FTC Announces Departure of Acting General Counsel David Shonka

Acting Federal Trade Commission Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen announced that David C. Shonka, the agency’s Acting General Counsel, is retiring from government and will join a private law practice.

Shonka has served as Acting General Counsel since March 2016, and previously held that position between January and June 2009 and October 2012 and June 2013. During his 41-year career at the FTC, Shonka has advised the Commission on a full range of issues; litigated many antitrust and consumer protection cases in the federal courts; tried cases in administrative proceedings; represented the Commission in appellate cases; and overseen revision of the FTC’s Rules of Practice.

“David has been a pillar of the FTC General Counsel’s office for decades, and the Commission has benefited immeasurably from his wisdom and extraordinary legal skill,” Acting Chairman Ohlhausen said. “I am grateful for David’s many years of service and wish him the best of luck with his new endeavors.”

Before March 2016, Shonka served as the FTC’s Principal Deputy General Counsel starting in April 2008. Shonka joined the office in 1977 as a staff attorney and later became Assistant General Counsel for Litigation. He oversaw the Office of General Counsel’s Litigation, Legal Counsel, and Policy Studies units. He also oversaw the agency’s FOIA, employment counsel, and Energy Counsel functions; was the first chair of e-Discovery Steering Committee; and regularly consulted on government law enforcement investigations. In 2015 he received the Presidential Rank Award of Meritorious Executive.

Before joining the FTC, Shonka was an associate in a Washington, D.C., law firm and a litigator in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He graduated from the University of Maine School of Law and earned his B.A. from the University of Nebraska, where he majored in English and economics.