Daniel P. O'Brien
Senior Consultant
Washington, DC
Dr. Daniel P. O’Brien is a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon. He was formerly Deputy Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics, and Chief of the Economic Regulatory Section at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. He has led investigations across a wide range of industries, including industrial supplies and equipment, mobile telephone and internet services, car rental services, retail products manufacturing and distribution, software, futures exchanges, banking, wholesale distribution, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, broadcast television, cable and satellite television programming and distribution, academic journals, aluminum manufacturing, and telecommunications, among others.
Dr. O’Brien has served as an economic expert on several antitrust and litigation matters including:
- Dupont-Dow merger (expert report on behalf of Dupont regarding common ownership issues, submitted to the European Commission);
- Hertz-Dollar Thrifty merger (expert report on behalf of the FTC);
- Nestle-Dreyers merger (expert report on behalf of the FTC);
- International arbitration involving joint venture dispute in a heavy equipment industry (expert report on behalf of a Fortune 500 client);
- Class action lawsuit involving automobile suppliers (expert report and testimony on behalf of a private client);
- Vertical merger in healthcare (expert report for Fortune 500 client);
- Acquisition in the internet domain services industry (expert services and white paper on behalf of private client submitted and presented to the DOJ).
Dr. O’Brien has taught economics at Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, Georgetown Law School, the University of Verona, Italy, the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, and UC Berkeley, and he continues to engage in research and present at conferences and universities around the world. His research has been published in leading economic and law journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Rand Journal of Economics, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, Antitrust Law Journal, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, among others. He has seminal articles on vertical restraints, critical loss analysis, and common ownership that have influenced competition policy and the field of industrial organization. He has been an invited speaker at hearings before the FTC on vertical merger guidelines and common ownership and before the OECD on common ownership.
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Education
- PhD in Economics, Northwestern University
- MA in Economics, Northwestern University
- BA in Economics, Carleton College