Uncategorized – Global Antitrust Institute

Graduating Research Assistants

All of the students who walked across the stage to accept their diplomas at George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School’s 2023 commencement are now well equipped to take on their future law careers, but five of them have a some more practical experience in antitrust law thanks to their roles as research assistants with the Global Antitrust Institute (GAI).

The GAI is grateful for these hardworking research assistants, who worked alongside faculty and staff, examining policy and exploring proposed legislation and enforcement guidelines to assist with the GAI comments and scholarship, in addition to providing help with the events throughout the year.

The GAI congratulates and celebrates the following research assistants who graduated this year:

As the lead research assistant during the 2022-2023 academic year, Rebekah assisted with hiring other research assistants, as well as managing and delegating assignments. At the commencement ceremony, she was recognized with Scalia Law’s Outstanding Academic Achievement in Antitrust Law and the Law School Community Service Award! Rebekah is also a member of the winning team at the 2022 Tulane International Baseball Arbitration Written Competition and she served as the President of the Mason Sport and Entertainment Law Association.

It was a campus orientation that led Rebekah to study antitrust. Her tour guide suggested that all incoming students take at least one antitrust class because of Mason’s reputation for offering an outstanding antitrust program. “I think that was the first time I had even heard the word ‘antitrust,’” she says. “I am grateful that I took her advice, as it led me to a new area of interest as well as to the GAI. The support I have received from the GAI has been pivotal to my law school experience!”

Daniel is the 2023 Juris Doctor (JD) degree recipient of the Global Antitrust Institute Award for Outstanding Performance in Antitrust Law and Economics. He competed in the Scalia Law Moot Court Competition, finishing in the top 16 in the first-year competition and as a semifinalist in the upperclassmen competition. This year, he served on the Moot Court Board as co-chair of the Ninth Annual Global Antitrust Institute Invitational Moot Court Competition, helping to plan and organize the event. Daniel also served as the articles editor for George Mason University’s Civil Rights Law Journal and he was a legal extern with the Healthcare and Consumer Products Section (HCP) at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division. Daniel graduated cum laude with a Concentration in Antitrust.

The GAI Spring Conversation Series 2023

Alexandre Cordeiro Macedo and Noah Joshua Phillips

On March 30, 2023, lawyers, economists, and academics gathered in Washington, DC, to attend the GAI’s Annual Spring Conversation Series at the Conrad Hotel.

The Global Antitrust Institute welcomed Alexandre Cordeiro Macedo (pictured left above), president of the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE)—Brazil’s national competition regulator—who spoke with Abbott (Tad) Lipsky Jr., adjunct professor of law and director of the GAI’s Competition Advocacy Program at Antonin Scalia Law School. They discussed the unique and common challenges of enforcing antitrust in Brazil as well competition law worldwide.

The GAI also welcomed former FTC Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips (pictured right above) at the event. Now a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, Noah Phillips spoke with Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg about a range of antitrust topics, including consumer protection, privacy issues, and the FTC’s current regulatory efforts.

Ninth Annual Global Antitrust Institute Invitational Moot Court Competition

Moot Court winners pictured

Congratulations to Howard University School of Law students Leah Herring (2nd from left) and Alexis Nail (2nd from right) for winning the Ninth Annual Global Antitrust Institute (GAI) Invitational Moot Court Competition on February 26, 2023! They impressed the judges as advocates for the plaintiffs in the competition.

Runners-up

New York University School of Law students Sasha Kliger (2nd from right above) and Sophia Cianfrani (2nd from left) were awarded Runners-up in the competition, arguing for the defendent.

Hosted by the Antonin Scalia Law School Moot Court Board with the Global Antitrust Institute and Senior Circuit Judge Douglas Ginsburg, the GAI Invitational is the only moot court competition in the United States devoted exclusively to antitrust law.

The competition included three preliminary rounds, one quarterfinal round, two semi-final rounds, and one final round. The students argued before an esteemed panel of judges, including Thomas Barnett (pictured on the left in the photos above), partner at Covington & Burlington and former assistant attorney general; Judge Douglas Ginsburg (pictured center), senior judge, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit; and Howard Shelanski (pictured right), partner at Davis Polk & Wardwell. Preliminary Rounds were held on February 25, 2023 and Semifinals and Finals were held on February 26, 2023.

