By Suhrith Parthasarathy

Nov 19 (Reuters) - Joseph Wayland, who recently stepped down as the acting head of the U.S. Justice Department's Antitrust Division, will rejoin the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett as a partner in the litigation practice, the firm announced today.

At the Justice Department of Justice, Wayland oversaw all of the division's criminal and civil cases. He returns to Simpson Thacher's New York office, where he was a litigator from 1988 to 2010, before he joined the Justice Department.

In a statement, Pete Ruegger, chairman of Simpson Thacher's executive committee, said he was "pleased to welcome Joe back to the firm" and that he would handle antitrust and other major litigation.

When Wayland first moved to the Justice Department, it was as the deputy assistant attorney general for civil enforcement in the antitrust division. He was named its acting head in April 2012.

During his tenure Wayland led the division to several victories, including preventing tax-preparation service H&R Block from acquiring competitor TaxAct and thwarting AT&T's attempted $39 billion acquisition of T-Mobile -- two cases that Wayland noted in an interview with Reuters on Monday.

Earlier this year, Simpson Thacher hired Matt Reilly, formerly the assistant director of the Federal Trade Commission, as partner in its antitrust practice group.

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