Principal, Law Offices of David Balto and Health Policy Program, New America Foundation
David Balto is one of the leading experts on healthcare competition and regulation and is an antitrust attorney with over a quarter century of experience in both the private and public sectors. He is a prolific writer and speaker on antitrust, consumer protection, and health care policy.
Mr. Balto has over 15 years of government antitrust experience as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and in several senior level positions at the Federal Trade Commission during the Clinton Administration, including Policy Director of the Bureau of Competition (1998-2001) and attorney advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky (1995-1997). In these positions, he was a senior advisor in all aspects of the FTC's merger and non-merger enforcement program, helping to litigate the challenges to the Staples/Office Depot, Drug Wholesalers, and Heinz/Beechnut mergers.
Mr. Balto also helped guide many of the FTC's seminal pharmaceutical and healthcare enforcement efforts, identifying and helping litigate major cases such as the challenges to patent settlement agreements, hospital mergers, and other exclusionary conduct. He was an advisor in many of the FTC's pharmaceutical merger enforcement cases, including Glaxo/Smithkline, Merck/Medco, Lilly/PCS and Ciba/Sandoz, and was instrumental in bringing some of the first enforcement actions against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). He was also an author of the 1996 DOJ/FTC healthcare antitrust enforcement guidelines, and served as a liaison on competition issues to the Food and Drug Administration and Congress, advising several Committees on pharmaceutical competition and Hatch-Waxman reform.
Since his transition to private practice, Balto has testified before Congress and state legislatures numerous times on healthcare competition issues and the competitive concerns in health insurance and pharmacy benefit management markets. He has authored studies on health care concentration (sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and healthcare transparency. He frequently represents hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare providers in antitrust matters before the DOJ and the FTC.
Mr. Balto received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and his J.D. from the Northeastern University School of Law.
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Thomas Barnett is a partner in the Washington, DC office and co-chair of the firm's Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He specializes in global antitrust and competition law practice and works closely with the firm’s white collar practice on criminal antitrust enforcement and investigative matters.
Mr. Barnett recently served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. He headed the Antitrust Division from 2005 to 2008, having previously served in the Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement from 2004 to 2005. During his tenure, Mr. Barnett was involved in some of the largest and most complicated criminal matters in the Division’s history, including investigations and prosecutions that involved coordination with multiple competition authorities in other jurisdictions. In the merger area, Mr. Barnett oversaw the review of all mergers investigated by the Division and supervised more than 30 cases filed in federal district court. He also oversaw an active competition advocacy program that included numerousamicusbriefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on antitrust issues and comments to a wide range of federal and state agencies. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court asamicuson behalf of the United States inBell Atlantic Corp. v. Twomblyand testified several times before Congressional committees.
While at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Barnett worked with international antitrust authorities throughout the world and served in leadership positions in key international competition organizations, such as chairing the Working Party on International Cooperation and Enforcement of the OECD Competition Committee and serving on the Steering Committee of the International Competition Network.
Mr. Barnett received the Edmund Randolph Award, the U.S. Department of Justice’s highest honor, for his service in the Division.
Prior to 2004, Mr. Barnett was a leader in the firm’s Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He counseled Fortune 500 companies on all aspects of antitrust law and was involved in mergers and acquisitions, government antitrust investigations, and antitrust litigation involving a wide range of industries. He served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course on antitrust and intellectual property issues in sports in 2001 and 2003, and as a co-teacher of an advanced antitrust seminar at the University of Virginia Law School multiple times between 1991 and 2004.
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
Of Counsel, Latham & Watkins LLP
J. Thomas Rosch, former Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission from 2006-2013, is nationally regarded as one of the preeminent practitioners in the areas of antitrust and trade regulation law. He has been lead counsel in more than 100 federal and state court antitrust cases and brings 40 years of expertise to Latham’s Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group.
Mr. Rosch returned to Latham after completing his term as a Commissioner of the FTC. While at the FTC, he played a key role in revitalizing the Commission’s litigation efforts, particularly in relation to merger enforcement. Prior to joining the FTC, Mr. Rosch served as the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection director from 1973 to 1975, and was a member of the Special Committee to Study the Role of the FTC in 1989.
During his prior tenure at Latham, Mr. Rosch was the former managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office and was a partner in the Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. He successfully tried leading antitrust cases for a wide range of clients and won summary judgments for major corporations in the automobile, freight, pharmaceutical, publishing, and consumer electronics industries, among others.
In 2003, Mr. Rosch was honored as Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the California State Bar Antitrust Section. He has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers for more than 20 years and has been the Chair of both the California Bar Association and American Bar Association’s Antitrust Sections.
