FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	AT

THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 2004	(202) 202-514-2007

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

ANTITRUST DIVISION NAMES NEW CHIEF OF STAFF

AND DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL

David A. Higbee to Serve as Chief of Staff and Deputy Assistant Attorney General

WASHINGTON, D.C. – R. Hewitt Pate, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, today announced that David A. Higbee has been appointed to serve as Chief of Staff and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division. In this new position, Higbee will have primary responsibility for a number of ongoing management initiatives at the Division aimed at making the Division's enforcement efforts more efficient and effective.

"I am extremely pleased to have a person of David's proven ability and sound judgment join the Division's management team at the Deputy Assistant Attorney General level," said Pate. "As the 'Chief of Staff' part of the title suggests, David will help coordinate the work of the other deputies in exercising their established supervisory responsibilities, and I expect to work closely with him on all major substantive matters at the Division."

Since 2003, Higbee has served as Special Assistant to the President at the White House, advising the President on his senior appointments and management issues at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, the Federal Trade Commission and other agencies.

Previously, he served under the Associate Attorney General as Deputy Associate Attorney General (2001-2003) and Counsel (2001), working on litigation and policy matters arising out of the Antitrust and Tax Divisions, and the U.S. Trustee program. Higbee also worked on issues relating to the Corporate Fraud Task Force and international trade matters.

Before joining the Department, Higbee was a corporate and commercial lawyer with Miles & Stockbridge P.C. (1998-2001) where he worked on issues involving health care, manufacturing, real estate, and construction, as well as matters involving business acquisitions and dispositions, financing, partnerships and joint ventures. From 1996 to 1998 he was a tax consultant with Deloitte & Touche LLP .

In 1996, Higbee was a legal fellow for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and a law clerk at the Federal Trade Commission (1995-1996).

Higbee graduated from the George Mason University School of Law in 1996. He received his B.S. in accounting from Brigham Young University in 1993.

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