• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 13, 2017

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has tapped antitrust lawyer Michael Hahn to serve as general counsel for the organization.

The position was previously held by Michael Zaneis, CEO of the ad industry's Trustworthy Accountability Group. Zaneis stopped working for the IAB at the end of 2015.

Hahn, formerly a partner with the New Jersey firm Lowenstein Sandler, has previously represented the ad organization, as well as the Trustworthy Accountability Group -- an organization founded in 2014 to tackle online ad fraud, piracy and malware.

In his new role, Hahn will represent the IAB as well as its research and development arm, IAB Technology Laboratory.

The IAB stated Wednesday that it expects Hahn to represent the organization on a variety of matters, including antitrust compliance, intellectual property (like copyright, patents and trademark issues) and contracts. He also is expected to lobby for the digital ad industry.

"The IAB, IAB Tech Lab and Trustworthy Accountability Group are all clients I've worked with very closely over the years," Hahn says. He officially joined the IAB one week ago as a senior vice president.

In his previous capacity as outside counsel, Hahn helped train staff at the IAB and TAG about antitrust issues and in complying with antitrust laws. He also assisted the IAB's Tech Lab's effort to sort through some of the intellectual property issues stemming from the softare it licenses to the industry.

"Any time you have software code that is being distributed, it raises intellectual property issues," Hahn says. "Those are the types of issues that I'm helping the organization work through."

Last summer, Hahn spent around two months assessing all of the IAB's working groups and their legal needs, according to IAB executive vice president Dave Grimaldi.

Hahn holds a master's degree in public policy as well as a law degree.