U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Judge Williams practiced law in New York City (at the firm of Debevoise Plimpton and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney) and then taught law at the University of Colorado Law School from 1969 to 1986, with visiting years at UCLA, SMU, and the University of Chicago (where he was also a fellow in law and economics). He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1986. His most recent book is a biography of Vasily Maklakov, The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution (Encounter Books, 2017).
Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
John F. Duffy is the Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Class of 1966 Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches administrative law, torts and intellectual property. Professor Duffy has published articles on a wide range of administrative law and regulatory issues in journals such as University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Supreme Court Review. His 1998 article Administrative Common Law in Judicial Review, 77 Tex. L. Rev. 113 (1998), was one of the first articles to criticize the Chevron doctrine as being irreconcilable with § 706 of the APA; it won the American Bar Association’s Scholarship Award in Administrative Law. His 2008 article “Are Administrative Patent Judges Unconstitutional?” was covered on National Public Radio), in the New York Times (Adam Liptak, In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges, May 6, 2008), and in the Wall Street Journal (Dan Slater, Patently Unconstitutional, May 6, 2008). The NYT and WSJ agreed that he was “a different kind of law professor,” “one of the lucky few” whose “writings actually wind up changing the law.”
As an attorney in the courts, Duffy has twice successfully convinced the Supreme Court to overturn lower court doctrines that had been applied in many cases over decades but that were unanimously held to be irreconcilable with Supreme Court precedents. See TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, 581 U.S. 258 (2017); KSR v. Teleflex, 550 U.S. 398 (2007).
Prior to entering legal academics, Duffy clerked on the D.C. Circuit for Stephen Williams and on the Supreme Court for Antonin Scalia. While clerking, he became known as Justice Scalia’s “hapless law clerk,” who had been tasked with unearthing three-quarters of a century of legislative history that made “no difference” to the outcome in an otherwise forgettable case. See Conroy v. Aniskoff, 507 U.S. 511, 527-28 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment).
In earlier days, Duffy enjoyed being a professional blackjack player unwelcome in all Atlantic City casinos and a semi-professional road runner (best marathon time 2:24:33). He holds an A.B. in physics from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
Joshua D. Sarnoff is a professor of law at DePaul University and a faculty member in and former director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT®). He teaches patent law, advanced patent law, administrative law, law and climate change, and other intellectual property law courses. He was previously a professor at the Washington College of Law, American University, in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, and at the University of Arizona College of Law. In academic year 2014-2015, Professor Sarnoff was a Thomas A. Edison Distinguished Scholar at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is a registered patent attorney and a member of the bars of Washington D.C. and California, a former member of the board of governors of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, and a member of the boards of directors and advisory boards of various nonprofit organizations. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on patent law and climate change and has been involved in a wide range of intellectual property legal and policy disputes. He has submitted testimony on domestic patent law reform bills, has filed numerous amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on important patent law issues, has been a pro bono mediator for the Federal Circuit, and has been a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on international intellectual property, trade and environmental issues. Professor Sarnoff was formerly in the private practice of intellectual property, environmental, and food and drug law in Washington, D.C. He received his BS from MIT and JD from Stanford.
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.
Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
John F. Duffy is the Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Class of 1966 Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches administrative law, torts and intellectual property. Professor Duffy has published articles on a wide range of administrative law and regulatory issues in journals such as University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Supreme Court Review. His 1998 article Administrative Common Law in Judicial Review, 77 Tex. L. Rev. 113 (1998), was one of the first articles to criticize the Chevron doctrine as being irreconcilable with § 706 of the APA; it won the American Bar Association’s Scholarship Award in Administrative Law. His 2008 article “Are Administrative Patent Judges Unconstitutional?” was covered on National Public Radio), in the New York Times (Adam Liptak, In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges, May 6, 2008), and in the Wall Street Journal (Dan Slater, Patently Unconstitutional, May 6, 2008). The NYT and WSJ agreed that he was “a different kind of law professor,” “one of the lucky few” whose “writings actually wind up changing the law.”
As an attorney in the courts, Duffy has twice successfully convinced the Supreme Court to overturn lower court doctrines that had been applied in many cases over decades but that were unanimously held to be irreconcilable with Supreme Court precedents. See TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, 581 U.S. 258 (2017); KSR v. Teleflex, 550 U.S. 398 (2007).
Prior to entering legal academics, Duffy clerked on the D.C. Circuit for Stephen Williams and on the Supreme Court for Antonin Scalia. While clerking, he became known as Justice Scalia’s “hapless law clerk,” who had been tasked with unearthing three-quarters of a century of legislative history that made “no difference” to the outcome in an otherwise forgettable case. See Conroy v. Aniskoff, 507 U.S. 511, 527-28 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment).