The winning students are:

Winner:
Howard University School of Law: Alexis Nail and Leah Herring

Runner-up:
New York University School of Law students Sasha Kliger and Sophia Cianfrani

semifinalist, best brief

Semifinalists:
Georgetown Law: Tate Rosenblatt, Elizabeth LaPaugh, and Chase Gordon (pictured at left, l-r)

The Washington and Lee University School of Law: Max Blumenthal and Tanner Bowen

Best Brief:
Georgetown Law: Tate Rosenblatt, Chase Gordon, Elizabeth LaPaugh

Best Oralist:
Georgetown Law: Tate Rosenblatt

Quarterfinalists:

University of Michigan Law School: Benjamin Apelbaum, Wesley Ward, and Neena Menon

Indiana University Maurer School of Law: Conor Delehanty, Ian Finley, and Evan Fitzgerald

The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law: Tayler Littlejohn, Fasika Delessa, and Morgan Taylor

The George Washington University Law School: Jason Long and Jackson Kitchin

Dario Oliveira Neto

Director of the Latin America Competition Advocacy Program at the Global Antitrust Institute

BA, in Economics, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS); BA, in Law, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil; MA in Development Economics, PUCRS, Brazil

Contact Information

Email: Send an email

Phone: (703) 993-9044

Office: Room 440C, Hazel Hall, Arlington

Address:

Antonin Scalia Law School

George Mason University

3301 Fairfax Dr.

Arlington, VA 22201

Biographical Sketch

Dario Oliveira Neto is the Director of the Global Antitrust Institute’s (GAI) Latin America Competition Advocacy Program.

Prior to joining the GAI, Mr. Dario Oliveira Neto was the Head of the Technical Advisory Unit to the Office of the President of the Brazilian Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) —the Brazilian Competition Authority. In that position, he supervised a team of advisors and interns to assist the president in producing opinions and judgements in the cases at CADE’s Administrative Tribunal (antitrust cases such as mergers, cartels, and unilateral conducts). He also assisted with CADE’s administrative, institutional, and representational affairs, both nationally and internationally. Also at CADE, he has served as an Advisor to the Office of the General Superintendent.

He received his Master’s Degree in Development Economics with an emphasis in Regional Economics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Brazil, as well as a BA with academic distinction (first of his class) in Economics from PUCRS, Brazil, and a summa cum laude law degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. He also earned two graduate certifications, one in Business Law from PUCRS and a second in Antitrust Law from Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV). He also completed a summer school in Competition Law and Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and an exchange program at the Université Grenoble-Alpes, France. He has published papers and articles in the principles journals of antitrust law in Brazil.

George Mason Law Review 26th Annual Antitrust Symposium

The 26th Annual Antitrust Symposium took place on Friday, February 24 in person at the Antonin Scalia Law School in Arlington, Virginia. This Antitrust Symposium provided a unique opportunity to hear a wide range of perspectives on antitrust law and competition from academic leaders, practitioners, economic scholars, lawyers, judges, enforcers, agency heads, and other experts across the international antitrust community!

Please see the videos of all the sessions below as well as the full agenda with session descriptions and speaker info. (Videos are also available on our YouTube channel.)

A Conversation with FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Professor Joshua Wright

Panel 1: Antitrust and Labor Markets

Speakers (l-r): Lauren Stiroh, Eric A. Posner, Derek W. Moore, Dennis W. Carlton, and Moderator Bruce H. Kobayashi. (With an introduction from Symposium Editor Timothy A. Wieroniey and University Professor Joshua Wright.)

Panel 2: Updated Merger Guidelines

Speakers (l-r): Bruce H. Kobayashi, Michelle Yost Hale, Debbie Feinstein, George S. Cary, and Moderator Abbott (Tad) Lipsky Jr.

Panel 3: Antitrust and Big Tech: What’s Next?

Speakers (l-r): Claire Chunying Xie, Matt Stoller, Bilal Sayyed, Geoffrey A. Manne, and Moderator John M. Yun

Panel 4: Wu, Kanter & Khan: Grading the Biden Administration’s Antitrust Agenda

Speakers (l-r): David P. Wales, Noah Joshua Phillips, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Darren Bush, and Moderator Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg.

8:00 – 8:50 a.m.

Breakfast, Van Metre Multipurpose Room

9:00 – 9:10 a.m.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Timothy A. Wieroniey, Symposium Editor, George Mason Law Review

Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

9:10 – 10:30 a.m.

Panel 1: Antitrust and Labor Markets

This panel examines the current and recent state of antitrust in labor markets, including its use to address labor monopsony in mergers, no-poach and non-solicitation agreements between employers, and the use of antitrust law to regulate non-competition agreements and other restrictive contractual clauses in labor agreements.

Dennis W. Carlton, Senior Managing Director, Compass Lexecon; David McDaniel Keller Professor of Economics Emeritus, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business

Derek W. Moore, Senior Counsel, Lodestar Law & Economics

Eric A. Posner, Kirkland & Ellis Distinguished Service Professor of Law, The University of Chicago Law School

Lauren Stiroh, Managing Director, NERA Economic Consulting, Inc.

