Judge Richard Leon. Photo Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon is tasked with overseeing the Justice Department's lawsuit to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, but it won't be the first time the judge has handled a mega media merger.

The senior judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed off on another massive vertical merger in 2011: that of Comcast and NBC. Since news broke earlier this month that the DOJ may seek to block AT&T, a service provider, and Time Warner, a content producer, from merging, lawyers and experts have pointed to the success of the Comcast deal as evidence that the DOJ may not be successful in challenging the merger. But six years ago, Leon was skeptical of the government's conditions for Comcast.

“The government's ability to 'enforce' the final judgment, and, frankly, this court's ability to oversee it, are, to say the least, limited,” Leon wrote in a memorandum that accompanied his approval of the deal. ” …  I am not completely certain that these safeguards, alone, will sufficiently protect the public interest in the years ahead.”  

The DOJ filed its lawsuit against AT&T Monday, and the case was randomly assigned first to Judge Christopher Cooper Tuesday morning, and then reassigned to Leon. The lawsuit is the first time the DOJ will bring a real challenge to a vertical merger in at least 40 years, and will be a test of the department's Antitrust Division under the new leadership chosen by President Donald Trump, including Makan Delrahim, the new antitrust chief, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The DOJ alleges in its complaint that the merger between the telecom giant and content producer will stifle competition by forcing rivals to pay more for Time Warner content and would slow the development of other innovative ways to deliver video content.

There were similar concerns about Comcast and NBC at the time. As part of the deal, NBC was required to cede all control of the online streaming service Hulu, along with more than a hundred other rules aimed at making sure the merger did not thwart competition in the media industry. Some of those rules expire next September.

In the Comcast case, Leon's skepticism led him to impose his own rules on top of the DOJ's. Those included requiring the merged companies, known as NBCUniversal, to report to the DOJ on arbitration claims brought over content disputes.

“Since neither the court nor the parties has a crystal ball to forecast how this final judgment, along with its arbitration mechanisms, will actually function, I believe that certain additional steps are necessary to monitor implementation of the final judgment to ensure that it satisfies the public-interest requirement mandated by statute,” Leon wrote.

Leon was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2001, and took the bench in 2002. He worked in private practice before his nomination, both at Baker & Hostetler and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease.

Leon also served as counsel to Congress in various investigations including to the Iran-Contra Committee in 1987, the October Surprise Task Force from 1992-93 and as special counsel to the House Banking Committee's Whitewater investigation in 1994.

Prior, Leon worked at the DOJ in various positions, including senior trial attorney in the Tax Division's criminal section and as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He received his J.D. from Suffolk Law School and his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.

Judge Richard Leon. Photo Credit: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon is tasked with overseeing the Justice Department's lawsuit to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner, but it won't be the first time the judge has handled a mega media merger.

The senior judge at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia signed off on another massive vertical merger in 2011: that of Comcast and NBC. Since news broke earlier this month that the DOJ may seek to block AT&T, a service provider, and Time Warner, a content producer, from merging, lawyers and experts have pointed to the success of the Comcast deal as evidence that the DOJ may not be successful in challenging the merger. But six years ago, Leon was skeptical of the government's conditions for Comcast.

“The government's ability to 'enforce' the final judgment, and, frankly, this court's ability to oversee it, are, to say the least, limited,” Leon wrote in a memorandum that accompanied his approval of the deal. ” …  I am not completely certain that these safeguards, alone, will sufficiently protect the public interest in the years ahead.”  

The DOJ filed its lawsuit against AT&T Monday, and the case was randomly assigned first to Judge Christopher Cooper Tuesday morning, and then reassigned to Leon. The lawsuit is the first time the DOJ will bring a real challenge to a vertical merger in at least 40 years, and will be a test of the department's Antitrust Division under the new leadership chosen by President Donald Trump, including Makan Delrahim, the new antitrust chief, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The DOJ alleges in its complaint that the merger between the telecom giant and content producer will stifle competition by forcing rivals to pay more for Time Warner content and would slow the development of other innovative ways to deliver video content.

There were similar concerns about Comcast and NBC at the time. As part of the deal, NBC was required to cede all control of the online streaming service Hulu, along with more than a hundred other rules aimed at making sure the merger did not thwart competition in the media industry. Some of those rules expire next September.

In the Comcast case, Leon's skepticism led him to impose his own rules on top of the DOJ's. Those included requiring the merged companies, known as NBCUniversal, to report to the DOJ on arbitration claims brought over content disputes.

“Since neither the court nor the parties has a crystal ball to forecast how this final judgment, along with its arbitration mechanisms, will actually function, I believe that certain additional steps are necessary to monitor implementation of the final judgment to ensure that it satisfies the public-interest requirement mandated by statute,” Leon wrote.

Leon was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2001, and took the bench in 2002. He worked in private practice before his nomination, both at Baker & Hostetler and Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease.

Leon also served as counsel to Congress in various investigations including to the Iran-Contra Committee in 1987, the October Surprise Task Force from 1992-93 and as special counsel to the House Banking Committee's Whitewater investigation in 1994.

Prior, Leon worked at the DOJ in various positions, including senior trial attorney in the Tax Division's criminal section and as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. He received his J.D. from Suffolk Law School and his LL.M. from Harvard Law School.