In earlier days, Duffy enjoyed being a professional blackjack player unwelcome in all Atlantic City casinos and a semi-professional road runner (best marathon time 2:24:33). He holds an A.B. in physics from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
Joshua D. Sarnoff is a professor of law at DePaul University and a faculty member in and former director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT®). He teaches patent law, advanced patent law, administrative law, law and climate change, and other intellectual property law courses. He was previously a professor at the Washington College of Law, American University, in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, and at the University of Arizona College of Law. In academic year 2014-2015, Professor Sarnoff was a Thomas A. Edison Distinguished Scholar at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is a registered patent attorney and a member of the bars of Washington D.C. and California, a former member of the board of governors of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, and a member of the boards of directors and advisory boards of various nonprofit organizations. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on patent law and climate change and has been involved in a wide range of intellectual property legal and policy disputes. He has submitted testimony on domestic patent law reform bills, has filed numerous amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on important patent law issues, has been a pro bono mediator for the Federal Circuit, and has been a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on international intellectual property, trade and environmental issues. Professor Sarnoff was formerly in the private practice of intellectual property, environmental, and food and drug law in Washington, D.C. He received his BS from MIT and JD from Stanford.
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, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Chief Counsel for Communications and Technology, Cmte. on Energy, U.S. House of Reps.
When Fried was in college, studying journalism at Northwestern University, he was working as a reporter at The Albuquerque Tribune. Mr. Fried went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis. Shortly after getting his J.D., he joined the Federal Communications Commission, where he helped implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He left after four years to work at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, succeeding an associate at the law firm who left to work. Mr. Fried moved to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2003. Mr. Fried, 42, is primarily responsible for advising members of Congress on internet, television, broadband, and spectrum policy, as well as oversight of the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Professor, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; and Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Professor Damien Geradin is a competition law and regulatory partner in the Brussels office of Covington & Brussels, a Washington, DC-based international law firm comprising 850 lawyers spread in nine locations. His practice focuses on complex competition and regulatory cases in the field of network industries (telecommunications, energy, postal services and transport), as well as in the high-tech sector. Damien also performs advocacy and public policy work for his clients.
Prior to joining Covington & Burling, Damien was a law professor at the University of Liège and the College of Europe, Bruges where he taught EU competition law and the law of network industries. He also held visiting Professorships at Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and at the Faculty of Law of Peking University. As an academic, Damien was involved as an expert witness in many regulatory and court proceedings, and international arbitration. Before becoming a law professor in 1998, Damien was an associate in the Brussels office of a large US law firm. In 1990-91, Damien also worked for a year as a legal adviser in the cabinet of the Belgian deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Justice.
Since joining Covington, Damien has continued to teach on a part-time basis at Tilburg University and at the College of Europe in Bruges. In January 2010, he was appointed William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School where he will teach an EU competition law class every year. Damien is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics published by Oxford University Press. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 17 books, including recently Global Antitrust Law & Economics (with Prof. E. Elhauge of Harvard Law School) and author or co-author of more than 80 law review articles. Over the past ten years, Damien has delivered over 200 public presentations in more than 15 countries on various issues of EU competition law and economics, and regulatory issues.
Damien is listed as a competition, regulatory law expert in Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, GCR, Chambers and other legal guides. Damien is a non-governmental adviser (selected by the European Commission) and contributor to the ICN’s committee on single-firm conduct.
Damien graduated obtained a law degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Liège in 1989, a LLM from King’s College London in 1990 and a PhD in law from Cambridge University in 1995. In 1997-98, Damien was a Fulbright scholar and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School.
President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Gigi Sohn is an internationally known communications attorney. In September 2001, she founded Public Knowledge with Laurie Racine (then President of the Center for the Public Domain) and activist/author David Bollier.
Gigi serves as PK's chief strategist, fundraiser and public face. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has been published in the Washington Post, Variety, CNET and Legal Times. In addition, she has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including the Today Show, The McNeil-Lehrer Report, C-SPAN's Washington Journal and National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition.
Gigi is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Graduate Studies Program in Australia. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
Gigi served as a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture unit and as Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm that represents citizens' rights before the FCC and the courts. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. In May 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Gigi its Internet "Pioneer" Award.
Gigi currently serves on the board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) and Broadcasters' Child Development Center (BCDC). She is a member of the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition and the Center for Public Integrity's "Well Connected" Telecommunications Project. Gigi served on the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors from 1997-2000.
Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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.
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Chief Counsel for Communications and Technology, Cmte. on Energy, U.S. House of Reps.
