Joseph Simons, the former Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison antitrust co-chair in Washington who is the Trump administration's pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission, reported earning $1.9 million in partnership share from the firm, according to financial documents published Friday.

Simons, a Paul Weiss lawyer since 2003, was nominated with three others for slots on the FTC, an agency that spent most of 2017 without a full complement of commissioners. Simons would replace Maureen Ohlhausen as chair. Simons earlier led FTC antitrust enforcement as the head of the competition bureau from 2001 until 2003.

Joseph Simons

Simons's financial disclosure, a mandatory public filing for many executive nominees, estimated he would receive $250,000 to $500,000 in anticipated partnership share from Paul Weiss. He resigned from the firm in late December but still has access to an office and assistant services, according to his financial disclosure.

The disclosure also revealed Simons provided legal services to, among other clients, News Corp., Cigna Corp., Mastercard Inc., Office of Major League Baseball, Sharp Corp. and Hearst Communications. Simons said in his ethics agreement, also published Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, that he would not participate in matters for one year that involve former clients.

Simons is among at least two Paul Weiss antitrust lawyers who've jumped to the Trump administration. At the U.S. Justice Department, Andrew Finch is serving as a top lawyer in the antitrust division under Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, who joined the agency from Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

Finch, principal deputy assistant attorney general, reported earning $3.7 million in partner share, an amount that covered 2016 and part of 2017. Finch reported a Paul Weiss severance payout of between $100,000 and $250,000.

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Disclosures from a slate of nominees, including a top Delta lawyer

Simons was nominated simultaneously with Christine Wilson, a top regulatory in-house lawyer at Delta Air Lines, in addition to Noah Phillips and Rohit Chopra. Phillips is chief counsel to Sen. John Cornyn, the Texas Republican, and previously was a litigation associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York and Steptoe & Johnson in Washington. Chopra is a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America.

Wilson, who earlier was a Kirkland & Ellis antitrust partner in Washington, reported in her financial disclosure, also published Friday, that she earned $390,625 in salary at Delta and last year received a $135,000 cash award based on the company's management incentive plan. She further reported anticipating to receive a cash award of between $250,000 and $500,000, according to the financial disclosure. Wilson said she anticipated receiving between $1 million and $5 million in severance from Delta.

Additionally, Wilson reported she expects to receive about $16,000 from Kirkland & Ellis for “ordinary course income that I earned as a partner in the firm but have yet to receive either because matters that resulted in the income were recently settled or ongoing.”

Delta agreed to waive Wilson's requirement that she repay 50 percent of her signing bonus—an amount that was not disclosed in the filing. She also said that, during her appointment at the FTC, she will not exercise the Delta employee travel benefit.

Trump has not announced his nomination intent for the FTC's fifth seat. Reuters reported on Jan. 29 that Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has recommended Rebecca Slaughter, his top aide, for the post.

Simons' financial disclosure is posted below:

And his ethics agreement is posted in full here:

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