Jim Wade

Jim Wade has been at the forefront of cutting-edge antitrust and competition issues for more than three decades and benefits from his unique experience as both chief antitrust in-house corporate counsel for a Fortune 50 company and a leadership role in the Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice. Jim has extensive experience in complex issues relating to merger clearance, premerger coordination and “gun-jumping” issues, joint ventures and competitor collaborations, pricing and distribution, and countless other aspects of antitrust enforcement, antitrust litigation, and antitrust compliance counseling.

Prior to rejoining Haynes Boone in October 2023, Jim led AT&T’s in-house antitrust team where he was responsible for securing regulatory approvals for some of the largest corporate transactions in history, including deals involving AT&T’s acquisitions of Time Warner and DirecTV. Jim was also responsible for leading AT&T’s strategy in more than 100 DOJ and FTC antitrust and consumer protection investigations, in responding to regulatory inquiries from competition authorities around the globe, and in antitrust litigation involving the company and its subsidiaries.

Jim served as the Administrative Partner of Haynes Boone’s Washington, DC office from 2008-2013 and advised firm clients on antitrust matters related to mergers, joint ventures and government investigations, represented companies and executives in criminal antitrust proceedings, and counseled clients on a wide variety of antitrust compliance issues.

From 2000-2004, Jim was the Chief of the Litigation III section of the Antitrust Division, Department of Justice, where he was responsible for the oversight of civil antitrust enforcement and litigation activities nationwide in a wide variety of industries. He represented the United States in a successfully litigated challenge to a major airline carrier's acquisition of a controlling stock interest in one of its competitors, as well as the government's action to block the acquisition of certain strategic satellite assets by a joint venture controlled by the five largest cable MSOs in the United States.