All Eyes on a New Antitrust Chief
New Justice Department antitrust chief Charles A. James occupies an office on the opposite side of the building from his predecessor, Joel I. Klein. But he’s sitting on the same hot seat in the antitrust prosecution of Microsoft Corp.
After only two weeks on the job, James must decide in the next few weeks whether to appeal the landmark Microsoft antitrust case to the Supreme Court, engage Microsoft in a new round of settlement talks or return to U.S. District Court to fight the case again.
James, 46, declined through a Justice Department spokeswoman to be interviewed. During brief public remarks Thursday, he gave no clues about how he might respond to the federal appeals court ruling that threw out a lower court’s order to break up Microsoft but kept intact a finding that the company had maintained a monopoly in operating systems software.
For months, many antitrust lawyers and other experts have predicted that James would be Microsoft’s salvation because of his reputed preference for intervening less in the marketplace than Klein.
Yet James’ long experience in Washington--as a corporate antitrust lawyer and an attorney with the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department during the Reagan and first Bush administrations--suggests he is more of a savvy Washington insider than a zealous opponent of antitrust enforcement.
Although a lifelong Republican, James has said he does not necessarily take issue with the Clinton administration on all antitrust matters. Although he has not publicly indicated whether he favors a breakup of Microsoft, James has vowed to strictly enforce federal antitrust laws.
When asked about the Microsoft case at his confirmation hearing in May, James said he would “evaluate the nature of the [court] ruling . . . and determine whether there are any appropriate issues that can be carried forward to appeal.”
Asked whether the high-tech industry should be exempt from antitrust enforcement because of its dynamic nature, James said the industry’s rapid change “is a factor that has to be considered.”
But those who know him say James won’t let the speed of technological change make him rush to judgment in the Microsoft case.
One Washington lawyer who has spent time with James describes him as “quiet and thoughtful and not terribly outgoing.” Asked whether such a personality might work against his taking a tough stance against Microsoft, the lawyer said: “I don’t think so. He is well regarded and has lots of experience.”
James “is a thoughtful person, but he’s certainly not a passive person,” said Joe Sims, a lawyer who worked with James in the Washington office of Cleveland-based Jones Day Reavis & Pogue, one of the nation’s largest corporate law firms. “He’s very confident and would have no trouble at all sitting across the table from anyone,” including Microsoft’s billionaire chairman, Bill Gates.
James also is highly disciplined. Once overweight, he lost 125 pounds after he began a regimen of weightlifting and bicycling, Sims said, even as he worked long hours on behalf of his clients.
The muscular and mustachioed James will probably get another workout with the Microsoft case.
Although friends and colleagues say James knows the case well, he will have to spend time building relations with the 18 state attorneys general who are co-plaintiffs. The states have had a sometimes stormy working relationship with federal officials, but friends think James will be able to keep the federal-state coalition in line.
“He’ll do OK because he doesn’t rub people the wrong way and he’s a good listener,” said Ernest Gellhorn, a Washington antitrust lawyer and former law partner of James. Not that he’s a pushover, Gellhorn added: “He doesn’t have a lot of doubts about his position. I don’t think [Microsoft or the states] can push him around.”
During a news conference Thursday, state attorneys general went out of their way to praise the “professionalism” of the Justice Department in the new administration. They twice singled James out for praise.
However, Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal says he has yet to work closely with the federal government’s top antitrust enforcer and admits James remains an enigma.
“I don’t have a close personal relationship with him,” Blumenthal said. “I hear wonderful things about his intellect, his professionalism and his integrity. . . . I hope and expect we will be consulting closely.”
