Tad Lipsky
Abbott “Tad” B. Lipsky Jr. is an assistant professor at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and director of the Competition Advocacy Program at the Global Antitrust Institute. His work focuses on antitrust law, competition policy, and the economic analysis of competition enforcement.
Lipsky previously served as acting director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition. In that role, he oversaw the agency’s competition-enforcement activities and antitrust investigations.
Earlier, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Latham & Watkins LLP, where he maintained a wide-ranging U.S. and international antitrust practice involving mergers, monopolization, joint ventures, civil and criminal antitrust enforcement, and competition issues in regulated industries.
Before joining Latham & Watkins, Lipsky served as chief antitrust lawyer for The Coca-Cola Co., where he managed competition matters before courts and antitrust authorities in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and numerous jurisdictions across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.
Earlier in his career, Lipsky served as deputy assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under Assistant U.S. Attorney General William F. Baxter. In that role, he supervised the executive branch’s participation in several landmark Supreme Court antitrust cases, including National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma, Jefferson Parish Hospital District No. 2 v. Hyde, Monsanto Co. v. Spray-Rite Service Corp., and Associated General Contractors v. California State Council of Carpenters. He also supervised preparation of the 1982 Department of Justice Merger Guidelines and oversaw the Antitrust Division’s review of United States v. International Business Machines Corp., which culminated in dismissal of the long-running monopolization case.
Lipsky has played an active role in the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law, including serving as the section’s first international officer and as a member of its governing council. He has also served on the section’s international advisory board and has worked on initiatives aimed at improving the quality and international coordination of antitrust enforcement.
Throughout his career, Lipsky has received recognition from Chambers USA, Legal 500, The Best Lawyers in America, and Who’s Who Legal for his work in antitrust law.
He earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a master’s in economics from Stanford University. He holds a bachelor’s in physics from Amherst College.
