Skadden: Senior Criminal Antitrust Enforcer James Fredricks Joins As Partner

By Amit Chowdhry ● Apr 4, 2024

Skadden announced that James Fredricks has joined the firm’s global Antitrust/Competition Group as a partner in its Washington, D.C., office. Fredricks was most recently chief of the Washington Criminal II Section of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Fredricks will counsel and defend clients in all types of antitrust cases and prosecutions and other complex and multijurisdictional actions brought by government enforcers, including price fixing, bid rigging, market allocations, no-poach agreements, algorithmic pricing, and criminal monopolization.

Fredricks has been at the DOJ’s Antitrust Division (Division) for over 20 years and has served as chief of the Washington Criminal II Section (Criminal II) since 2018. Under his leadership, the section brought criminal charges and secured convictions in regional, national, and international cases.

As a DOJ’s International Cartel Working Group veteran and a ABA’s International Cartel Task Force member, Fredricks is a leading figure in antitrust cartel enforcement. Over the past two decades, he played a major role in the most significant international and national cartel cases. And he served as architect and principal author of the DOJ and Federal Trade Commission’s Antitrust Guidelines for International Enforcement and Cooperation. He has worked on antitrust cases across various industries, including technology, financial services, pharmaceuticals, health care, agriculture, payment processing platforms, shipping, chemicals, automotive, energy, aviation, environmental services, precious metals, government contracting, construction, and real estate.

Before heading up Criminal II, Fredricks was assistant chief of the Division’s Appellate Section, supervising the staff attorneys representing the Division in all criminal and select civil cases in the U.S. courts of appeals and Supreme Court and litigating complex or critical issues in the district courts. Earlier in his career, he was a trial attorney in the National Criminal Enforcement and Appellate sections. He also worked as a senior counsel to the deputy assistant attorney general for criminal antitrust enforcement and as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Fredricks received several awards while at the DOJ, including the Hugh Morrison Award for exceptional accomplishment as an antitrust litigator and adherence to the highest principles of prosecution on behalf of the United States and the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service, the DOJ’s second-highest award for employee performance. And he is also a seven-time recipient of the Assistant Attorney General Award. A graduate of Emory University, Fredricks earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and clerked for Chief Judge R. Lanier Anderson of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

KEY QUOTES:

“Jim’s senior role at DOJ and knowledge of agency practices and enforcement priorities will enable him to effectively counsel and defend clients facing high-stakes criminal antitrust investigations. He is a strategic thinker and has overseen some of DOJ’s highest-profile cartel matters. Jim can use that insight and experience to provide invaluable advice to our clients around the globe.”

– Steve Sunshine, head of Skadden’s global Antitrust/Competition Group

“Skadden’s global platform uniquely positions us to meet clients’ needs as investigations expand across borders. I anticipate a strong alignment of my skills with Skadden’s market-leading antitrust and white-collar defense and investigations practices, and look forward to counseling our clients as they navigate an increasingly complex global regulatory and enforcement landscape.”

– James Fredricks

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