Joseph Vardner

Joseph P. Vardner is an antitrust compliance officer at Wells Fargo in the Washington, D.C., office. He principally practices in the Litigation Department emphasizing on antitrust and consumer protection, including litigation, merger and acquisition investigations, investigations by government authorities, and counseling clients on avoiding antitrust and consumer protection issues. Mr. Vardner regularly assists clients navigating Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice investigations involving complex antitrust and consumer protection issues, including matters implicating the Sherman Act, the FTC Act, COPPA, the Clayton Act, the Robinson-Patman Act, and the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act (HSR) merger review process. He has counseled several clients and presented at a national conference on avoiding FTC enforcement actions regarding cybersecurity breaches. Prior to joining Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Mr. Vardner worked as a Trial Attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. While at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Vardner represented the United States at trial in its challenge of a provision in agreements between a credit card network and merchants. He was also on the litigation team for its challenge to the merger between AT&T and T-Mobile. Additionally, he investigated civil merger and non-merger matters in the wood products, media, and financial industries. He was awarded the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and twice won the Antitrust Division’s Award of Distinction. Prior to that, he served as an extern to Judge S. James Otero of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Mr. Vardner is admitted to practice in California, the District of Columbia, and is a member of the Federal District Court of Colorado bar.