When Fried was in college, studying journalism at Northwestern University, he was working as a reporter at The Albuquerque Tribune. Mr. Fried went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis. Shortly after getting his J.D., he joined the Federal Communications Commission, where he helped implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He left after four years to work at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, succeeding an associate at the law firm who left to work. Mr. Fried moved to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2003. Mr. Fried, 42, is primarily responsible for advising members of Congress on internet, television, broadband, and spectrum policy, as well as oversight of the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Professor, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; and Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Professor Damien Geradin is a competition law and regulatory partner in the Brussels office of Covington & Brussels, a Washington, DC-based international law firm comprising 850 lawyers spread in nine locations. His practice focuses on complex competition and regulatory cases in the field of network industries (telecommunications, energy, postal services and transport), as well as in the high-tech sector. Damien also performs advocacy and public policy work for his clients.
Prior to joining Covington & Burling, Damien was a law professor at the University of Liège and the College of Europe, Bruges where he taught EU competition law and the law of network industries. He also held visiting Professorships at Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and at the Faculty of Law of Peking University. As an academic, Damien was involved as an expert witness in many regulatory and court proceedings, and international arbitration. Before becoming a law professor in 1998, Damien was an associate in the Brussels office of a large US law firm. In 1990-91, Damien also worked for a year as a legal adviser in the cabinet of the Belgian deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Justice.
Since joining Covington, Damien has continued to teach on a part-time basis at Tilburg University and at the College of Europe in Bruges. In January 2010, he was appointed William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School where he will teach an EU competition law class every year. Damien is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics published by Oxford University Press. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 17 books, including recently Global Antitrust Law & Economics (with Prof. E. Elhauge of Harvard Law School) and author or co-author of more than 80 law review articles. Over the past ten years, Damien has delivered over 200 public presentations in more than 15 countries on various issues of EU competition law and economics, and regulatory issues.
Damien is listed as a competition, regulatory law expert in Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, GCR, Chambers and other legal guides. Damien is a non-governmental adviser (selected by the European Commission) and contributor to the ICN’s committee on single-firm conduct.
Damien graduated obtained a law degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Liège in 1989, a LLM from King’s College London in 1990 and a PhD in law from Cambridge University in 1995. In 1997-98, Damien was a Fulbright scholar and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School.
President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Gigi Sohn is an internationally known communications attorney. In September 2001, she founded Public Knowledge with Laurie Racine (then President of the Center for the Public Domain) and activist/author David Bollier.
Gigi serves as PK's chief strategist, fundraiser and public face. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has been published in the Washington Post, Variety, CNET and Legal Times. In addition, she has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including the Today Show, The McNeil-Lehrer Report, C-SPAN's Washington Journal and National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition.
Gigi is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Graduate Studies Program in Australia. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
Gigi served as a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture unit and as Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm that represents citizens' rights before the FCC and the courts. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. In May 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Gigi its Internet "Pioneer" Award.
Gigi currently serves on the board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) and Broadcasters' Child Development Center (BCDC). She is a member of the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition and the Center for Public Integrity's "Well Connected" Telecommunications Project. Gigi served on the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors from 1997-2000.
Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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.
Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
John F. Duffy is the Samuel H. McCoy II Professor of Law and Class of 1966 Research Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he teaches administrative law, torts and intellectual property. Professor Duffy has published articles on a wide range of administrative law and regulatory issues in journals such as University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, Virginia Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, NYU Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Supreme Court Review. His 1998 article Administrative Common Law in Judicial Review, 77 Tex. L. Rev. 113 (1998), was one of the first articles to criticize the Chevron doctrine as being irreconcilable with § 706 of the APA; it won the American Bar Association’s Scholarship Award in Administrative Law. His 2008 article “Are Administrative Patent Judges Unconstitutional?” was covered on National Public Radio), in the New York Times (Adam Liptak, In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges, May 6, 2008), and in the Wall Street Journal (Dan Slater, Patently Unconstitutional, May 6, 2008). The NYT and WSJ agreed that he was “a different kind of law professor,” “one of the lucky few” whose “writings actually wind up changing the law.”
As an attorney in the courts, Duffy has twice successfully convinced the Supreme Court to overturn lower court doctrines that had been applied in many cases over decades but that were unanimously held to be irreconcilable with Supreme Court precedents. See TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods Group Brands, 581 U.S. 258 (2017); KSR v. Teleflex, 550 U.S. 398 (2007).
Prior to entering legal academics, Duffy clerked on the D.C. Circuit for Stephen Williams and on the Supreme Court for Antonin Scalia. While clerking, he became known as Justice Scalia’s “hapless law clerk,” who had been tasked with unearthing three-quarters of a century of legislative history that made “no difference” to the outcome in an otherwise forgettable case. See Conroy v. Aniskoff, 507 U.S. 511, 527-28 (1993) (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment).
