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George Stephen Cary, a partner specializing in merger litigation at the southern California-based law firm of Irell & Manella for the past 11 years, has been named Senior Deputy Director of the Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition by Bureau Director William J. Baer. Cary was a senior trial attorney in merger litigation at the FTC from 1976 to 1984. Baer said the appointment "brings back to the FTC an outstanding litigator and manager with a blend of extensive knowledge and invaluable experience that is critical as the FTC re-examines antitrust enforcement in light of the global economy." The appointment is effective immediately.

The FTC's Bureau of Competition is the agency's antitrust law enforcement arm. The Commission brought 48 actions to enforce these laws in fiscal year 1995, a 70 percent increase over 1994, and 35 of those cases involved challenges of mergers that allegedly would have raised consumer prices or reduced quality.

Cary has extensive antitrust and general commercial litigation experience, with particular emphasis on merger law and antitrust law as applied to high-technology industries. He also was Irell & Manella's principal expert on the pre-merger filing requirements of the Hart-Scott- Rodino Act, which allows for a federal government antitrust review of most large mergers prior to consummation. He has been vice-chairman of the American Bar Association Section on Antitrust's Government Antitrust Litigation Committee, an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association Panel for Complex Litigation, and a Commissioner on the California State Bar's Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission. He has lectured widely on merger litigation and antitrust law.

Cary earned a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1973 and a J.D. in 1976 from the University of California, Berkeley. He resides with his wife, Marlene V. Wright, M.D., and their two children in Laguna Beach, California.