College of Law

The New Roaring Twenties: The Progressive Agenda for Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law


The New Roaring Twenties: The Progressive Agenda for Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law

DATE: Friday, October 21 2022
TIME: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm MST
LOCATION: Virtual Event
PARKING:

Free parking in the Rice-Eccles stadium lot.

COST: Free and open to the public.
6 hours CLE (pending).
Register

Lee E. Teitelbaum Utah Law Review Symposium

TALK DESCRIPTION:

Enforcement of the antitrust and consumer protection laws in the United States has experienced significant fluctuations over time.  While enforcement activity by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was vigorous from World War I through the post-war years, the emergence of the “Chicago School” in the 1970s resulted in a narrowed, efficiency-oriented focus that, with a few notable exceptions, resulted in diminished agency enforcement and judicial narrowing of key legal doctrines. Under current practice, antitrust has only considered very narrow theories of harm that do not take into account the full market effects of dominant firm conduct.  While there were some dissenting voices, notably Professor John Flynn at the University of Utah, federal enforcement agencies and courts were largely dominated by Chicago School thinking.  In the 2010s, however, a significant counter-current began to emerge, seeking to link antitrust enforcement to broader social ailments such as wealth inequality, decreasing labor share, and the growth of platform technology monopolies.

In 2019, the University of Utah Department of Economics, led by Professors Mark Glick and Marshall Steinbaum, organized a conference entitled “A New Future for Antitrust”.  The conference developed a set of principles for the reform and refocusing of antitrust law in the era of “big tech” entitled “The Utah Statement”.

Now, three years later, the Biden Administration has opened the door to a new progressive antitrust and consumer protection agenda for the federal government and the United States’ principal federal antitrust policy and enforcement officials have already made significant inroads into these areas.  And at the state level, Utah is among the most active enforcers of its antitrust laws against tech giants, leading several national efforts in this regard.  As such, the time is ripe to assess the Utah Statement anew, not as a document of political dissent, but as the charter for a newly invigorated federal enforcement program.

This event was made possible by the generosity of the Lee E. and Herta Teitelbaum Trust and is co-sponsored by the University of Utah Economics Department, the Utah State Bar Intellectual Property Section, and the Utah State Bar Antitrust Section.

Financial support for the Utah Project on Antitrust and Consumer Protection Law has been provided by the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

AGENDA

Welcoming Remarks & Keynote Address

Jorge Contreras, Director, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Program on IP & Technology Law
Norman Waitzman, Chair, University of Utah Department of Economics
Keynote Address:

Lina Khan, Chair, The Federal Trade Commission
Interviewed by Mark Glick, Professor, University of Utah Department of Economics


Panel 1: The Goals of Antitrust

Moderator: Darren Bush, University of Houston Law School
Gabriel Lozada, University of Utah Department of Economics
Mark Glick, University of Utah Department of Economics
Robert Lande, University of Baltimore Law School
Judge Robert Shelby, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court, District of Utah (see bio below agenda)
Susan Athey, Chief Economist, Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice


Panel 2: Consumer Protection in the New Progressive Era

Moderator: Christopher Peterson, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Manisha Padi, UC Berkeley Law School
Luke Herrine, University of Alabama Law School
Lauren E. Willis, Loyola Marymount University Law School
Frank Pasquale, Brooklyn Law School


Keynote Address:

Ramogi Huma, Director, National College Players Association


Panel 3: Labor and Big Tech in 2022 and Beyond

Moderator: Marshall Steinbaum, University of Utah, Department of Economics
Doha Mekki, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, USDOJ
Brian Callaci, Open Markets Institute
Hal Singer, University of Utah
Melissa Holyoak, Utah AG’s Office


Panel 4: The Antitrust – Intellectual Property Intersection

Moderator: Jorge Contreras, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Michael Carrier, Rutgers University Law School
Edith Ramirez, Hogan & Lovells, formerly Chair, Federal Trade Commission
Lara Swensen, James, Dodge, Russell, & Stephens, P.C. and Chair, Utah State Bar Antitrust Section
Jim Kearl, Brigham Young University Department of Economics

Closing Remarks

Marshall Steinbaum, University of Utah Department of Economics

PANELIST BIOS

Judge Robert Shelby has been a District Judge in the District of Utah since 2012, and Chief Judge since 2018. He serves by appointment on the Committee on Defender Services for the Judicial Conference of the United States, and on the Tenth Circuit Judicial Council. Judge Shelby obtained degrees from Utah State University and the University of Virginia School of Law. He clerked for United States District Judge J. Thomas Greene in the District of Utah, and later enjoyed a diverse private practice with an emphasis in complex commercial litigation. He is a former President of the Salt Lake County Bar Association and the David K. Watkiss – Sutherland Inn of Court and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Judge Shelby served on active duty with the Utah Army National Guard during Operation Desert Storm before receiving an Honorable Discharge in 1994. 

For questions about this event email events@law.utah.edu.


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