CHAIR’S COLUMN

Lee F. Berger¹
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, DC

With thanks to the authors, editors and other contributors, our Section is pleased to present you with another edition of Competition. This issue covers a variety of articles on important antitrust, unfair competition and privacy law topics, including discussions from our flagship program, the Golden State Institute (GSI), an annual day-long conference that takes place each fall. This year’s GSI will be held on Thursday, November 14, 2019, at the historic Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco, California.

The Antitrust, UCL and Privacy Section now enters our second year under the newly-formed California Lawyers Association. Membership remains steady, our Section and the CLA remain in the black, attendance at our annual Golden State Institute is up, and membership engagement remains strong. We are on solid footing to continue our growth.

With separation from the State Bar of California has come structural changes to our Section. The Section now has a committee system to handle some of our most important activities: the Privacy Committee coordinates all programming and publications regarding privacy matters; the Publications Committee produces and edits Competition and our monthly electronic newsletter, e-Briefs; the Education Committee organizes our webinars and live events; and the Treatise Committee edits and publishes California State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law, Revised Edition. These committees have created additional leadership opportunities, enabling more Section members to get actively involved in the educational work of our Section.

Post-separation, the Section is also expanding the scope of our work beyond the educational services we offered under the State Bar. For example, we are focusing on increasing networking opportunities for our members, both as attached to live educational programs and as stand-alone events. The Section is instituting a mentoring program to provide opportunities for members to grow their experiences and advance their careers through formal mentoring relationships with other Section members in their practice areas. We are also working more closely with the California Young Lawyers Association to develop the skills and interest of emerging attorneys in antitrust, consumer protection, and privacy law, while also creating an additional pipeline for new Section membership.

At the same time, the Section’s Executive Committee is taking a hard look at our existing activities, to make a realistic evaluation of the effectiveness of our work. If educational programming or publications are not as useful or well-attended as they once were, we should adjust our efforts to best serve our members. On the other hand, we should expand or duplicate programming and publications that are most useful for our members. This is a difficult and careful analysis that should be conducted with both hard data and a wide array of viewpoints.

More than ever, the engagement of our members is vital to all of the activities and processes discussed above. I would be grateful to hear from you directly on what you like about the Section’s current activities, and what we could improve. Executive Committee members are also calling members directly to get their views—please take a few minutes to talk with us if we call. Moreover, if you would like to get involved in our activities—for example, organizing a webinar, or writing an article for Competition or e-Briefs—we welcome your activism. As we roll out our mentoring program this year, please consider serving as a mentor. Finally, you can always join our many live programs, webinars, and networking events. If you would like to discuss your views about or getting involved in our Section activities, please email me at lee.berger@calawyers.org.

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Notes:

^1. Any views expressed in this column by Mr. Berger are his own and not those of the United States Department of Justice.