Founding Partner, Lodestar Law and Economics PLLC
Josh is the founder of Lodestar Law and Economics, PLLC. On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Wright as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, intellectual property, regulation, and consumer protection, and has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading antitrust casebook, and edited several book volumes focusing on these issues. Commentators have recognized Wright as “widely considered his generation’s greatest mind on antitrust law,” and his academic work ranks him as one of the most cited antitrust academics in the world. Wright was also awarded the Paul M. Bator Award by the Federalist Society in 2014 to “an academic who demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact.” Wright also served as the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, the world’s premiere academic institute focused upon antitrust education for judges and regulators and has taught hundreds of judges and thousands of regulators from dozens of countries.
Wright’s practice focuses upon helping clients solve complex competition, consumer protection, and regulatory problems by providing legal and economic analysis, strategic advice and counseling, and economic expert testimony.
Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Jan represents clients on a range of antitrust issues relating to the US merger control and review process, multijurisdictional merger control, joint ventures, civil antitrust litigation, and investigations before the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Prior to rejoining Freshfields in 2015, Jan served as an attorney adviser to a FTC Commissioner. While at the FTC, Jan advised on a range of competition and consumer protection issues, including providing merger and conduct enforcement recommendations, developing legislation and policy initiatives with Congress, and drafting formal statements, policy speeches, and Congressional testimony.
Jan has published several articles on antitrust law and policy. Jan was awarded the 2019 Antitrust Writing Award, a joint initiative between Concurrences Review and the George Washington University Law School, in the Best Business Article, General category for "Hipster Antitrust Meets Public Choice Economics: The Consumer Welfare Standard, Rule of Law, and Rent Seeking." Jan also was award the 2017 Antitrust Writing Award in the Best Academic Article, Mergers category for his article “A Hedgehog in Fox’s Clothing? The Misapplication of GUPPI Analysis.”
Jan is an Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow at the Global Antitrust Institute at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches courses in antitrust law and economics. Jan is an active member of the ABA’s Antitrust Section and currently serves as an Editor for the Antitrust Law Journal, a leading publication for antitrust law, policy, and economics that is widely read by the antitrust bar.
Professor, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Jonathan Barnett is the Torrey H. Webb Professor of Law at the Gould School of Law, University of Southern California. He founded and currently directs the USC Media, Entertainment and Technology Law Program. Barnett specializes in intellectual property, contracts, antitrust, and corporate law. Barnett has published in the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Journal of Legal Studies, Review of Law & Economics, Journal of Corporation Law and other scholarly journals.
He joined USC Law in fall 2006 and was a visiting professor at New York University School of Law in fall 2010. Prior to academia, Barnett practiced corporate law as a senior associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York, specializing in private equity and mergers and acquisitions transactions. He was also a visiting assistant professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York. A magna cum laude graduate of University of Pennsylvania, Barnett received a MPhil from Cambridge University and a JD from Yale Law School.
Taft, Stettinius & Hollister Professor of Law, University of Minnesota Law School
Professor Thomas F. Cotter joined the University of Minnesota Law School faculty in 2006. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and in 1987 graduated magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he served as Senior Articles Editor of the Wisconsin Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif.
From 1987-89, Professor Cotter clerked for the Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City from 1988-90, and at Jenner & Block in Chicago from 1990-94. From 1994-2005, he taught at the University of Florida College of Law, where he held a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship and directed the school’s Intellectual Property Law Program. From 2005-06, he was a Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. In 2007, he was named to a two-year Solly Robins Distinguished Research Fellowship at the University of Minnesota Law School, and in 2008 was named to the Taft, Stettinius & Hollister Chair in Law.
Professor Cotter’s principal research and teaching interests are in the fields of domestic and international intellectual property law, antitrust, and law and economics. He is the author of six books—Patent Wars: How Patents Impact Our Daily Lives (Oxford Univ. Press, 2018); Trademarks, Unfair Competition, and Business Torts (with Barton Beebe, Mark A. Lemley, Peter S. Menell, and Robert P. Merges) (Wolters Kluwer 2d ed., 2016; 1st ed., 2011); Law and Economics: Positive, Normative, and Behavioral Perspectives (with Jeffrey L. Harrison) (3d ed., Thomson West, 2013); Comparative Patent Remedies: A Legal and Economic Analysis (Oxford University Press, 2013); and Intellectual Property: Economic and Legal Dimensions of Rights and Remedies (with Roger D. Blair) (Cambridge University Press 2005).
