Skip to main content

Payton T. Thornton

(he/him/his)

Associate

[email protected]

+1.202.434.7435

Share:

Payton focuses his practice on antitrust and competition matters, including antitrust compliance, merger review, and government investigations. He primarily advises clients in the health care sector.

While earning his JD, Payton served as an antitrust legal intern at Mintz, assisting with federal merger reviews. He also worked as an antitrust law clerk for a think tank focused on technology issues, where his role included drafting, filing, and submitting comments before the Federal Trade Commission on worker non-competes, exclusionary contracts, and unfair methods of competition rulemaking authority. His other roles included working as a research assistant at the Global Antitrust Institute as well as an in-house law clerk for the Stand Together philanthropic community, where he counseled the organization’s clients on a broad range of issues, including employment law, charitable giving, corporate reorganization, tax status, and election law.

In law school, Payton earned his JD with a concentration in Antitrust Law. He served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law, Economics and Policy and was on the ABA Nationals Team of the Antonin Scalia Law School Moot Court Board.

viewpoints

FTC Announced Increased HSR Thresholds & Revised Filing Fee Schedule

January 23, 2024 | Alert | By Bruce Sokler, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short, Sherwet H. Witherington, Payton Thornton

Read more

New Merger Enforcement Toolkit: FTC and DOJ Release Final 2023 Merger Guidelines

December 27, 2023 | Blog | By Bruce Sokler, Joseph Miller, Robert Kidwell, Payton Thornton, Matthew Tikhonovsky

Read more

FTC Follows Through on Promise to Roll Over Health Care Roll Ups

September 26, 2023 | Blog | By Bruce Sokler, Joseph Miller, Payton Thornton

Since the beginning of Chair Khan’s tenure at the Federal Trade Commission (and in line with President Biden’s aim to curb rising health care costs), the current FTC has committed to bring enforcement actions against health care consolidation and rising prices. Over the past two years the FTC has employed novel competition tools to achieve this purpose, as demonstrated by the Commission’s suit last week against a private equity firm and its related specialty practice—alleging violations of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, Section 7 of the Clayton Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act.
Read more

The FTC "Settles" For a Conduct Consent Decree to Resolve Its Challenge to the Amgen-Horizon Merger

September 5, 2023 | Blog | By Bruce Sokler, Joseph Miller, Payton Thornton

Read more
The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (“DOJ”), and the new proposed merger guidelines have all called out private equity transactions for particular scrutiny.
Read more

In with the Old, Out with the New: DOJ and FTC Issue Much-Anticipated Draft Merger Guidelines

July 26, 2023 | Blog | By Bruce Sokler, Joseph Miller, Robert Kidwell, Farrah Short, Evelyn French, Sherwet H. Witherington, Payton Thornton

Read more

FTC and DOJ Antitrust Memorialize Joint Workshop on the Future of Antitrust Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Industry

June 6, 2023 | Blog | By Bruce Sokler, Joseph Miller, Robert Kidwell, Payton Thornton

Read more
Read less

Recognition & Awards

  • George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School: Marketplace of Ideas Award (2022)

  • George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, LGBTQ Resources Center: Possibility Model Award (2022)

Read less

Involvement

  • Young Lawyer Representative to The Antitrust Source, Antitrust Law Section, American Bar Association
  • Board of Directors, District of Columbia LGBTQ+ Bar Association
Read less