Sizzling Summer Non-Sequiturs

I have co-authored this column, first with Stephen Axinn and currently with Shepard Goldfein, my former and current partners, respectively, for almost 30 years.* The overarching goal of this column is to open a small window into the oft-times arcane wonderland of the federal and state antitrust laws. Due to a lack of worthwhile subjects, a dearth of readers, and the seasonally depleted associate population, it has been customary for this column to take a slight frolic and detour during the summer. Most importantly, we don’t do substantive endnotes, cite-checking, or blue-booking.

Bias

In the interest of full disclosure, I have spent most of my 37-year career opposing the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (collectively, the “Government”). No doubt, I was ineradicably impressed by my first antitrust assignment in 1973, a criminal case involving allegations of fixing prices for gypsum wallboard. I was relegated to sitting behind the bar in the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh for counsels’ opening arguments.