8:00 a.m.

Registration & Continental Breakfast

8:30 a.m.

Welcome

Daniel D. Polsby, Dean & Foundation Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law

Opening Remarks & Introduction

A. Douglas Melamed, Partner, WilmerHale

Keynote Address

Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit

9:30 a.m.

Panel One | The Rule of Reason – How Can It  Be Strengthened?

Moderator

William J. Kolasky, Partner, WilmerHale

Speakers

Einer Elhauge, Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

Abbott (“Tad”) B. Lipsky, Partner, Latham & Watkins LLP

Discussants

Michael A. Carrier, Professor of Law, Rutgers University School of Law – Camden

Eric L. Cramer, Shareholder, Berger & Montague, P.C.

Over the last thirty years, the Supreme Court has greatly narrowed the types of conduct that are per se unlawful under the antitrust laws and thereby expanded the scope of the rule of reason. In this panel, Professor Einer Elhauge and Tad B. Lipsky will present papers examining how the courts and the federal antitrust agencies should structure their rule of reason analysis in order to make the rule of reason a more effective enforcement tool. Professor Michael Carrier and Eric L. Cramer, will comment on these papers and will share their insights into how the courts and agencies apply the rule of reason in practice.

11:00 a.m.

Panel Two | Merger Enforcement: Emerging Issues

Moderator

Alden F. Abbott, Associate Director, Bureau of Competition, U.S. Federal Trade Commission

Speakers

James A. Langenfeld, Director, LECG, LLC

J. Gregory Sidak, President, Criterion Economics LLC

Discussants

Deborah Platt Majoras, Vice President and General Counsel, Procter & Gamble Company

Gregory J. Werden, Senior Economic Counsel, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice

This panel will focus on merger enforcement policy in the new administration. Two leading economic experts on merger enforcement, J. Gregory Sidak and James A. Langenfeld (former Director for Antitrust, Bureau of Economics, U.S. Federal Trade Commission), will present papers addressing possible reforms of the merger analysis process. Mr. Sidak will argue that there is a significant divergence between the standards set forth in the Justice Department-FTC Horizontal Merger Guidelines and the actual way in which the courts and the federal antitrust agencies assess mergers. Dr. Langenfeld will discuss the possible benefits that might flow from promulgation of new non-horizontal merger guidelines, which would replace guidelines that have not been revised since 1984. Antitrust authorities Gregory J. Werden and Deborah Platt Majoras (former Chairman, U.S. Federal Trade Commission), will comment on these papers. 

12:45 p.m.

Introduction

George Mason Law Review

Luncheon Address

Robert Pitofsky, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

2:15 p.m.

Introduction

J. Gregory Sidak, President, Criterion Economics LLP

Closing Address

William E. Kovacic, Chairman, U.S. Federal Trade Commission

General Admission

$345

Government/Academic

$150

Student

$50