Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is continuing to grow its US antitrust capabilities, with the hire of a long-serving US Department of Justice (DoJ) official who was the counsellor to another recent hire, Eric Mahr, former director of litigation in the DoJ’s antitrust division.

Andrew Ewalt joins Freshfields’ Washington DC office as a partner, after more than a decade at the DoJ, spanning three presidential administrations. He had the unusual distinction of litigating both civil and criminal antitrust cases in a division where most lawyers specialise in one or the other.