Former Antitrust Division Assistant Attorney General James F. Rill Receives the Justice Department’s 2012 John Sherman Award

Attorney General Eric Holder presented the 2012 John Sherman Award to James F. Rill for his lifetime contributions to the development and enforcement of antitrust law and the advancement of antitrust policy internationally. Rill served as an Assistant Attorney General for the department’s Antitrust Division from 1989 to 1992 and is currently a partner at Baker Botts LLP in Washington, D.C.

On April 10, 2012, Attorney General Holder honored Rill with the department’s highest antitrust award in the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building. Officials of several federal agencies and members of the antitrust bar attended the award ceremony.

“Jim was a visionary on many antitrust fronts. From issuing the first joint Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Horizontal Merger Guidelines in 1992, to negotiating the historic U.S.-European Union Antitrust Cooperation Agreement in 1991, his leadership and antitrust expertise is beyond compare,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Sharis A. Pozen in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. “He is truly deserving of this award for his outstanding efforts on behalf of American consumers.”

During his tenure as Assistant Attorney General, Rill oversaw matters in a number of important industries, including airlines and banking.

In 1997, Rill was appointed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno and then-Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein to serve as Co-Chair of the department’s International Competition Policy Advisory Committee (ICPAC). The proposal to create a global competition forum that allows government competition authorities throughout the world to meet and discuss antitrust issues served as the stimulus for what has become the International Competition Network (ICN). The ICN was established in 2001, and has more than 100 member nations.

Rill was chairman of the Competition Committee of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from 2005 to 2007, and vice chairman from 1993 to 2005. He serves on the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Antitrust Law International Task Force and is vice-chairman of the Competition Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business.

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 Robert Pitofsky (2010), 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).