William Blumenthal, who served almost four years as general counsel for the Federal Trade Commission, plans to leave the agency to return to private law practice.

Blumenthal, who joined the Commission in February 2005, will join Clifford Chance as a partner in the firm’s mergers and acquisitions practice and chairman of its U.S. antitrust group.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...