TechFreedom is pleased to announce that Asheesh Agarwal has joined its ranks as Deputy General Counsel and Competition Counsel. In his role, Asheesh will help shape the organization’s vision for how antitrust and consumer protection laws should apply to the technology sector, keeping in mind the lodestar of what’s best for consumers.
“We’re delighted to welcome Asheesh to our team,” said Shane Tews, Chairman of TechFreedom’s board. “He’s handled complex legal issues at the top levels of federal and state government and in private practice. He’ll bring that expertise to bear on all our work, but especially the raging debate over whether to rewrite or reinterpret America’s antitrust laws and the debate we should be having but aren’t—about how the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general wield their already-broad powers. Years ago, TechFreedom coined the term ‘Federal Technology Commission.’ Asheesh will relaunch our analysis of how the agency can best serve consumers in the Digital Age.”
Agarwal has served in senior roles in the administrations of President Trump, President Bush, and Governor Pence, including at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. At the FTC, Asheesh served as Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Planning, where he helped to lead the Commission’s competition advocacy program and an initiative to examine regulatory barriers to the growth of e-commerce.
“TechFreedom is a leading voice in technology policy and I’m thrilled to help the team advance its mission,” said Agarwal. “America has led the Digital Revolution, in no small part, because American competition policy has, for decades, focused on consumer welfare. Turning antitrust law into just another form of regulation, and a political battlefield, will hurt consumers, chill competition, and hamstring innovative upstarts.”
“The FTC, along with DOJ’s Antitrust Division, are the nation’s leading voices for consumers,” continued Agarwal. “I’ve seen first-hand how much good the FTC can do, both in wielding its powers to protect consumers, and in using its bully pulpit to advocate for pro-competition policy changes at the federal, state, local, and even international levels. Of course, right now, the FTC is under enormous pressure to ‘do something’ about perceived problems in the technology sector. We’ll be working with other FTC veterans and experts on both sides of the aisle to encourage the FTC to act as it usually does: with reason, deliberation, and a strong empirical foundation.”
“We stand at a real crossroads about the future of the regulatory state,” concluded Agarwal. “The Supreme Court, the White House, and lawmakers have been closely re-examining the fundamentals of administrative law, from the amount of deference afforded agencies, to the role of administrative law judges, and to the very structure of the independent agencies themselves. We’ll continue working on reforms that can promote sound policymaking and reduce the potential for abuse.”
Both in government and in the private sector, Asheesh has litigated numerous high-profile cases and argued a dozen cases in federal appellate courts. Asheesh received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with honors and served on the Law Review, and his B.A. from Northwestern University, where he graduated with highest distinction and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Asheesh clerked for Hon. Eugene Siler on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Asheesh may be contacted at aagarwal@techfreedom.org. Follow him on Twitter at @AsheeshKAgarwal.
We can be reached for comment at media@techfreedom.org.
About TechFreedom: TechFreedom is a non-profit, non-partisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.