on corporate transactions and licensing arrangements in the airline, chemical, construction aggregate, defense, hospital, petroleum, pharmaceutical and other industries. Barnett is experienced in antitrust litigation and in issues involving intellectual property, e-commerce, sports law, and antitrust corporate compliance programs.

From 1989 to 1990, Barnett clerked for Judge Harrison Winter of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Barnett has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and was a co-teacher of an advanced antitrust seminar at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Barnett graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1989 and was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics from 1987 to 1989. He received a Master of Science degree in economics in 1986 from the London School of Economics while a Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom. He received his B.A. in 1985 from Yale University where he graduated summa cum laude.

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