Executive Director, Consumers’ Research
Will Hild is the Executive Director of Consumers’ Research. Will has a decade of non-profit, legal and public policy experience. Prior to joining CR, Will served as the Deputy Director of the Regulatory Transparency Project. Before that, he worked at the Philanthropy Roundtable as the Director of External Affairs for the Culture of Freedom Initiative, and as the Chief Operating Officer of that Initiative when it grew to become a separate organization. He helped co-found the public interest law firm, Cause of Action, and served as the firm’s acting communications director for nearly a year.
Will received his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida. He is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Will resides in Bethesda, MD, with his wife Cheryl, a practicing OB/GYN, and their son Liam.
Partner, Fusion Law, PLLC
Paul is the founding partner of Fusion Law, PLLC. He has extensive experience with state, federal, and global regulators building coalitions and implementing policies to promote innovation in financial services. He is responsible for designing and implementing the first state (Arizona) and federal (CFPB) FinTech sandboxes in the United States. He also designed the CFPB no-action letter and trial disclosure policies. He helped found the first global regulatory innovation coalition (Global Financial Innovation Network) and led the founding of the first U.S. regulatory innovation coalition (American Consumer Financial Innovation Network). He served on the Financial Stability Oversight Council subcommittee on digital assets. He also has drafted state-level laws on blockchain and utility tokens.
Paul also has significant enforcement and litigation experience. He led many multi-state consumer protection enforcement matters as Civil Litigation Division Chief at the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
Prior to his government service, Paul practiced law in the areas of securities litigation and transactional work for approximately six years at two well-known law firms. He also clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
First Assistant Attorney General, Texas
Brent Webster was appointed by Ken Paxton to be First Assistant Attorney General in 2020. As second in command to Ken Paxton, Brent’s job is to implement Paxton’s policy and litigation initiatives and manage the day-to-day operation of the Office of the Attorney General, which employs approximately 4200 Texans.
Since his appointment in October 2020, Brent has led a multi-pronged initiative at Ken Paxton’s request to (1) serve as the primary check on the federal governments overreach, (2) ensure that Texas is deterring wrongful conduct in the state through civil enforcement mechanisms, and (3) instill a trial-focused, litigation-first mentality across the agency to foster better results for Texas when involved in litigation. Brent has led Ken Paxton’s litigation against the federal government in 106 lawsuits, with a staggering win rate above 75%, he has doubled the average annual recovery through civil enforcement, amounting to over $426 million dollars in his first fiscal year and $548 million in his second fiscal year, and he has led an agency-wide initiative to empower OAG lawyers to aggressively pursue the State’s interests in court, whether against liberal municipalities, rogue school districts, or anyone else who violates the law in Texas. Most recently, Brent was the lead negotiator at mediation for the historic 1.4-billion-dollar settlement against Meta for the State of Texas.
Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Webster served in a variety of leadership roles including First Assistant District Attorney in Williamson County, Texas, Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel at an Austin start-up, and Senior Counsel at a litigation law firm. While serving as a Criminal Prosecutor for 10 years in Williamson he was awarded the “Crime Victim Advocate Hall of Fame Award” for outstanding service to crime victims.
Webster received his undergraduate education at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas graduating in 2003, and received his legal education at University of Houston Law Center in 2005. He is licensed to practice law by the state of Texas and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the federal district courts in the Western, Southern, and Northern districts of Texas.
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.
Partner in the Antitrust & Competition Practice Group, Sheppard Mullin
John’s practice focuses on civil and criminal antitrust matters, including mergers & acquisitions, strategic counseling and compliance, and global cartel investigations, where he represents clients before the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission, and international and state antitrust enforcement authorities.
Prior to private practice, John was in the Mergers I Division of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition for several years. While with the FTC, he investigated, challenged, and negotiated settlements in a number of potentially anti-competitive business combinations in the aerospace, technology, consumer products, defense, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industries and received an Award for Meritorious Service for work on merger litigation.
John frequently speaks and writes on antitrust issues. He was the lead editor on the American Bar Association, Section of Antitrust Law’s Energy Antitrust Handbook, and has held leadership positions in that organization.
Partner, Boies Schiller Flexner LLP
Rich’s primary practice area is complex litigation, with a particular emphasis on antitrust matters. He frequently represents plaintiffs and defendants in private litigation, in addition to representing parties and third parties in the context of DOJ, FTC, and State Attorney General investigations and litigation. He also advises clients regarding transactions—both their own and those of others—including mergers or acquisitions that may be subject to review by federal, state, or international antitrust authorities. His experience includes both criminal and civil antitrust jury trials, and he is relied upon by clients for clear and practical guidance shaped by years of experience in antitrust enforcement and private practice.
Rich rejoined the firm in December 2013 after serving for four years as the Director of the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission. He directed the FTC’s antitrust enforcement activity during a period when approximately 80 enforcement actions were initiated in a wide variety of industries. Major matters included, among others, two victories in the Supreme Court (involving pay-for-delay and state action), successful challenges to hospital mergers, and Intel and Google consent orders. He also participated directly in drafting and implementing the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines.
Prior to serving as Bureau Director, Rich was a partner in the firm’s Washington D.C. office from 2001 to 2009. From October 1998 to June 2001, he served as an Assistant Director of the Bureau of Competition, in charge of the Health Care Services and Products Division. The work of that Division focused on antitrust enforcement in the health care industry, including anticompetitive practices and mergers involving health care providers, and anticompetitive conduct in the pharmaceutical industry.
