Whether antitrust neophytes or competition law Brahmins, we always look forward to the annual meeting of the New York State Bar Association Antitrust Section held every January of the new year. In addition to the excellent daytime programs, the highlight of the meeting is, without doubt, the presentation by the section’s guest dinner speaker from inside the beltway. Over the last 28 years the assemblage has heard from Department of Justice (DOJ) Assistant and Deputy Attorneys General, Federal Trade Commission chairman and commissioners and, during federal antitrust enforcement’s hibernation in the 1980s, New York’s Attorney General.
The keynote speaker, whatever his or her stripe, usually uses this occasion to inform the antitrust bar, at large, of important policy shifts, interpretations or initiatives. This is especially the case when a new administration has succeeded to the leadership. Thus, the stage was set for Assistant Attorney General Charles James’ first appearance as the recently installed head of the DOJ’s Antitrust Division.
