Chief Antitrust Lawyer to Return to Practice

The chief of the Justice Department’s antitrust division said Tuesday that he will return to private practice next week after nearly three years in the position.

Assistant Atty. Gen. James F. Rill said through a spokeswoman that he would leave the Justice Department on May 18 to rejoin the private Washington firm where he had worked for 30 years as an antitrust lawyer.

Rill, 59, will rejoin the firm of Collier, Shannon & Scott, which had been known as Collier, Shannon & Rill before he joined the Justice Department in 1989, said Gina Talamona, a Justice Department spokeswoman.

Rill had been reported to be interested in returning to private practice after the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission issued new guidelines for determining whether the government should challenge or approve business mergers.

Those guidelines were issued last month. This year, the department also adopted a policy to broaden the circumstances under which the Justice Department sues foreign companies for curbing U.S. exports.

During Rill’s tenure, the antitrust division opened investigations of airline fares and price increases by oil companies after Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Neither investigation has resulted in cases being brought by the Justice Department.

Also during Rill’s tenure, the Justice Department reached a settlement with the eight Ivy League colleges and universities to end the institutions’ practice of sharing financial aid data to determine an applicant’s eligibility for scholarship aid.