John DeQ. Briggs, L’72, Makes Gift to Endow Antitrust Professorship

John DeQ. Briggs, L’72, whose more than 50-year career has focused on antitrust law and competition policy matters on behalf of dozens of companies across the United States, Asia and Europe, said that the professorship represents a chance to give back to the school that facilitated his legal education and greatly shaped his life and career .

John DeQ. Briggs, L’72

“This gift is in recognition of all the things Georgetown did for me that I could never have done by myself as an impecunious law student making my way through law school on the G.I. Bill,” he said.

Still a partner at the law firm of Axinn, where he founded the Washington, D.C. office in 2009, Briggs also served for more than 10 years as the chair of the antitrust practice for Howrey LLP, the largest private antitrust practice in the world during his tenure.

From 2009 until 2019, Briggs was also an adjunct professor of international competition law at the George Washington University Law School. Briggs, a past chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law, is a senior fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America and a lifetime fellow of the American Bar Association. He also served for a decade as a trustee of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. He has been a prolific writer and in 2023 published his first non-legal book: An American in Turmoil: Essays on Politics, the Economy, Society, and the Future.

“Georgetown Law has long been at the forefront of the study of antitrust law,” said Interim Dean Joshua C. Teitelbaum. “This gift will enable us to further strengthen the Law Center’s robust antitrust offerings. We are grateful for John’s generosity and vision in ensuring the continued strength and success of Georgetown Law’s antitrust program.”

In addition to supporting the John DeQ. Briggs Endowed Professorship in Antitrust Law, Briggs’ gift will also help strengthen the hiring, recruitment and compensation of Georgetown Law antitrust faculty as well as related academic and scholarship activity and programming. It is Briggs’ intention that a future estate commitment will add to his current gift to convert the professorship to a chair in antitrust law.

The Law Center’s antitrust offerings include courses for J.D. and LL.M. students taught by leading faculty experts and the Georgetown Law Global Antitrust Enforcement Symposium, a premier annual forum for lawyers, executives, policymakers, economists and academics working on competition law and policy issues.

Briggs, who attended Georgetown Law following his service in the U.S. Navy and served as executive editor of the Georgetown Journal of International Law (formerly Law and Policy in International Business) said his time at Georgetown Law — including the guidance of “beyond extraordinary” professors such as Professor Emeritus Sherman L. Cohn, F’54, L’57, L’60, and Professor Emeritus Don Wallace — proved foundational to his success as a legal practitioner.

“Great law schools teach the subjects that shape the economy, and antitrust is unquestionably one of them,” Briggs said. “At a school of Georgetown’s caliber, antitrust deserves not just a place in the curriculum, but the continuation of a prominent one.”