In earlier days, Duffy enjoyed being a professional blackjack player unwelcome in all Atlantic City casinos and a semi-professional road runner (best marathon time 2:24:33). He holds an A.B. in physics from Harvard and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York University School of Law; Director, Classical Liberal Institute, Civitas Institute University of Texas at Austin
Richard A. Epstein is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law, at New York University, a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas Austin, and a senior Lecturer, the University of Chicago. He received an LL.D., h.c . from the University of Ghent, 2003 , and an LLD h.c . from the University of Siegen in 2018 and the Bradley Prize in 2011. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1985. He has edited both the Journal of Legal Studies (1981-1991) and the Journal of Law and Economics (1991-2001). He is also a founder and director of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU Law School. His most recent book is The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government (2014). His other books include Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain ( 1985); Bargaining with the State (1993); Simple Rules for a Complex World (1995); Principles for a Free Society: Reconciling Individual Liberty and the Common Good (1998); Skepticism and Freedom: A Modern Theory of Classical Liberalism (2003); Design for Liberty: Private Property, Public Administration and the Rule of Law (2011), and most recently, The Myth of Birthright citizenship—and Beyond (2026). He has taught courses in , administrative law, antitrust, constitutional, contracts, environmental law, land use planning; real property, torts and water law. He has written and spoken extensively on a wide range of topics, and is writes a regular column for Defining Ideas.
Senior Judge, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
Circuit Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in 1986. After receiving his B.S. from Cornell University in 1970, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1973, he clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Thurgood Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. Thereafter, Judge Ginsburg was a professor at the Harvard Law School, the Deputy Assistant and then Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget. Concurrent with his service as a federal judge, Judge Ginsburg has taught at the University of Chicago Law School and the New York University School of Law. Judge Ginsburg is currently a Professor of Law at the George Mason University and a visiting professor at University College London, Faculty of Laws.
Judge Ginsburg is the Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Global Antitrust Institute at the Law and Economics Center of the George Mason University School of Law. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of: Competition Policy International; the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; the Journal of Competition Law and Economics; the Journal of Law, Economics & Policy; the Supreme Court Economic Review; the University of Chicago Law Review; the New York University Journal of Law and Liberty; and, at University College London, both the Centre for Law, Economics and Society and the Jevons Institute for Competition Law and Economics.
In 2020, Judge Ginsburg was the 11th recipient of the John Sherman Award, presented by the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in recognition of the awardee’s Lifetime Contributions to Antitrust Law and Policy.
In 2014, Judge Ginsburg received the Lifetime Achievement Award given annually by the Global Competition Review.
He is the author or co-author of several books and more than 100 articles on competition and regulation, including, most recently, Growing Convergence: The Limited Role of Antitrust in Standard Essential Patent Disputes, in CPI Antitrust Chronicle, Summer 2021, Vol. 1, No. 2.
Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
Joshua D. Sarnoff is a professor of law at DePaul University and a faculty member in and former director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law & Information Technology (CIPLIT®). He teaches patent law, advanced patent law, administrative law, law and climate change, and other intellectual property law courses. He was previously a professor at the Washington College of Law, American University, in the Glushko-Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic, and at the University of Arizona College of Law. In academic year 2014-2015, Professor Sarnoff was a Thomas A. Edison Distinguished Scholar at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is a registered patent attorney and a member of the bars of Washington D.C. and California, a former member of the board of governors of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, and a member of the boards of directors and advisory boards of various nonprofit organizations. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on patent law and climate change and has been involved in a wide range of intellectual property legal and policy disputes. He has submitted testimony on domestic patent law reform bills, has filed numerous amicus briefs in the United States Supreme Court and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on important patent law issues, has been a pro bono mediator for the Federal Circuit, and has been a consultant to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on international intellectual property, trade and environmental issues. Professor Sarnoff was formerly in the private practice of intellectual property, environmental, and food and drug law in Washington, D.C. He received his BS from MIT and JD from Stanford.
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.
Principal, Law Offices of David Balto and Health Policy Program, New America Foundation
David Balto is one of the leading experts on healthcare competition and regulation and is an antitrust attorney with over a quarter century of experience in both the private and public sectors. He is a prolific writer and speaker on antitrust, consumer protection, and health care policy.
Mr. Balto has over 15 years of government antitrust experience as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice and in several senior level positions at the Federal Trade Commission during the Clinton Administration, including Policy Director of the Bureau of Competition (1998-2001) and attorney advisor to Chairman Robert Pitofsky (1995-1997). In these positions, he was a senior advisor in all aspects of the FTC's merger and non-merger enforcement program, helping to litigate the challenges to the Staples/Office Depot, Drug Wholesalers, and Heinz/Beechnut mergers.
Mr. Balto also helped guide many of the FTC's seminal pharmaceutical and healthcare enforcement efforts, identifying and helping litigate major cases such as the challenges to patent settlement agreements, hospital mergers, and other exclusionary conduct. He was an advisor in many of the FTC's pharmaceutical merger enforcement cases, including Glaxo/Smithkline, Merck/Medco, Lilly/PCS and Ciba/Sandoz, and was instrumental in bringing some of the first enforcement actions against pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). He was also an author of the 1996 DOJ/FTC healthcare antitrust enforcement guidelines, and served as a liaison on competition issues to the Food and Drug Administration and Congress, advising several Committees on pharmaceutical competition and Hatch-Waxman reform.
