Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz has announced that agency general counsel, Willard Tom, has resigned to returned to private sector. The FTC's principal deputy general counsel David Shonka will serve as acting general counsel.

Tom served as general counsel for more than three years. He also served as deputy director of the Bureau of Competition at the FTC and led the policy office. Previously, he practiced antitrust law at law firm Morgan Lewis.

Shonka has served as principal deputy general counsel since April 2008. He oversees the office of the general counsel's litigation, legal counsel and policy studies units. In addition, he oversees the agency's Freedom of Information Act, employment counsel and energy counsel functions, as well as serving as chair of the agency's e-Discovery steering committee for government law enforcement investigations.  He joined the office in 1977 as a staff attorney and later became assistant general counsel for litigation.

In other agency-related news, the FTC has appointed Peter Miller as chief privacy officer. In this role, Miller coordinates efforts to implement and review the agency's policies and procedures for safeguarding all sensitive information. He also chairs the FTC's privacy steering committee and the breach notification response team.

Miller has served at the FTC for nine years, previously as assistant director for regional operations in the Bureau of Consumer Protection and as a staff attorney in the division of advertising practices. Prior to joining the agency, he served as an attorney in the commercial litigation branch of the Department of Justice's civil division, as well as an associate with law firm Miller & Chevalier.