Monica M. Castillo van Panhuys has extensive antitrust and consumer law experience. Before joining KBS, Ms. van Panhuys was a staff attorney at the United States Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition in Washington, DC and Dallas, TX, where she investigated mergers and anticompetitive business practices.

From 2008 to 2018, Ms. van Panhuys worked in the Mergers II division of the Federal Trade Commission, investigating mergers, negotiating divestitures, and challenging unlawful mergers and competitive practices. Ms. van Panhuys was a member of the In re: McWane trial team that stopped dominant ductile iron pipe fitting manufacturers from using unlawful exclusive dealing agreements to hamper their competitors. The Commission awarded Ms. van Panhuys the Janet D. Steiger award for her contributions to this case. Ms. van Panhuys was also a key member of the trial team in FTC v. Ardagh, whose efforts resulted in a substantial divestiture, preventing the further concentration of the United States glass container market. In addition, Ms. van Panhuys has significant experience in merger and data security actions involving an array of industries including software, semiconductors, aluminum containers, paint, coal, and online job, dating, and gaming applications.

Before joining Mergers II, Ms. van Panhuys was a summer associate at Los Angeles antitrust boutique, Blecher & Collins, an intern in Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour’s office at the Federal Trade Commission, and an intern at the Federal Public Defender in the Eastern District of Virginia. Before law school, Ms. van Panhuys worked as a paralegal at Susman Godfrey in Los Angeles, Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC, and as an English teacher in Santiago, Chile.

In the Spring of 2018, Ms. van Panhuys was a guest lecturer at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law on Regulatory Merger Review.

Ms. van Panhuys attended American University’s Washington College of Law in Washington, DC, where she was an articles Editor at the Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law and a cite checker for the Antitrust Law Journal. Ms. van Panhuys completed her undergraduate studies at Duke University’s Trinity College, completing a major in English and a minor in Political Science. She is a fluent Spanish speaker and an aspiring Dutch speaker. Ms. van Panhuys lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband and daughter.