Moderator: Bruce H. Kobayashi, Paige V. and Henry N. Butler Chair in Law and Economics, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

10:50 am – 12:10 p.m.

Panel 2: Updated Merger Guidelines

This panel examines the future of merger policy at the federal agencies and consider the likely fallout from the impending collision of the Neo-Brandeisian forces with the courts, the antitrust bar, the business community and the economy.

George S. Cary, Partner, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP

Debbie Feinstein, Partner, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP

Michelle Yost Hale, Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Bruce H. Kobayashi, Paige V. and Henry N. Butler Chair in Law and Economics, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Moderator: Abbott (Tad) Lipsky, Jr., Director of the Competition Advocacy Program, Global Antitrust Institute; Adjunct Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

12:10 – 1:30 p.m.

Luncheon Conversation, Van Metre Hall Multipurpose Room

Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, Commissioner, US Federal Trade Commission

Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

1:45 – 3:05 p.m.

Panel 3: Antitrust and Big Tech: What’s Next?

This panel examines the ever-changing competition policy landscape involving large digital platforms, including the litany of conduct alleged to give rise to antitrust violations, theories of harm emphasizing potential and nascent competition, labor market impacts, and, even, “toxic” or “predatory” innovation. The panel explores the analytical foundations of these theories, as well as recent litigation and legislative proposals implicating them.

Geoffrey A. Manne, President and Founder, International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE)

Bilal Sayyed, Senior Competition Counsel, TechFreedom

Matt Stoller, Director of Research, American Economic Liberties Project

Claire Chunying Xie, Associate Director, NERA Economic Consulting, Inc.

Moderator: John M. Yun, Deputy Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; Associate Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

3:20 – 4:40 p.m.

Panel 4: Wu, Kanter & Khan: Grading the Biden Administration’s Antitrust Agenda

This panel evaluates the Biden administration’s performance in carrying out its ambitious antitrust agenda. From President Biden’s broad sweeping Executive Order on Promoting Competition laying out his plan to reinvigorate antitrust law, to appointing new leadership at the FTC and DOJ with a clear mission to increase enforcement, the mission statement is clear. From litigation to legislation to new Guidelines and rulemaking, we take stock of the last two years, evaluate wins and losses, and predict what comes next.

Darren Bush, Leonard B. Rosenberg Professor of Law, University of Houston Law Center

Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Partner & Firmwide Section Chair of Antitrust & Competition Law, Baker Botts LLP

Noah Joshua Phillips, Partner, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP

David P. Wales, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Moderator: Senior Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

4:40 – 4:50 p.m.

Closing Remarks

5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

Reception, Van Metre Hall Multipurpose Room

Antitrust Economics Institute for Competition Judges

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Sunday, May 28 to Friday, June 2, 2023
Location: Europe

Join us May 28 – June 2, 2023 for an in-depth study of current and developing antitrust issues. There is no requirement of prior economic or antitrust knowledge.

Our Economic Institutes provide an in-depth study of current and developing antitrust issues. We aim to introduce and develop the analytical toolkit required to analyze a variety of conduct under the antitrust laws. The GAI has trained over 250 judges from around the world.

The GAI faculty includes former leaders of both U.S. federal antitrust agencies, a former chief economist at the US Federal Trade Commission, and several leading PhD antitrust economists with agency experience.

For more information and to secure a place in the Institute, please email us at gai@gmu.edu.

Antitrust Economics Institute for US Federal Judges

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Sunday, March 12 to Friday, March 17, 2023
Location: Texas

The Economics Institute is designed to build an understanding of the economic foundations of antitrust and competition law, and to illustrate how economic analysis is applied to current and emerging antitrust issues.

We aim to introduce and develop the analytical toolkit required to assess a variety of conduct under the antitrust laws. Our core program begins with an overview of US antitrust laws and a foundational treatment of key economic concepts. There is no requirement of prior economics or antitrust knowledge.

For Event Details, Please Contact gai@gmu.edu

Economics Institute for Competition Enforcement Officials

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Sunday, December 11 to Friday, December 16, 2022
Location: California

In December of 2022, the Global Antitrust Institute (GAI) resumed its Economics Institute for Competition Enforcement Officials after a two-year hiatus! This five-day program offers competition enforcement officials from around the world a comprehensive course in the economic foundations of antitrust and competition law.

The Global Antitrust Institute is an academic center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University located in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

The Administration of Antitrust Conference

On Friday, October 14, the C. Boyden Gray Center and the Global Antitrust Institute (GAI) of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School hosted a full-day conference on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Constitution, and the future of antitrust policy. (See agenda below)

Watch all the sessions of this full-day conference on the GAI YouTube channel.

