Marc Schildkraut is the newest partner to join Baker & Hostetler's antitrust and competition practice in Washington, D.C., leaving Cooley after seven years as a partner there.

Schildkraut is a former assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition who led investigations involving hundreds of merger transactions, federal court injunction actions and administrative litigation matters, according to his new firm. He spent 17 years at the FTC before leaving in 1993.

Some of the major deals for which he helped secure antitrust clearance in private practice include Chevron's merger with Texaco, Exxon's tie-up with Mobil, BP's merger with Amoco, Boeing's combination with McDonnell Douglas and PepsiCo's merger with Quaker.

Schildkraut joined Cooley in 2012 from now-defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf as that firm was collapsing.

“Given the industries that I've been working on quite a bit over time I think Baker is a better fit for me than continuing at Cooley,” Schildkraut said.

He pointed to Baker Hostetler's work in the energy and industrial realms as attractive and not a priority for Cooley's lawyers, who he said were primarily focused on the tech sector. He declined to say which other firms he considered joining.

Baker Hostetler antitrust and competition practice team leader Carl Hittinger said in a statement that Schildkraut's antitrust deal and compliance experience is a “tremendous asset to our firm and of special benefit to our clients.”

“Marc is a solid addition to our robust, problem-solving national antitrust team,” Hittinger said in a statement. “His decades of experience, with and before the government antitrust agencies through monumental M&A matters, shows [sic] that Marc has done and seen it all.”

On his LinkedIn page, Schildkraut identifies himself as previously a partner at Dewey & Leboeuf and at Howrey. His last day at Cooley was last month and he joined Baker Hostetler on July 8.

Cooley did not immediately respond to request for comment on his departure.