Since his transition to private practice, Balto has testified before Congress and state legislatures numerous times on healthcare competition issues and the competitive concerns in health insurance and pharmacy benefit management markets. He has authored studies on health care concentration (sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and healthcare transparency. He frequently represents hospitals, pharmacies and other healthcare providers in antitrust matters before the DOJ and the FTC.
Mr. Balto received his B.A. from the University of Minnesota, and his J.D. from the Northeastern University School of Law.
Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Thomas Barnett is a partner in the Washington, DC office and co-chair of the firm's Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He specializes in global antitrust and competition law practice and works closely with the firm’s white collar practice on criminal antitrust enforcement and investigative matters.
Mr. Barnett recently served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. He headed the Antitrust Division from 2005 to 2008, having previously served in the Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Enforcement from 2004 to 2005. During his tenure, Mr. Barnett was involved in some of the largest and most complicated criminal matters in the Division’s history, including investigations and prosecutions that involved coordination with multiple competition authorities in other jurisdictions. In the merger area, Mr. Barnett oversaw the review of all mergers investigated by the Division and supervised more than 30 cases filed in federal district court. He also oversaw an active competition advocacy program that included numerousamicusbriefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on antitrust issues and comments to a wide range of federal and state agencies. He argued before the U.S. Supreme Court asamicuson behalf of the United States inBell Atlantic Corp. v. Twomblyand testified several times before Congressional committees.
While at the Antitrust Division, Mr. Barnett worked with international antitrust authorities throughout the world and served in leadership positions in key international competition organizations, such as chairing the Working Party on International Cooperation and Enforcement of the OECD Competition Committee and serving on the Steering Committee of the International Competition Network.
Mr. Barnett received the Edmund Randolph Award, the U.S. Department of Justice’s highest honor, for his service in the Division.
Prior to 2004, Mr. Barnett was a leader in the firm’s Antitrust & Consumer Law Practice Group. He counseled Fortune 500 companies on all aspects of antitrust law and was involved in mergers and acquisitions, government antitrust investigations, and antitrust litigation involving a wide range of industries. He served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching a course on antitrust and intellectual property issues in sports in 2001 and 2003, and as a co-teacher of an advanced antitrust seminar at the University of Virginia Law School multiple times between 1991 and 2004.
Stevenson Bernard Professor, George Washington University Law School
The Honorable F. Scott Kieff is the Stevenson Bernard Professor at George Washington University Law School and a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.
He served as Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2013-2017. He also served during the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations in the part-time leadership of the national security defense-intelligence community.
He was previously a professor of law and medicine at Washington University in Saint Louis and a Senior Fellow at Hoover. A former law clerk to U.S. Circuit Judge Giles S. Rich, he is a graduate of Penn Law School and MIT, where he studied molecular biology and microeconomics. He was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in 2012 and the Academia Europaea in 2024.
His private sector work through Kieff Strategies LLC (www.kieffstrategies.com) provides neutral services including mediation and compliance, and expert services including crisis management, advising, and testimony.
Partner, Antitrust and Competition, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Maureen Ohlhausen is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she advises industry-leading clients on complex antitrust and litigation matters, with a focus on high-profile cases. Sought after for her depth of experience on antitrust and Federal Trade Commission (FTC)-related issues, Maureen is known for her relationships with officials in the U.S. and abroad.
After finishing law school and clerking at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Maureen joined the FTC in 1997. She held a series of roles at the agency over the next 12 years, rising to the position of Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning, where she led the agency’s work on e-commerce and headed the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force, which produced an influential report analyzing competition and consumer protection legal issues in the broadband and internet sectors. She then went into private practice at a leading telecommunications law firm, where she headed the FTC practice group.
In 2012, Maureen was confirmed by the Senate as a Commissioner of the FTC and was appointed Acting Chairman in January 2017, a role she held until May 2018. As Acting Chairman, Maureen directed all aspects of the agency’s antitrust work, including merger review, conduct enforcement, and all consumer protection enforcement, with an emphasis on privacy and technology issues. Under her leadership, the FTC won several influential merger challenges in court and reached a number of key digital privacy settlements.
To date, Maureen is the only FTC Commissioner to have received the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her contributions to the FTC.
