President Joe Biden announced his nominees to fill the two vacant Republican seats of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The nominees are the current solicitor general of Virginia, Andrew Ferguson, and the current solicitor general of Utah, Melissa Holyoak.
As a bipartisan commission, the FTC is required to have no more than three members of a single party at any time. The three current members of the FTC board of commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Alvaro Bedoya, and the board’s chair, Lina Khan, are all members of the Democratic Party.
As the solicitor general of Virginia, Ferguson oversees the appellate litigation of Virginia and its agencies, including representing the state before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Virginia and the federal courts of appeals. Before accepting the appointment as solicitor general, Ferguson served as chief counsel to U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell from 2019 until 2021. In that role, Ferguson was McConnell’s chief legal advisor and judicial confirmation strategist.
Before serving as McConnell’s chief counsel, Ferguson served as chief counsel for nominations and the constitution to then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and as senior special counsel to then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Ferguson also practiced antitrust law at several large D.C. law firms, where he represented clients in private antitrust litigation and before the FTC and Department of Justice.
Holyoak currently serves as the Utah solicitor general with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, where she manages the civil appeals, criminal appeals, constitutional defense and special litigation, and antitrust and data privacy divisions. In that capacity, she oversees merger reviews, data privacy and antitrust enforcement actions, and provides leadership in consumer protection matters.
Prior to joining the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Holyoak served as president and general counsel of Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a D.C.-based public interest firm representing consumers challenging unfair class actions and regulatory overreach. She served in previous positions as a public interest attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness.
“I congratulate Andrew Ferguson and Melissa Holyoak on their nominations to serve on the Federal Trade Commission,” Khan said in a statement following the White House’s announcement of the nominations. “Each would bring key skills, experiences, and expertise to the commission as we work to promote fair competition and protect Americans from unfair or deceptive practices. The commission operates best at full strength, and I look forward to working with them to fulfill the important mandate Congress has given us.”