Freshfields announced today that Manish Kumar has joined the firm as an antitrust partner in San Francisco, specializing in criminal antitrust litigation and related white-collar matters. Most recently, Manish served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Criminal Enforcement at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, where he set enforcement priorities and oversaw all DOJ criminal antitrust prosecutions from grand jury through appeal and served as its senior career official. Prior to this role, Manish was the Chief of the Division’s San Francisco Office for several years, where he supervised the office’s criminal and civil docket. Under his guidance, the office set several precedents, including its first felony monopolization conviction, its first conviction in a labor market antitrust prosecution and its first corporate divestiture as a criminal penalty. In addition, Manish served as the lead prosecutor in several trials as an Antitrust Division Trial Attorney and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. “Manish is an extremely well-respected lawyer across the national antitrust bar,” said U.S. Managing Partner Sarah Solum. “His impressive track record of leadership and depth of experience with the criminal antitrust enforcement program at the DOJ make him an undeniable asset to clients and our antitrust litigation team. Being California-based, Manish will play a key role in bolstering our coast-to-coast U.S. antitrust presence.” Head of U.S. Antitrust, Competition and Trade group, Christine Wilson added: “Manish is one of the highest-profile criminal antitrust lawyers in the country. His prosecutorial experience adds to our full-service antitrust platform for clients in the U.S. and around the globe. Manish’s combination of supervisory, investigative, and litigation experience at DOJ enhances our elite team’s advice to clients in step with evolving antitrust enforcement dynamics.” Manish is the latest in a series of recent strategic antitrust partners additions including Christine Wilson, Kevin Yingling and Marin Boney. He also joins fellow DOJ Antitrust Division alums Eric Mahr, Julie Elmer and Andrew Ewalt in the firm’s U.S. antitrust practice. On joining the firm, Manish noted: “I am thrilled to be joining Freshfields’ elite U.S. and global antitrust practices. Our antitrust team is recognized as the go-to advisors for the most critical competition challenges in the U.S. and globally, and I look forward to adding my experience and perspective as a prosecutor to the firm’s formidable U.S. platform.” With more than 350 antitrust and regulatory lawyers based in the U.S., Europe, Asia and the Middle East, Freshfields is the global market leader in all aspects of competition law, including mergers, cartel investigations and antitrust litigation.