Altogether he has authored or coauthored over 60 other scholarly works, including articles in the California Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, the Iowa Law Review, the Minnesota Law Review, and the University of Illinois Law Review. He also publishes a blog, ComparativePatentRemedies.com, on the law (both foreign and domestic) and economics of patent remedies. Most recently, the Innovators Network Foundation, in partnership with ACT|The App Association, appointed Professor Cotter to a one-year Intellectual Property Fellowship.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, The University of Richmond School of Law
Dean Kristen Jakobsen Osenga teaches and writes in the areas of patent law, antitrust, and legislation and regulation. Some of her recent scholarship focuses on standard development organizations, patent eligible subject matter, patent licensing firms, litigation and remedies for patent infringement, and patent law reform. She has written numerous law review articles on these and other topics, as well as book chapters and op eds on various aspects of patent law. Additionally, she has spoken on these issues at many academic conferences and bar events. Dean Osenga is Chief Policy Counselor for the Inventors Defense Alliance, as well as an active member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association.
Dean Osenga received a B.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Iowa, an M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale, and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. After law school, she practiced at the law firm of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett, & Dunner LLP, (now Finnegan) where she did patent prosecution and litigation. She then clerked for the Judge Richard Linn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. After clerking, she entered academia, teaching first at Chicago-Kent College of Law and then at the University of Richmond, where she has been since 2006. She has also been a Visiting Professor at Emory University School of Law and at William & Mary School of Law.
General Counsel and Vice-President of Litigation, Washington Legal Foundation
Cory Andrews is General Counsel and Vice-President of Litigation for the Washington Legal Foundation (WLF). As counsel of record for WLF and other clients, he has authored more than 100 briefs, at petition and merits stages, in the U.S. Supreme Court. He also frequently litigates in state and federal appellate courts. Before joining WLF, Cory practiced trial and appellate law for White & Case LLP, where he litigated in state and federal courts on behalf of clients in the telecommunications, hospitality, and banking industries. He received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Florida, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif. Upon graduation, Cory served as a law clerk to the Honorable Steven D. Merryday of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Founder, Libertas-West Project
Karen Lugo is a constitutional law consultant and national security analyst. She was Director of the Center for Tenth Amendment at Texas Public Policy Foundation from 2013 to 2015. When living in California, she was Co-Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Center. From 2005 – 2012, she was a clinical visiting and adjunct professor at Chapman University School of Law where she co-taught the advanced Constitutional Law Clinic. Karen has co-authored and written circuit-level and Supreme Court amicus briefs on such issues as FISA Surveillance, Healthcare Reform, Arizona’s Border Security, Gay Marriage, The Ten Commandments, Eminent Domain, Christian Clubs on University Campuses, and Material Support for Terrorists.
Karen is the founder of the Libertas-West Project, a center for study Islamic integration and radicalization issues. In this capacity, she consulted with the Center for Security Policy to write a book on local over-watch of mosque construction and community engagement called: Mosques in America: A Guide to Accountable Permit Hearings and Continuing Citizen Oversight.
Karen writes and speaks for European and American groups on the importance of basing assimilation efforts on principles of Western exceptionalism. She presented a policy brief to the French Conseil d’Etat analyzing the legal implications of banning the burqa. Ms. Lugo has written one of the most comprehensive overviews of sharia law in American courts, American Family Law and Sharia-Compliant Marriages, for the Federalist Society law journal, Engage. She has written several white papers on the American Law for American Courts legislation and sharia tribunals in America.
Ms. Lugo was an appointee to the California Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. She also taught a Human Rights law course on the contrast between French and English Enlightenment theories in Strasbourg, France.
Until moving from California, Ms. Lugo was a member of the David Horowitz Freedom Center Board of Directors. She was also a regular guest on the Orange County PBS local issues debate program, Inside OC, and she is a contributor to Pajamas Media, National Review Online, City Journal, American Spectator, American Greatness, Townhall.com, American Thinker, Daily Caller, and Family Security Matters. She has been interviewed by dozens of radio hosts and has spoken for civic groups on constitutional and cultural concerns.
Founding Partner, Lodestar Law and Economics PLLC
Josh is the founder of Lodestar Law and Economics, PLLC. On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Wright as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, intellectual property, regulation, and consumer protection, and has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading antitrust casebook, and edited several book volumes focusing on these issues. Commentators have recognized Wright as “widely considered his generation’s greatest mind on antitrust law,” and his academic work ranks him as one of the most cited antitrust academics in the world. Wright was also awarded the Paul M. Bator Award by the Federalist Society in 2014 to “an academic who demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact.” Wright also served as the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, the world’s premiere academic institute focused upon antitrust education for judges and regulators and has taught hundreds of judges and thousands of regulators from dozens of countries.
Wright’s practice focuses upon helping clients solve complex competition, consumer protection, and regulatory problems by providing legal and economic analysis, strategic advice and counseling, and economic expert testimony.
Senior Fellow and Director of Constitutional Studies, Manhattan Institute
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute and a contributing editor of City Journal. Previously he was executive director and senior lecturer at the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, and before that a vice president of the Cato Institute.