Following the end of her term at the FTC, and immediately prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Maureen was chair of the global antitrust and competition practice at Baker Botts, based in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
A recognized thought leader, Maureen is a frequent author and speaker, and is often quoted by leading print and broadcast media on antitrust, FTC, and privacy and data security matters. She has published dozens of articles on antitrust, privacy, intellectual property, regulation, FTC litigation, telecommunications, and international law issues in prestigious publications. During her tenure at the FTC and in private practice, she testified more than two dozen times before Congress, including before the Senate Commerce Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Antitrust Sub-Committee. She also testified before the Antitrust Modernization Commission.
Of Counsel, Latham & Watkins LLP
J. Thomas Rosch, former Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission from 2006-2013, is nationally regarded as one of the preeminent practitioners in the areas of antitrust and trade regulation law. He has been lead counsel in more than 100 federal and state court antitrust cases and brings 40 years of expertise to Latham’s Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group.
Mr. Rosch returned to Latham after completing his term as a Commissioner of the FTC. While at the FTC, he played a key role in revitalizing the Commission’s litigation efforts, particularly in relation to merger enforcement. Prior to joining the FTC, Mr. Rosch served as the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection director from 1973 to 1975, and was a member of the Special Committee to Study the Role of the FTC in 1989.
During his prior tenure at Latham, Mr. Rosch was the former managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office and was a partner in the Global Antitrust and Competition Practice Group. He successfully tried leading antitrust cases for a wide range of clients and won summary judgments for major corporations in the automobile, freight, pharmaceutical, publishing, and consumer electronics industries, among others.
In 2003, Mr. Rosch was honored as Antitrust Lawyer of the Year by the California State Bar Antitrust Section. He has been a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers for more than 20 years and has been the Chair of both the California Bar Association and American Bar Association’s Antitrust Sections.
U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit
Judge Williams practiced law in New York City (at the firm of Debevoise Plimpton and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney) and then taught law at the University of Colorado Law School from 1969 to 1986, with visiting years at UCLA, SMU, and the University of Chicago (where he was also a fellow in law and economics). He was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 1986. His most recent book is a biography of Vasily Maklakov, The Reformer: How One Liberal Fought to Preempt the Russian Revolution (Encounter Books, 2017).
President, Cass & Associates, PC
Ronald A. Cass is Dean Emeritus of Boston University School of Law (where he was Dean from 1990-2004), President of Cass & Associates, PC, former Vice-Chairman and Commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission, former faculty member at Boston University School of Law and the University of Virginia Law School, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State. Dean Cass also sits as an arbitrator for commercial, international, and intellectual property rights disputes, and is a former United States member of the Panel of Conciliators of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. He is a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States and has received seven presidential appointments, spanning Presidents Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump.
As a law professor, lecturer, and scholar, Dean Cass has been teaching and writing about a wide array of legal issues on topics such as administrative law and regulation, antitrust, constitutional law, communications, intellectual property, international trade, separation of powers, and legal process. He has published more than 160 scholarly books, chapters, articles, and papers, including a leading casebook on administrative law. Dean Cass has taught judges as well as students in schools of law, economics, business, and public policy and has held academic appointments in the United States, Europe, and Latin America.
In addition to his academic work, Dean Cass has participated in numerous important legal cases as an amicus, consultant, or expert, and has advised businesses, law firms, investment funds, and government agencies on a range of trade, antitrust, intellectual property, and regulatory issues. He has a broad range of affiliations with professional groups, and has received numerous honors, fellowships and awards.
Dean Cass is a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Chicago Law School.
Chief Counsel for Communications and Technology, Cmte. on Energy, U.S. House of Reps.
When Fried was in college, studying journalism at Northwestern University, he was working as a reporter at The Albuquerque Tribune. Mr. Fried went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis. Shortly after getting his J.D., he joined the Federal Communications Commission, where he helped implement the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He left after four years to work at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand, succeeding an associate at the law firm who left to work. Mr. Fried moved to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2003. Mr. Fried, 42, is primarily responsible for advising members of Congress on internet, television, broadband, and spectrum policy, as well as oversight of the FCC and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Professor, Tilburg University, The Netherlands; and Partner, Covington & Burling LLP
Professor Damien Geradin is a competition law and regulatory partner in the Brussels office of Covington & Brussels, a Washington, DC-based international law firm comprising 850 lawyers spread in nine locations. His practice focuses on complex competition and regulatory cases in the field of network industries (telecommunications, energy, postal services and transport), as well as in the high-tech sector. Damien also performs advocacy and public policy work for his clients.
Prior to joining Covington & Burling, Damien was a law professor at the University of Liège and the College of Europe, Bruges where he taught EU competition law and the law of network industries. He also held visiting Professorships at Columbia Law School, Harvard Law School, the University of Michigan Law School, and at the Faculty of Law of Peking University. As an academic, Damien was involved as an expert witness in many regulatory and court proceedings, and international arbitration. Before becoming a law professor in 1998, Damien was an associate in the Brussels office of a large US law firm. In 1990-91, Damien also worked for a year as a legal adviser in the cabinet of the Belgian deputy-Prime Minister and Minister of Justice.
