Markets Wired

Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic announced today that David C. Shonka will serve as Acting General Counsel for the agency. Shonka will replace William Blumenthal, who is leaving the agency to return to private law practice.

“Dave’s work for over three decades has played a leading role in making the Office of General Counsel one of the best law offices in the federal government,” Chairman Kovacic said. “His service to this agency is unsurpassed. The Commission is most fortunate to enlist someone of such outstanding accomplishment and judgment to serve as Acting General Counsel.”

As the Commission’s chief legal officer and adviser, the General Counsel represents the agency in court and provides legal counsel to the Commission and its bureaus and offices. Shonka has served as the FTC’s Principal Deputy General Counsel since April 2008, leading an adjudicative procedures reform project and overseeing a comprehensive re-writing of the Commission’s Part 3 rules. He also chairs the FTC’s E-discovery Steering Committee for government law enforcement investigations.

Shonka joined the General Counsel’s office in 1977 as a staff attorney and later became the Assistant General Counsel for Litigation. He has tried, briefed, or argued several major cases for the Commission, including, among antitrust matters, Indiana Federation of Dentists, Detroit Auto Dealers, Warner Communications, Elders Grain, University Health, H.J. Heinz, and Chicago Bridge, and, among consumer protection cases, Figgie, American National Cellular, and Joe Camel. He also secured the Commission’s first multi-million dollar redress settlement in a consumer protection case.

Shonka graduated from the University of Maine School of Law and earned undergraduate degrees in English and economics from the University of Nebraska.

(Shonka)