News & Events

Simpson Thacher partner Joe Wayland left the Firm on September 27 to become the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice.  In this role he will be principally responsible for the Division's significant civil litigation matters, including cases involving alleged unlawful monopoly activity.  Mr. Wayland is an experienced trial lawyer who has tried numerous cases before judges, juries and arbitrators in federal and state courts.  In recognition of his trial skills, Mr. Wayland was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 2009.

Mr. Wayland joined the Firm in 1988, after serving as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force following his graduation from Columbia Law School in 1983.  Mr. Wayland was selected for the Honor's Program of the Air Force General Counsel and served at the Pentagon.  Mr. Wayland became a partner of the Firm in 1994 and, during his time at the Firm, Mr. Wayland has represented some of the Firm’s most significant clients in a wide variety of litigation matters, including a landmark case in which New York’s highest court ruled in 2003 (following a seven-month trial) that the City of New York had failed to provide a constitutionally adequate education.
 
Mr. Wayland's extensive antitrust experience includes representing a wide variety of clients in criminal and civil matters, including international cartel investigations, monopoly abuse cases and other matters alleging anticompetitive conduct.  Mr. Wayland has recently served as the lead coordinating attorney for the defendants in the municipal derivatives antitrust litigation now pending in federal court in New York City.  
 
The Firm has a long history of encouraging public service and a number of the Firm's partners have taken time out from their private sector careers for senior government service.  The current head of the Firm's antitrust practice, Kevin Arquit, served as General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission and later as the Commission's Director of the Bureau of Competition.