Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law

Competition: Spring 2022, Vol 32, No. 1

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Written by David M. Goldstein
Farmer Brownstein Jaeger Goldstein Klein & Siegel LLP San Francisco, CA

The Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Section is delighted to publish its Spring 2022 edition of Competition. As with our recent Spring editions, this volume includes the panels and presentations at our November 2021 Golden State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Institute (GSI). Stephen Mclntyre, Editor of Competition, provides an excellent overview of the panels and articles in his column following this column.

The Section has undertaken several initiatives since COVID-19 arrived in early 2020. Most important, in conjunction with CLA’s creation of a new Privacy Section, our Executive Committee has refocused its energy, time, and efforts on antitrust and competition law. Under the leadership of Elizabeth Pritzker, our 2019-2020 Chair, we adopted the Section’s mission statement: "To engage, inform and inspire generations of lawyers to further the practice of antitrust and competition law in California." Building on our mission statement, our immediate past Chair, Qianwei Fu, led us to adopt a strategic plan to focus on four areas: programs, publications, membership, and diversity/inclusion. We added the UCL as an area of focus this past autumn.

Programs: Jiamie Chen is the chair of our Education Committee, which has continued to organize and sponsor panels and webinars. Most recently, Jill Manning and Kate Patchen organized the Section’s Fifth Annual Celebrating Women in Competition Law in California event on March 10, 2022. Many of us remember that the same event in March 2020 took place a few days before the first pandemic lockdown; it was wonderful to get together again (without masks) almost two years to the day.

On November 18, 2021, we hosted our flagship annual event, the Golden State Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law Institute, under the leadership of Aaron Sheanin and Rob McNary. The resurgence of COVID forced us to switch to

[Page 3]

virtual programming for GSI, but we were able to host an in-person reception at the Vault. The reception was our first in-person event since March 2020, and it was great to see so many of you in person. Dan Wall, our 2021 Antitrust Lawyer of the Year, spoke briefly at the reception, and he finally will be honored at the in-person phase of our 2021 GSI conference on May 5, 2022. For that event, programs and the dinner will be held in the Julia Morgan Ballroom, and for the reception we will walk over to the Vault. Please reserve November 10, 2022 for our 2022 Golden State Antitrust & UCL Institute and 2022 Antitrust Lawyer of the Year reception and dinner.

Publications: We continue to publish Competition, the Section’s preeminent treatise California Antitrust and Unfair Competition Law, and E-Briefs, News and Notes. Belinda Lee and Shira Liu are leading the effort to update and refresh chapters of the Treatise. Competition continues to publish high-quality, scholarly articles and analyses of cutting-edge antitrust and UCL issues. And Bob Connolly has transformed E-Briefs, News and Notes into a robust monthly publication with updates about the Section, neutral case summaries, deep dive opinion pieces, links to agency statements and publications, and information for new lawyers and law students.

Membership: Ian Papendick is leading our effort to focus on the benefits we provide to our members and increasing membership in the Section. To that end, we have posted on the Section’s website a summary of member benefits and we regularly update the website’s landing page to highlight upcoming events and deadlines. We are continuing to add content regarding our activities, and we plan to add a section for new lawyers and law students by autumn 2022. We also are working with CLA to expand our membership both within and outside California. If you are not a member, please visit our website to learn why you should become a member! (Go to https://calawyers.org/section/antitrust-unfair-competition-law/about.)

Diversity/Inclusion: Abiel Garcia and Anupama Reddy continue make our Section a leader within CLA regarding diversity and inclusion. Several years ago, we adopted a Diversity and Inclusion Policy that is an integral part of the Executive Committee’s activities. The Diversity Committee oversees our mentorship program and has developed presentations called "Pathways to Antitrust" for law students. The Diversity Committee also oversees the Section’s Inclusion & Diversity Fellowship. Our inaugural fellow, LeeAnna Bowman-Caprio, interned at the California Attorney General’s office in the summer of 2021, and this spring we will select the recipient of the 2022 fellowship. In the fall of 2021, CLA proposed diversity and inclusion guidelines for appointments to CLA-wide committees and Section Executive Committees, and our Executive Committee submitted comments based on our Section’s experience.

UCL Committee: Many on the Executive Committee felt that we could and should spend more time and effort on the UCL. To that end, in September 2021 we added to the Executive Committee five UCL practitioners to replace the

[Page 4]

"privacy" Executive Committee members who rolled off to the Privacy Section. As our new members joined the Executive Committee, we established a new Unfair Competition Law Committee. Our Secretary, Jonathan Levine, is chairing the UCL Committee, which holds regular meetings and is planning a half-day UCL program later this year.

Finally, CLA approved a new antitrust compliance policy on March 25, 2022. Of course, our Section was charged with drafting it. With so many lawyers involved across CLA and its many sections, it took a great amount of time and effort to finalize a policy. Thanks to Cheryl Johnson and Paul Riehle who led the effort to draft the policy.

Thanks to all our Executive Committee members and advisors, as well as standing committee members and other volunteers who contribute to our activities. Special thanks to our immediate past Chair, Qianwei Fu, for her leadership during another COVID year and her sage counsel and advice as I became Chair of the Section.

It is easy to get involved in the Section! You can serve on a standing committee, write an article for Competition, work on the Treatise, contribute to E-Briefs, News and Notes, join the mentorship program, participate on a panel, or host an event at your organization. If you would like to get involved in any of these activities, or if you have ideas of your own, please send me an email at dgoldstein@fbjgk.com.

[Page 5]

Forgot Password

Enter the email associated with you account. You will then receive a link in your inbox to reset your password.

Personal Information

Select Section(s)

CLA Membership is $99 and includes one section. Additional sections are $99 each.

Payment