Melissa Holyoak

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Melissa Holyoak
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
Assumed office
March 25, 2024
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded byChristine S. Wilson
Solicitor General of Utah
In office
September 2020 – March 2024
Attorney GeneralSean Reyes
Personal details
Political partyRepublican
Children4
EducationUniversity of Utah (BA, JD)

Melissa Holyoak is an American lawyer who is serving as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.[1]

Education[edit]

Holyoak earned her B.A. from the University of Utah.[2] She attended the University of Utah's S.J. Quinney College of Law, where she was an editor of the Utah Law Review. She graduated in 2003 with a Juris Doctor degree and Order of the Coif membership.[2]

Career[edit]

Holyoak served in positions as a public interest attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness.[2] She also worked as an associate with O'Melveny & Myers.[2] Holyoak was a litigator with much of her twenty years of practice focused on consumer protection.[2] Holyoak served as president and general counsel of Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based public interest firm representing consumers challenging unfair class actions and regulatory overreach.[2] Holyoak was one of the successful petitioners in the 2019 Supreme Court case Frank v. Gaos.[3]

In September 2020,[4] Holyoak became the Utah Solicitor General with the Utah Attorney General’s Office, where she manages the civil appeals, criminal appeals, constitutional defense and special litigation, and antitrust and data privacy divisions.[2] In that capacity, she oversees merger reviews, data privacy and antitrust enforcement actions, and provides leadership in consumer protection matters.[2] A Republican, Holyoak was nominated by U.S. president Joe Biden in July 2023 to serve as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.[5] Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 7, 2024.[6]

Personal life[edit]

Holyoak lives in Utah with her husband and four children.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "FTC Chair Welcomes Ferguson and Holyoak as FTC Commissioners, Congratulates Commissioner Slaughter on Confirmation to Another Term". Federal Trade Commission. 2024-03-08. Retrieved 2024-03-18.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "President Biden Announces Nominees to Bipartisan Boards and Commissions". The White House. 2023-07-03. Retrieved 2023-07-04.Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. ^ https://cei.org/blog/qa-on-frank-v-gaos-class-action-lawsuit-headed-to-supreme-court/
  4. ^ Rodgers, Bethany (September 9, 2020). "Utah's new solicitor general facing potential court sanctions". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  5. ^ "Biden names two Republican nominees for FTC commissioner, White House says". Reuters. 2023-07-03. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  6. ^ "PN801 — Melissa Holyoak — Federal Trade Commission 118th Congress (2023-2024)". United States Congress. Retrieved 2024-03-25.