Hovenkamp Appointed to ABA Task Force to Advise President on Antitrust Issues

This posting was written by Tobias J. Gillett, contributor to Antitrust Law Daily.

University of Iowa law professor Herbert Hovenkamp will advise President Obama on antitrust policy as part of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law’s Transition Report Task Force. The Task Force, like ABA Task Forces established in other areas of law, provides incoming presidents with the ABA’s positions on antitrust policy issues.

Hovenkamp—author of the landmark antitrust treatise Antitrust Law: An Analysis ofAntitrust Principles and Their Application (CCH Incorporated)—works with approximately 40 other Task Force members, mostly comprising antitrust scholars and lawyers. Douglas Melamed, General Counsel of Intel Corp., and Donald Klawiter, a partner in Sheppard Mullins’s Washington, D.C. office, co-chair the group. The Task Force seeks to promote innovation, stronger markets, and competitiveness.

Hovenkamp believes the Task Force’s report would have taken the same form regardless of the candidate elected in November, and that it will not demand many changes from the Obama Administration, although it may be more detailed than the Task Force’s 2008 report.

“I don’t think anything in the report will prompt Obama to change direction,” Hovenkamp observed. “Even the Republicans on the committee felt that not a lot of changes were needed, which is a credit to the current administration’s policies of the last four years.”

The report will be reviewed by the White House, and likely by the director of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. The Task Force’s 2008 report can be found here on the ABA website. 

Leibowitz, Pozen Discuss Year’s Highlights at ABA Spring Antitrust Meeting

This posting was written by Jeffrey May, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz and Sharis A. Pozen, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division, discussed the active enforcement agendas at their agencies at the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting on March 30 in Washington, D.C.


Acting Assistant Attorney General Pozen said that the Antitrust Division had an “amazing” year. With respect to criminal enforcement, she noted the recent conviction of AU Optronics Corporation of Taiwan, its U.S. subsidiary, and its former president and former executive vice president for conspiring to fix prices of thin-film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels.

On the civil enforcement side, Pozen mentioned two recent successes in the merger enforcement area. She called AT&T’s decision to abandon its proposed acquisition of T-Mobile USA Inc. in the face of a Justice Department challenge a “tremendous victory” and an example of federal/state cooperation. Pozen also noted a federal district decision enjoining H&R Block, Inc.’s proposed acquisition of 2SS Holdings, Inc.—the maker of “TaxACT” tax preparation software (2011-2 Trade Cases ¶77,678). She commended the decision, saying it read like a treatise. Other recommended reading, according to Pozen, is the competitive impact statement, explaining the consent decree resolving the government’s monopolization allegations against United Regional Health Care System of Wichita Falls (2011-2 Trade Cases ¶77,619).

The FTC continued to focus on the health care sector over the past year, the FTC chairman pointed out in his remarks. Leibowitz noted three hospital merger cases in litigation. First, he mentioned the Commission opinion requiring ProMedica Health System to divest rival St. Luke's Hospital in Toledo, Ohio. Second, he said that the FTC was waiting for a federal district court to rule on its request for a preliminary injunction to block OSF Healthcare System’s proposed acquisition of Rockford Health System, which would combine two of the three major hospital systems in Rockford, Illinois. Finally, the FTC chairman highlighted the U.S. Solicitor General’s Supreme Court petition questioning a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta (2011-2 Trade Cases ¶77,722), holding that the proposed combination of the only two hospitals in Albany, Georgia, was immune from an FTC antitrust attack under the state action doctrine.

Looking ahead, Pozen, who is resigning effective April 30, said that she hoped for a smooth transition to her successor. William Baer—the head of the antitrust group at the Washington, D.C. office of Arnold & Porter, LLP, and a former director of the FTC Bureau of Competition—was nominated to serve as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division on February 6. The nomination is pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

FTC Chairman Leibowitz said that top enforcement priorities going forward would focus on technology and health care issues, as well as “last dollar fraud,” such as deceptive foreclosure rescue and bogus credit repair schemes. In the technology area, Leibowitz said the FTC was involved in a number of open investigations that he could not discuss. The chairman also noted in his remarks that, with the recent Senate confirmation of Maureen Ohlhausen, the Commission would be operating with a full five-member team.

ABA Antitrust, Franchise Groups Announce New Officers

This posting was written by John W. Arden.

The American Bar Association has announced new officers for its Section of Antitrust Law and Forum on Franchising.

On August 10, Allan Van Fleet, a shareholder of Greenberg Traurig LLP, started a one-year term as chair of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law. Head of the firm’s litigation practice group in Houston, Van Fleet is also a member of Greenberg Traurig’s global antitrust litigation and competition law practice group.

In the official announcement, he pledged to maintain the quality of the section’s programming, publications, and public comments on competition and consumer protection topics.

Van Fleet has served in numerous leadership roles in the Section of Antitrust Law, including vice chair, committee officer responsible for oversight of 27 substantive committees, delegate to the ABA House of Delegates, and chair of committees on legal ethics and professional responsibility, business torts and unfair competition, and continuing legal education.

A graduate of Rice University and Columbia University School of Law, he has been active in the State Bar of Texas, as former director and current member of a committee to revise the state rules of professional conduct for lawyers.

On August 1, several officers of the ABA Forum on Franchising began new terms. Michael Joblove and Leslie Curran became members of the Forum’s Governing Committee, while Joseph Fittante began his second term on the Committee.

Forum Chair Ron Gardner of Dady & Gardner appointed two Governing Committee members to new officer positions. Ms. Curran will serve as Diversity Officer and Kathy Kotel will be Membership Officer.

The new Governing Committee members will serve with the current officers: Kerry Bundy (Marketing Officer), Harris Chernow (Finance Officer), Deb Coldwell (Publications Officer), Mr. Fittante (Program Officer), Karen Satterlee (Women’s Caucus Liaison), and Leslie Smith (Technology Officer).

John Pratt is the new chair of the International Franchise and Distribution Division. Kerry Olson is another new member of the Divison. Lee Plave will serve a second term. Brian Balconi will serve as chair of the Corporate Counsel Division. Heather Bias has joined the Division and Andra Terrell will serve a second term. Roland Baggett III is a new member of the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution Division.

Max Schott is the new editor in chief of the Franchise Lawyer newsletter. Beatta Krakus has joined the editorial board.