DOJ's antitrust chief to step down

Joe Wayland, the acting chief of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division, will leave the agency on Nov. 16.

He led the department to a series of high-profile legal victories, first as a top litigator and then as the division head. 

Last year, Wayland led the government's challenge of AT&T's $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile, which the companies were forced to abandon. He also won the division's first courtroom victory in nearly a decade when a judge blocked H&R Block's attempt to buy TaxAct.

He took over the division when Sharis Pozen left for private practice earlier this year. As the acting assistant attorney general for antitrust, he negotiated changes to Verizon's $3.9 billion deal with the major cable companies.

Wayland, who had been commuting to Washington from New York, did not announce his next career move.

President Obama has chosen William Baer to head the division, but the Senate has yet to vote on the nomination. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of Baer in September, however Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the panel's ranking member, said he opposed Baer but couldn't state his reasons publicly.

If the Senate doesn't act by Nov. 16, the department will have to choose a new acting antitrust chief. The top candidates would likely be Leslie Overton and Renata Hesse, deputy assistant attorneys general.

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