Shapiro is the author of Lawless: The Miseducation of America’s Elites (2025) and Supreme Disorder: Judicial Nominations and the Politics of America’s Highest Court (2020), coauthor of Religious Liberties for Corporations? (2014), and editor of 11 volumes of the Cato Supreme Court Review (2008-18). He has contributed to a variety of academic, popular, and professional publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and Newsweek. He also regularly provides commentary for various media outlets, writes the Shapiro’s Gavel newsletter on Substack, and once appeared on the Colbert Report.
Shapiro has testified many times before Congress and state legislatures and has filed more than 500 amicus curiae “friend of the court” briefs in the Supreme Court. He lectures regularly on behalf of the Federalist Society, is a member of the board of fellows of the Jewish Policy Center, was an inaugural Washington Fellow at the National Review Institute, and has been an adjunct law professor at the George Washington University and University of Mississippi. He is also the chairman of the board of advisers of the Mississippi Justice Institute, a barrister in the Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, and a former member of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
Earlier in his career, Shapiro was a special assistant/adviser to the Multi-National Force in Iraq on rule-of-law issues and practiced at Patton Boggs and Cleary Gottlieb. Before entering private practice, he clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He holds an AB from Princeton University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School.
Joseph Tartakovsky, Author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America's Supreme Law.
Joseph Tartakovsky is author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law (2018) and the former Deputy Solicitor General of Nevada. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Los Angeles Times.
Partner, Co-chair of the Litigation & Trial Practice Group, Alston & Bird LLP
Adam Biegel is co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group and former co-chair of its Antitrust Team. He has substantial experience representing clients on antitrust counseling and litigation matters, including those involving government and internal investigations, mergers and joint ventures, pricing and distribution, compliance counseling and training, pre-merger reviews under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act, and multidistrict litigation. He regularly represents clients before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general, and in federal courts.
Adam is recognized for his antitrust experience by Chambers USA and selected to The Best Lawyers in America®, including his recognition as “Lawyer of the Year” for Antitrust Litigation in Washington, D.C., in 2022. He is a longtime member of the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s leadership, currently serving as co-chair of its In-House Counsel Task Force and previously having served on its board, and chaired its Corporate Counseling Committee, Long Range Planning Committee, and Spring Meeting conference. He also serves on the board of the Federalist Society’s antitrust practice group.
Adam served as a law clerk to the Hon. Frank M. Hull, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Before attending law school, he worked as a newspaper reporter in Arkansas and on the legislative staff of U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch.
Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition, Federal Trade Commission
Ian Conner serves as the Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission. He previously was a partner in the Antitrust & Competition practice at Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, DC. Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Conner was a Trial Attorney in the Transportation, Energy and Agriculture Section of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Senior Antitrust Counsel,, Tennessee Attorney General’s Office
Vic is Senior Antitrust Counsel in the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office and serves as Tennessee’s chief counsel for all state and multistate antitrust investigations and litigation. He also enforces Tennessee’s Nonprofit Act with a special focus on hospital transactions and conducts investigations on behalf of the Tennessee Ethics Commission. He is admitted to practice before all state courts in Tennessee, the U. S. Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of Tennessee. Vic was named Chair of the NAAG Antitrust Task Force in 2015 and has served as a member of the Long Range Planning Committee of the Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association and as a Co-Chair of the State Enforcement Committee. He has written and spoken on numerous antitrust and nonprofit matters and is currently on the Editorial Board of the ABA publication Antitrust Law Developments Updates. He has also planned or participated as a panelist on several ABA teleconferences programs and Spring Meeting sessions. Vic received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law and has a B.A. in Economics from Vanderbilt University
Senior Associate, Baker Botts L.L.P., Washington, DC
Jeffrey Oliver is an Associate in the firm’s Antitrust and Competition Practice. Mr. Oliver advises clients on all aspects of antitrust law, with an emphasis on U.S. and international merger reviews. Mr. Oliver has obtained antitrust clearance for transactions in a wide variety of industries, with significant experience in oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and trade associations.
Prior to joining Baker Botts, Mr. Oliver was a Staff Attorney at the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Competition. There, Mr. Oliver’s practice focused on merger and conduct investigations in the oil and gas industry. Mr. Oliver has experience in all phases of the FTC’s investigation process, from reviewing HSR filings to challenging mergers in litigation.
Senior Deputy Attorney General, Antitrust Section, Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office
Jennifer A. Thomson serves as a Senior Deputy Attorney General in the Antitrust Section of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, which she joined in March of 2003. She practices Antitrust Law, specializing in Intellectual Property, Healthcare and Airline matters, along with a wide array of other industries. Ms. Thomson has given presentations with the American Bar Association, the National Association of Attorneys General, the United States Department of Justice, the American Antitrust Institute and the United States Patent and Trademark Office. She authored several papers on topics such as the proposed merger of Highmark and Independence Blue Cross, State Action of the states' objection to the Google Book Search Settlement.