Since joining Covington, Damien has continued to teach on a part-time basis at Tilburg University and at the College of Europe in Bruges. In January 2010, he was appointed William W. Cook Global Law Professor at the University of Michigan Law School where he will teach an EU competition law class every year. Damien is the co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Competition Law & Economics published by Oxford University Press. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 17 books, including recently Global Antitrust Law & Economics (with Prof. E. Elhauge of Harvard Law School) and author or co-author of more than 80 law review articles. Over the past ten years, Damien has delivered over 200 public presentations in more than 15 countries on various issues of EU competition law and economics, and regulatory issues.
Damien is listed as a competition, regulatory law expert in Legal 500, Who’s Who Legal, GCR, Chambers and other legal guides. Damien is a non-governmental adviser (selected by the European Commission) and contributor to the ICN’s committee on single-firm conduct.
Damien graduated obtained a law degree (magna cum laude) from the University of Liège in 1989, a LLM from King’s College London in 1990 and a PhD in law from Cambridge University in 1995. In 1997-98, Damien was a Fulbright scholar and a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School.
President and Co-Founder, Public Knowledge
Gigi Sohn is an internationally known communications attorney. In September 2001, she founded Public Knowledge with Laurie Racine (then President of the Center for the Public Domain) and activist/author David Bollier.
Gigi serves as PK's chief strategist, fundraiser and public face. She is frequently quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal, as well as in trade and local press. Gigi has been published in the Washington Post, Variety, CNET and Legal Times. In addition, she has appeared on numerous television and radio programs, including the Today Show, The McNeil-Lehrer Report, C-SPAN's Washington Journal and National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition.
Gigi is a Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado and a Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Graduate Studies Program in Australia. She has been a Non-Resident Fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center, and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University.
Gigi served as a Project Specialist in the Ford Foundation's Media, Arts and Culture unit and as Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a public interest law firm that represents citizens' rights before the FCC and the courts. In 1997, President Clinton appointed Gigi to serve as a member of his Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters. In May 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation gave Gigi its Internet "Pioneer" Award.
Gigi currently serves on the board of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) and Broadcasters' Child Development Center (BCDC). She is a member of the advisory board of the Future of Music Coalition and the Center for Public Integrity's "Well Connected" Telecommunications Project. Gigi served on the District of Columbia Bar Board of Governors from 1997-2000.
Gigi holds a B.S. in Broadcasting and Film, Summa Cum Laude, from the Boston University College of Communication and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
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.
Corporations: 'New' Antitrust Enforcement Authority under the FTC Act: Defensible Statutory Interpretation or Plumbing the Penumbras?
David Balto, Thomas O. Barnett, F. Scott Kieff, Maureen K. Ohlhausen, Thomas Rosch, Stephen F. Williams
Is the antitrust enforcement authority of the Federal Trade Commission, proceeding under the FTC Act,...
Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property, Free Markets and Competition Policy
John F. Duffy, Richard A. Epstein, Douglas H. Ginsburg, Joshua Sarnoff, Joshua D. Wright
Are intellectual property rights compatible with free, competitive markets? This question has long been a...
Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property, Free Markets and Competition Policy
John F. Duffy, Richard A. Epstein, Douglas H. Ginsburg, Joshua Sarnoff, Joshua D. Wright
Are intellectual property rights compatible with free, competitive markets? This question has long been a...
Intellectual Property: Intellectual Property, Free Markets and Competition Policy
2013 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCCorporations: 'New' Antitrust Enforcement Authority under the FTC Act: Defensible Statutory Interpretation or Plumbing the Penumbras?
2013 National Lawyers Convention
Washington, DCNet Neutrality vs. Net Reality: Why an Evidence-Based Approach to Enforcement, And Not More Regulation, Could Protect Innovation on the Web
Maureen K. Ohlhausen
Related Links: Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Hearing on “Network Neutrality” (testimony of...
Antitrust and High-tech: Regulatory Risks for Innovation and Competition
Ronald A. Cass
I. Target Selection in an Innovation Economy A. Regulatory Power, Regulations’ Problems, and Antitrust While...
Is Government a Friend or Foe of Innovation?
Ronald A. Cass, Neil Fried, Damien Geradin, Gigi B. Sohn, Joshua D. Wright
On June 11, 2013, the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Project held its First Annual...
Is Government a Friend or Foe of Innovation?
Ronald A. Cass, Neil Fried, Damien Geradin, Gigi B. Sohn, Joshua D. Wright
On June 11, 2013, the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Project held its First Annual...
Is Government a Friend or Foe of Innovation?
First Annual Executive Branch Review Conference
Washington, DC