Jonathan Klarfeld

Practice Areas

Jonathan S. Klarfeld is a veteran antitrust enforcer and practitioner who led many significant merger investigations and challenges during his 13 years at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition in Washington, D.C. Jonathan brings to Ropes & Gray clients a broad range of experience and knowledge about how antitrust reviews of transactions proceed, how consents are reached and how matters are litigated. Since joining Ropes & Gray in the summer of 2014, he has represented and counseled clients across a broad range of antitrust issues and government investigations.

A staff attorney with the FTC from 2000 to 2008, Jonathan was named counsel to the director in 2008, where he oversaw several merger and non-merger divisions within the FTC. In 2009, Jonathan was appointed a Deputy Assistant Director in the Mergers I Division. In that role, he managed all aspects of the antitrust enforcement division in case selection, oversight and enforcement recommendation development. He also oversaw and participated in investigational hearings and depositions, negotiated consent agreements and litigated matters across a wide range of industries. Jonathan has supervised and led milestone antitrust cases, including toward the end of his agency tenure, the commission’s enforcement actions in Omnicare/PharMerica and Nielsen/Arbitron and its investigation of Express Scripts/Medco.

During his time at the FTC, Jonathan was detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where he served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, trying several cases and participating in all aspects of criminal prosecutions, including arraignments, plea negotiations, trials and oral arguments, witness preparations and sentencings.

Jonathan began his legal career in private practice as a litigation associate at Reboul, MacMurray, Hewitt, Maynard & Kristol.