Before initially entering private practice in 1985, Rich worked as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and also served as Acting Deputy Director of the Division’s Office of Policy Planning and as Acting Assistant Chief of the Division’s Energy Section.
Research Manager, American Economic Liberties Project
Laurel manages AELP’s team of policy analysts and coordinates with expert advisors and fellows to develop original research and policy briefs. An experienced attorney, she also frequently writes and speaks about high profile court cases that impact the economic liberties of the American people.
In private practice, Laurel represented firms of all sizes– from startups to Fortune 500 companies– spanning a wide variety of industries, from software to generic pharmaceuticals to semiconductors. At Comar Mollé LLP, a boutique firm that specializes in serving startups and investors, she provided strategic counseling on employment, privacy, and transactional matters. At Goodwin Procter LLP, a global biglaw firm, she litigated high stakes patent and complex commercial disputes and counseled clients on technology transactions.
Before joining AELP, Laurel researched competition policy issues for the Balanced Economy Project in Europe. Earlier in her career, she analyzed legislation promoting access to essential medicines at the World Health Organization, coordinated patent law training workshops for Vietnamese research institutions through the Public Intellectual Property Resource for Agriculture, and developed public outreach materials for the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has also developed and taught courses on topics ranging from legal practice skills to emerging policy issues.
Partner, Global Chair, Antitrust and Competition, Fried Frank
Bernard A. Nigro Jr. (“Barry”) is Global Chair of Fried Frank's Antitrust and Competition Department. Barry previously served as the Department of Justice’s Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust and the Federal Trade Commission’s Deputy Director for the Bureau of Competition.
During his almost 40 years of practice and government service, Barry has handled hundreds of civil and criminal matters in dozens of industries ranging from concrete to high tech and everything in between. For example, Barry has been involved in some of the largest M&A transactions during the past decade, served as the antitrust compliance monitor in United States v. Apple Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2013), worked on a variety of cartel matters, and counseled on complex compliance and litigation matters. While in government, Barry supported the rollout of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, an initiative to modernize the merger review process, and revisions to the merger guidelines and remedies policies.
Barry is recognized as a leader by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, a “Leading Lawyer” by Legal 500 in Antitrust: Merger Control, and a “Global Leader” by Who’s Who Legal: Competition. Clients say "Barry is very adept at getting deals across the finish lines. He knows the inside game very well," “he is a skilled and knowledgeable antitrust lawyer with a very practical approach,” and “knows how to marry business and antitrust.” Other clients describe him as “the rare combination of DOJ and FTC expertise that is invaluable to clients who need to understand the agencies’ latest thinking” and note that “his decades of experience generally, and recent experience as the number-two lawyer in the Antitrust Division, make him a knowledgeable and skilled counselor on a broad array of government enforcement matters.” Clients say he is “fabulous” and “figures out quickly what’s important and focuses energies there.” Clients also report that “[n]o one compares to Barry Nigro in terms of goodwill” and note his “years of experience make his counsel and perspective, particularly seeing what is coming down the road, exceptional.”
Barry’s commitment to public service includes having served as Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Antitrust Law (numbering over 10,000 members from across the globe), President of the George Washington University Law Alumni Association, a member of the Executive Committee of Higher Achievement’s DC President’s Council, a member of St. Albans School’s Development Committee, a member of Bishop Ireton High School’s Campaign Leadership Committee, and a member of Georgetown University’s Class of 1982 Executive Committee, among many other roles.
Alexander Hamilton Professor of Business Law, George Washington University Law School
Barak Richman’s primary research interests include the economics of contracting, new institutional economics, antitrust, and healthcare policy. His work has been published in the Columbia Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Law and Social Inquiry, the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Health Affairs. In 2006, he co-edited with Clark Havighurst a symposium volume of Law and Contemporary Problems entitled "Who Pays? Who Benefits? Distributional Issues in Health Care,” and his book Stateless Commerce was published by Harvard University Press in 2017.
Professor Richman represented the NFL Coaches Association in an amicus curiae brief in American Needle v. The Nat’l Football League, which was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2010 and again in Brady v. The Nat’l Football League in 2011. His recent work challenging illegal practices by Rabbinical Associations was featured in the New York Times. And in 2020, he was a member of the Working Group on Platform Scale at Stanford University’s Program on Democracy and the Internet that proposed middleware as a solution to stem the economic and political power of dominant internet platforms.
Professor Richman is also a Senior Scholar at the Clinical Excellence Research Center at the Stanford University School of Medicine and is currently a special counsel for competition policy at the Department of Health and Human Services. He won Duke Law School's Blueprint Award in 2005 and was named Teacher of the Year in 2010. He has had visiting appointments at Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford.
Professor Richman has an AB, magna cum laude, from Brown University, a JD, magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied under Nobel Laureate in Economics Oliver Williamson. He served as a law clerk to Judge Bruce M. Selya of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and from 1994-1996 he handled international trade legislation as a staff member of the United States Senate Committee on Finance, then chaired by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The End of ESG Collusion? A Conversation on the Vanguard Case
Will Hild, Paul N. Watkins, Brent Webster
This week, investment fund manager The Vanguard Group committed to ending its ESG-driven investment initiatives, ceasing...
Time for a Checkup: Evaluating the Withdrawal of the Health Care Antitrust Guidelines
Adam Biegel, John D. Carroll, Richard A. Feinstein, Laurel Kilgour, Bernard A. Nigro, Barak D. Richman
In 1996, the FTC and DOJ issued Statements of Antitrust Enforcement Policy in Health Care. ...
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