Pamela LeDeyce Jones Harbour (born July 15, 1959) is an American lawyer who served as a member of the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

(FTC) from 2003 to 2009. As of 2021, Harbour is one of just three

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

to have served as a member of the FTC. Additionally, she is one of the just three political independents to serve on the body as of 2017. As a lawyer, she has worked in field of

competition law Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent busines ...

, information privacy, and

data security Data security means protecting digital data, such as those in a database, from destructive forces and from the unwanted actions of unauthorized users, such as a cyberattack or a data breach. Technologies Disk encryption Disk encryption refe ...

. While a member of the FTC, she was notably the sole commissioner to dissent from the agency's decision to approve

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronic ...

's acquisition of

DoubleClick DoubleClick Inc. was an advertisement company that developed and provided Internet ad serving services from 1995 until its acquisition by Google in March 2008. DoubleClick offered technology products and services that were sold primarily to adv ...

. Harbour currently serves as the Legal Officer and Senior Vice President for Global Member Compliance & Privacy at Herbalife Nutrition.

Early life and education

Pamela LeDeyce Jones was born in

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long Is ...

, New York. Her parents, Joseph Jones, Sr. and Verneta G. Jones, owned a

stenography Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

company. She has one brother, Joseph, Jr. After Jones' family relocated to

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...

, she graduated from Guilderland Central High School in 1977. Jones earned her

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

from Indiana University School of Music in 1981. She later obtained her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from

Indiana University Maurer School of Law The Indiana University Maurer School of Law is located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. The school is named after Michael S. "Mickey" Maurer, an Indianapolis businessman and 1967 alumnus who donated $35 million in 2008 ...

in 1984.

Career

Office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG)

Harbour's early career included serving in the Office of the

New York Attorney General The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...

(NYAG) for 11 years. In October 1996, she became the Deputy Attorney General of the Public Advocacy Division. While employed by the Office, Harbour prosecuted antitrust and consumer protection violations, including national price-fixing conspiracy cases. During this period, Harbour served as lead counsel in multi-state cases. In October 1997, Harbour argued before the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

on behalf of 35 states in State Oil Co. v. Khan, a

resale price maintenance Resale price maintenance (RPM) or, occasionally, retail price maintenance is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance), a ...

(RPM) case. In 1999, Harbour was appointed Assistant First Deputy Attorney General. After leaving the Office of the NYAG, Harbour worked at Kaye Scholer LLP as an antitrust partner.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

In 2003, Harbour was nominated by President George W. Bush to replace Sheila F. Anthony, whose term expired in September 2002, as a member of the FTC. On August 4, 2003, Harbour was officially sworn in as a member of the FTC, and would serve in the position until her term expired in September 2009. In 2007, she was the sole commissioner to dissent from the FTC's decision to approve

's acquisition of

. Harbour expressed concerns regarding consumer data privacy. She later wrote an op-ed published by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', noting Google as the "Web's emperor" due to the company's market dominance in data collection. Following the expiration of her term in office, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

appointed Julie Brill to replace her on the FTC. As of 2021, Harbour is one of just three African-Americans to serve on the FTC: The other two were

A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Aloysius Leon Higginbotham Jr. (February 25, 1928 – December 14, 1998) was an American civil rights advocate, historian, presidential adviser, and federal court judge. From 1990 to 1991, he served as chief judge of the United States Court of ...

(served from 1962-1964) and

Mozelle W. Thompson Mozelle Willmont Thompson is an American attorney who served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 1997 to 2004. Thompson was the second African American to serve as a member of the FTC. Education Originally from Pittsburgh, P ...

(served from 1997-2004). No African-Americans have been appointed to serve on the commission since. Additionally, Harbour is one of the just three political independents to have ever served on the body, along with

Philip Elman Philip Elman (March 14, 1918 – November 30, 1999) was an American lawyer at the United States Department of Justice and former member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Elman is best known for writing the government's brief in '' Brown v. ...

(who served from 1961 to 1970) and

Mary Azcuenaga Mary Laurie Azcuenaga (born July 25, 1945) is an American attorney who served from 1984 to 1998 as a member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). As of 2017, Azcuenaga is one of just three political independents to serve on the FTC. Early life ...

(who served from 1984 to 1998).

Post-FTC career

After Harbour left the FTC in 2010, she became a partner in

Fulbright & Jaworski Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. (now Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP), was founded in Houston, TX in 1919 by R.C. Fulbright. On June 3, 2013, the firm became part of the global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, a Swiss verein. Norton Rose Fulbright US ...

L.L.P.’s antitrust and competition practice. She was the head of the firm's Privacy, Competition and Data Protection practice group. In October 2014, Harbour was hired by Herbalife Nutrition as Senior Vice President, Global Member Compliance & Privacy. In February 2016, she became the company's legal officer.

Personal life

Harbour is married to John Harbour, and has three children.

Awards

* Women History Makers, Caribbean Chamber of Commerce & Industry, 1998 * Champion of Freedom Award,

Electronic Privacy Information Center Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is an independent nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C. EPIC's mission is to focus public attention on emerging privacy and related human rights issues. EPIC works to protect privacy, freedom o ...

, 2010 * Spirit of Excellence Award, The

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acade ...

Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, 2019

Published works

* Harbour, Pamela Jones and Leibowitz, Jon, ''Subject Line Labeling as a Weapon Against Spam: A CAN-SPAM Report to Congress'', DIANE Publishing, 2005,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harbour, Pamela Jones Federal Trade Commission personnel 1959 births Living people Lawyers from Albany, New York African-American lawyers African-American women lawyers Antitrust lawyers 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women