The US Senate has approved Dublin lawyer Gail Slater as the head of the antitrust division at the US department of justice.
Originally from Dalkey in South Dublin, Ms Slater previously served as a tech policy adviser to the first Trump administration.
Ms Slater, who was educated at University College Dublin, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday with 78 votes in favour of the approval against a minority of 19.
The 52-year-old had been advising US president Donald Trump’s transition team on antitrust and tech policy and is expected to take a tough stance on anticompetitive practices in the tech sector in her new role.
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The division aims to promote economic competition and enforces laws against illegal monopolies and anticompetitive business behavior.
As head of the antitrust division, Ms Slater, who is also an Oxford University graduate, will head up several antitrust lawsuits, including two against Google, one of which alleges the search engine’s control of ad technology is anticompetitive.
She will also oversee high-profile cases against Visa and Apple, with one against the latter arguing that the company maintains a monopoly over smartphones and its “exclusionary conduct” makes it more difficult for Americans to switch smartphones.
On nominating Ms Slater for the position in December, Mr Trump said she would “ensure that [US] competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and fairly with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies”.
Ms Slater, who was also previously an economic adviser to US vice president JD Vance, has vowed to vigorously enforce antitrust laws, with a particular focus on tech, healthcare and agriculture sectors.
A dual Irish-US citizen, the Dublin native has been living in the US since 2003.
Before joining the first Trump administration as a tech policy adviser on the White House’s national economic council, she was general counsel at the Internet Association, a trade body that represented Google and Facebook where she advised on legal and regulatory policy.
She spent several years practicing antitrust law in private practice before working for 10 years at the US Federal Trade Commission, including as an adviser to former Democratic commissioner Julie Brill in Barack Obama’s administration.
Ms Slater received letters of support from nine previous heads of the antitrust division, according to Chuck Grassley, a Republican senator for Iowa and chair of the Senate judiciary committee.
“These men and women were appointed by presidents of both political parties and they wrote, ‘Ms. Slater has the experience, intelligence, judgement and leadership skills necessary to serve as an excellent Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division’,” he said, prior to her approval.
Mr Grassley said the divison would “flourish under Ms Slater’s strong leadership”.
