SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 19, 2025--
Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP announced today that Jacklin “Jackie” Lem, who most recently served as Civil Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division’s San Francisco Office, has joined its Antitrust practice as a partner in the San Francisco, CA office.
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At the DOJ, Jackie was at the forefront of several of the Antitrust Division’s most high-profile matters involving Silicon Valley technology companies, including monopolization and merger cases such as United States v. Apple and United States v. HPE/Juniper Networks. Jackie also led complex international and domestic criminal cartel matters.
Having served at the DOJ in the Bay Area across five different presidential administrations, Jackie is uniquely positioned to help technology clients navigate the evolving antitrust landscape, particularly as the technology industry adapts to transformations such as AI.
“We're thrilled to welcome Jackie to our team in California,” said Mike Keeley, chair of Axinn’s Antitrust practice. “The current antitrust landscape requires attorneys who understand how enforcers are thinking today and how they will react to future developments. Bringing Jackie on board further strengthens our position as the go-to firm for high-stakes antitrust matters in the face of increasing regulatory scrutiny and litigation."
“Having been across the table from Jackie when she was at DOJ, we know firsthand how formidable and impressive she is,” said Daniel Bitton, antitrust partner and founder of Axinn’s San Francisco office. “Given her seventeen years at the Division’s San Francisco Office, Jackie has an unparalleled understanding of antitrust enforcement in the tech industry–where it has been and where it is going . Few other lawyers can match her depth of tech-sector experience, and we’re excited to add her to our bench as we expand our California presence.”
Jackie pioneered the first civil antitrust enforcement and litigation program for the Division’s San Francisco office. In addition, she helped direct office-wide strategic planning at the Antitrust Division, supervised attorney recruitment and development, and advised senior DOJ leadership, including the Assistant Attorney General. Jackie also received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award, one of the Department’s highest honors, in recognition of her work as lead prosecutor in a price-fixing cartel litigation.
"Joining Axinn represents the perfect opportunity to leverage my government expertise, my experience at trial, and my enforcement perspective in service of the firm's growing client base,” said Jackie. “I'm eager to counsel clients around competition risks and to defend their interests and business models in antitrust matters, while upholding Axinn’s reputation for excellence.”
Jackie is a graduate, with distinction, of Stanford Law School and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is also a frequent speaker at antitrust conferences around the globe.
About Axinn
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Jackie Lem joins Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was at the White House on Thursday discussing her country's future with President Donald Trump even after he publicly dismissed her credibility to take over after an audacious U.S. military raid captured then-President Nicolás Maduro.
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela. His administration has signaled its willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s vice president and, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, remains in charge of day-to-day governmental operations.
In endorsing Rodríguez so far, Trump has sidelined Machado, who has long been a face of resistance in Venezuela and sought to cultivate relationships with Trump and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the American right wing in a gamble to ally herself with the U.S. government.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was expecting a positive discussion during the lunchtime meeting and called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” for the people of Venezuela.
The White House said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro. Machado previously offered to share with Trump the Nobel Peace Prize she won last year, an honor he has coveted.
Leavitt said Trump is committed to seeing Venezuela hold elections “one day,” but wouldn’t say when that might happen.
Machado plans to have a meeting at the Senate later Thursday. Trump has called her “a nice woman” while indicating they might not touch on major issues in their talks Thursday.
Her Washington swing began after U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces seized Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
The White House says Venezuela has been fully cooperating with the Trump administration since Maduro’s ouster.
Rodríguez, the acting president, herself has adopted a less strident position toward Trump and his “America First” policies toward the Western Hemisphere, saying she plans to continue releasing prisoners detained under Maduro — a move thought to have been made at the behest of the Trump administration. Venezuela released several Americans this week.
Trump, a Republican, said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
“We had a call, a long call. We discussed a lot of things,” Trump said during an Oval Office bill signing. “And I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela.”
Even before indicating the willingness to work with Venezuela's interim government, Trump was quick to snub Machado. Just hours after Maduro's capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.”
Machado has steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, which Trump wanted to win himself. She has since thanked Trump. Her offer to share the peace prize with him was rejected by the Nobel Institute.
Machado’s whereabouts have been largely unknown since she went into hiding early last year after being briefly detained in Caracas. She briefly reappeared in Oslo, Norway, in December after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush. A photo showing her shaking hands with Bush in the Oval Office lives in the collective memory. Chávez considered Bush an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshaled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown by state security forces.
Garcia Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela, and Janetsky from Mexico City. AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE - U.S. President George Bush, right, meets with Maria Corina Machado, executive director of Sumate, a non-governmental organization that defends Venezuelan citizens' political rights, in the Oval Office of the White House, Washington, May 31, 2005. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
FILE - Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures to supporters during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro the day before his inauguration for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, file)