The conference featured a keynote address by Professor William E. Kovacic, director of GW Law’s Competition Law Center, and a series of panel discussions with former agency officials, leading litigators, and top scholars in the fields of antitrust and constitutional law examining the following issues:

- - The current state of antitrust policy
  - The Roberts Court’s possible effect on the FTC’s ambitious policymaking agenda
  - The FTC’s in-house adjudications
  - The future of FTC independence, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent constitutional decisions

Agenda

Friday, October 14

All sessions held in the Mayflower’s East Room

8:15 – 8:55 a.m. Registration and Breakfast

8:55 – 9:00 a.m. Welcome

Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Panel 1: American Antitrust Law: Where Are We, and Where Are We Going?

Andrew I. Gavil, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law

Thomas Hazlett, H.H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics, Wilbur O. and Ann Powers College of Business, Clemson University

Bernard (Barry) A. Nigro Jr., Partner, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP

Moderator: Abbott “Tad” Lipsky, Jr., Director of the Competition Advocacy Program, Global Antitrust Institute; Adjunct Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

10:30 – 10:40 a.m. Break

10:40 am – 11:55 a.m. Panel 2: The FTC’s Independence After Seila Law v. CFPB

Svetlana S. Gans, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Jennifer Mascott, Assistant Professor of Law & Co-Executive Director, The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State, Scalia Law School

Paul R. Verkuil, Former Chairman, Administrative Conference of the United States; Distinguished Senior Fellow, The C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State

Moderator: The Honorable Steven G. Bradbury, Attorney; Former General Counsel, Department of Transportation

11:55 am – 1:20 p.m. Lunch & Keynote Speech

William E. Kovacic, Director, Competition Law Center; Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy; Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School; former Chairman, Federal Trade Commission

1:20 – 1:30 p.m. Break

1:30 – 2:45 p.m. Panel 3: The FTC vs. the Roberts Court: The Major Questions Doctrine, Rulemaking, and More

Jeffrey S. Lubbers, Professor of Practice in Administrative Law, Washington College of Law, American University

Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor, Columbia Law School

Eugene Scalia, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP; Former U.S. Secretary of Labor (2019 – 2021)

Moderator: Chad Squitieri, Assistant Professor of Law, Columbus School
of Law, The Catholic University of America

2:45 – 2:55 p.m. Break

2:55 – 4:10 p.m. Panel 4: The FTC’s Litigation: In Court and In-House

Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice

Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Professor of Law, Nebraska College of Law, University of Nebraska – Lincoln; The Menard Director, Nebraska Governance and Technology Center; Co-Director, Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law Program

Howard Shelanski, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

Moderator: Joshua D. Wright, Executive Director, Global Antitrust Institute; University Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

4:10 – 5:10 p.m. Reception, The Mayflower Chinese Room

5:10 p.m. Adjourn

PAPERS FOR THE CONFERENCE

Antitrust Rulemaking: The FTC’s Delegation Deficit
Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

Antitrust Reform in the Digital Era: A Skeptical Perspective
Robert W. Crandall, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute, Washington DC
Thomas W. Hazlett, Hugh H. Macaulay Endowed Professor of Economics, Clemson University

Can the Federal Trade Commission Use Rulemaking to Change Antitrust Law?
Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Lyle T. Iverson Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School

Chevron and Administrative Antitrust, Redux
Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Professor of Law, Nebraska College of Law, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; The Mernard Director, Nebraska Governance and Technology Center; Co-Director, Space, Cyber, and Telecom Law Program

FTC Independence After Seila Law
Daniel A. Crane, Frederick Paul Furth, Sr. Professor of Law, University of Michigan

FURTHER READING

Administrative Relief and Private Rights of Action under the Antitrust Laws
Richard A. Epstein, The Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, The New York University School of Law; The Peter and Kirsten Bedford Senior Fellow, the Hoover Foundation; the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law Emeritus and Senior Lecturer, The University of Chicago

GAI Economics Institute for Competition Law Judges

EVENT DETAILS

Date: Sunday, May 22 to Friday, May 27, 2022
Location: Europe

JOIN US for the Global Antitrust Institute’s (GAI’s) Antitrust Economics Institute for Competition Judges, held in Europe from Sunday, May 22 to Friday, May 27, 2022. There is no requirement of prior economic or antitrust knowledge. The GAI has trained over 250 judges from around the world. Our Economic Institutes provide an in-depth study of current and developing antitrust issues. We aim to introduce and develop the analytical toolkit required to analyze a variety of conduct under the antitrust laws. The GAI faculty includes former leaders of both U.S. federal antitrust agencies, a former chief economist at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and several leading Ph.D. antitrust economists with agency experience.

The Global Antitrust Institute is an academic center at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University located in Arlington, Virginia, USA.

For more information and to secure a place in the Institute, please email us at gai@gmu.edu.