Ms. Thomson earned her J.D. in 2002 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where she was an inaugural Fellow for the Samuelson/Glusko Fellowship in IP/Technology Law. As part of this fellowship, she prepared a paper on antitrust in the motion picture industry, which received from the University of Pittsburgh faculty the Thomas M. Cooley, II Legal Writing Award for Most Distinguished Paper. She is admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the United States District Courts for the Western, Middle and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, the Untied States District Court for the District of Columbia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. She is a member of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section and the State Enforcement Committee. She has been designated by the Chief Attorney General to sit on their behalf on the State Board of Cosmetology from 2003-2017, the Real Estate Commission Since Fall, 2017, and was recently appointed to serve as part of the Advisory Committee of the Review of the State Professional and Occupational Licensure Board Requirements and Processes pursuant to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf's Executive Order 2017-03.
Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP
Jan represents clients on a range of antitrust issues relating to the US merger control and review process, multijurisdictional merger control, joint ventures, civil antitrust litigation, and investigations before the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Prior to rejoining Freshfields in 2015, Jan served as an attorney adviser to a FTC Commissioner. While at the FTC, Jan advised on a range of competition and consumer protection issues, including providing merger and conduct enforcement recommendations, developing legislation and policy initiatives with Congress, and drafting formal statements, policy speeches, and Congressional testimony.
Jan has published several articles on antitrust law and policy. Jan was awarded the 2019 Antitrust Writing Award, a joint initiative between Concurrences Review and the George Washington University Law School, in the Best Business Article, General category for "Hipster Antitrust Meets Public Choice Economics: The Consumer Welfare Standard, Rule of Law, and Rent Seeking." Jan also was award the 2017 Antitrust Writing Award in the Best Academic Article, Mergers category for his article “A Hedgehog in Fox’s Clothing? The Misapplication of GUPPI Analysis.”
Jan is an Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow at the Global Antitrust Institute at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, where he teaches courses in antitrust law and economics. Jan is an active member of the ABA’s Antitrust Section and currently serves as an Editor for the Antitrust Law Journal, a leading publication for antitrust law, policy, and economics that is widely read by the antitrust bar.
Founding Partner, Lodestar Law and Economics PLLC
Josh is the founder of Lodestar Law and Economics, PLLC. On January 1, 2013, the U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Wright as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). He is a leading scholar in antitrust law, economics, intellectual property, regulation, and consumer protection, and has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading antitrust casebook, and edited several book volumes focusing on these issues. Commentators have recognized Wright as “widely considered his generation’s greatest mind on antitrust law,” and his academic work ranks him as one of the most cited antitrust academics in the world. Wright was also awarded the Paul M. Bator Award by the Federalist Society in 2014 to “an academic who demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact.” Wright also served as the Executive Director of the Global Antitrust Institute, the world’s premiere academic institute focused upon antitrust education for judges and regulators and has taught hundreds of judges and thousands of regulators from dozens of countries.
Wright’s practice focuses upon helping clients solve complex competition, consumer protection, and regulatory problems by providing legal and economic analysis, strategic advice and counseling, and economic expert testimony.
Litigation Update: AT&T and Time Warner Cable
Joshua D. Wright, Jan M. Rybnicek
The AT&T/Time Warner merger marks the first time in 40 years that a court has...
Litigation Update: AT&T and Time Warner Cable
Corporations, Securities, & Antitrust Practice Group Teleforum
Dispatches from the Patent Wars: The High-Stakes Battle Between Qualcomm and Apple
Jonathan Barnett, Thomas F. Cotter, Kristen Osenga
American patent law has witnessed a number of high-profile patent wars throughout history and today...
Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: Apple, Inc. v. Pepper
Cory L. Andrews
On Monday, November 26, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments for Apple, Inc. v. Pepper. At issue is...
Giving Credit for Shaping the Constitution
Karen J. Lugo
A review of: The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds That Shaped America’s Supreme Law,...
Litigation Update: AT&T and Time Warner Merger
Joshua D. Wright
In June 2018, the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia ruled in favor...
The Lives of the Constitution
Ilya Shapiro, Joseph Tartakovsky
The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds that Shaped America’s Supreme Law is a...
Antitrust Enforcement by State Attorney Generals
Adam Biegel, Ian Conner, Victor Domen, Jeffrey S. Oliver, Jennifer A. Thomson
State Attorneys General often investigate antitrust violations – ranging from price fixing to anticompetitive mergers...
Topics
The DOJ Should Keep Its Hands Off the AT&T Acquisition of Time Warner
The antitrust world is abuzz with the surprising decision of the Department of Justice to...
Topics
The Justice Department’s Case Against the AT&T/Time Warner Merger
On Monday, November 20, the Department of Justice filed suit in the U.S. District Court...