Willard K. Tom

Partner

Willard K. Tom is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Antitrust Practice. Mr. Tom has worked in the antitrust field for nearly thirty years, both in private practice and in government, and has been recognized by his peers by a listing in The Best Lawyers in America. In private practice, he has counseled and represented clients in merger and non-merger matters before the FTC, DOJ, state attorneys general, and the courts, as well as in alternative dispute resolution.

In government, Mr. Tom served in several important management and policy positions and roles:

• deputy director of the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission, where he oversaw non-merger enforcement, patent-antitrust cases, health care, policy development, and the competition enforcement of the Commission’s regional offices
• head of the Bureau’s policy office
• member of the litigation team on FTC v. Intel
• counselor to the head of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he had responsibility for intellectual property, vertical restraints, and telecommunications matters
• one of the principal drafters of the DOJ and FTC Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property
• author of several seminal articles on intellectual property and on exclusionary practices

Mr. Tom also has been an active contributor to the bar and legal community, having served in a number of positions including: 

• member of the D.C. Federal Judicial Nominations Commission
• various positions in the ABA Section of Antitrust Law, including member of the Section Council, chair of the FTC Committee, vice chair of the Intellectual Property Committee, chair of the Editorial Board for the Section's treatise, Antitrust Law Developments (3d ed. 1992), member of the Editorial Board for Antitrust Law Developments (5th ed. 2002) (with responsibility for the Intellectual Property and FTC chapters), editorial chair of the 2004 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, member of the Editorial Board for Antitrust Magazine, and guest editor for the Antitrust Law Journal symposium on The Federal Circuit and Antitrust, 69 Antitrust L.J. 627 (2002)
• member of the Council of the ABA Section of Business Law and chair of the Antitrust Committee of that Section

Mr. Tom has spoken and written on a wide variety of antitrust topics. Publications include:

• U.S. and E.C. Antitrust Approaches to Patent Uncertainty, 34 Law & Policy in Int’l Bus. 859 (2003);
• Is Innovation King at the Antitrust Agencies? The Intellectual Property Guidelines Five Years Later, 69 Antitrust L.J. 43 (2001);
• The 1975 Xerox Consent Decree: Ancient Artifacts and Current Tensions, 68 Antitrust L.J. 967 (2001);
• Toward a Flexible Rule of Reason, 68 Antitrust L.J. 391 (2000);
• Anticompetitive Aspects of Market-Share Discounts and Other Incentives to Exclusive Dealing, 67 Antitrust L.J. 615 (2000); 
• U.S. Enforcement Approaches to the Antitrust/Intellectual Property Interface, in Robert D. Anderson & Nancy T. Gallini, eds., Competition Policy and Intellectual Property Rights in the Knowledge-Based Economy (U. of Calgary Press, 1998);
• Antitrust and Intellectual Property: From Separate Spheres to Unified Field, 66 Antitrust L.J. 167 (1997); and
• Game Theory in the Everyday Life of the Antitrust Practitioner, 5 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 457 (1997).

Mr. Tom received his J.D., cum laude, in 1979 from Harvard Law School and his A.B., cum laude, from Harvard College in 1975.

Mr. Tom is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and before the U.S. Supreme Court.