Chair's Column

• Publication year: 2014

CHAIR'S COLUMN

Kenneth R. O'Rourke

O'Melveny & Myers LLP

Los Angeles, CA

With thanks to the authors, editors and other contributors, our Section is pleased to present you with another edition of Competition. A variety of articles and viewpoints are provided on important antitrust and unfair competition law topics. Our editor-in-chief, Tom Dahdouh, for whom special thanks is due, provides an overview of this edition in his Editor's Column below.

In addition to publications, our Section promotes education and professionalism with our programs. Our flagship program is the Golden State Institute (GSI), a daylong conference followed by an evening event honoring the Antitrust Lawyer of the Year. This year's GSI will be held on Thursday, October 16, 2014, at the historic Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco, California.

Expect a top-notch program featuring leading plaintiff and defense practitioners, government enforcers, and state and federal judges, serving as speakers and panelists. The topics are varied and range from trials of recent high-profile mergers challenged including FTC v. St Luke's Health System and United States v. Bazaarvoice, to the battle over a Major League Baseball team with intentions of moving to San Jose, to an insightful conversation with an Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, Kathryn M. Werdegar, to issues surrounding privacy, big data and the Internet, to a discussion of complex business and antitrust trials by a panel of distinguished judges. There will be much more.

Following the panels, we will honor Phillip H. Warren as our 2014 Antitrust Lawyer of the Year. Phil is the longtime leader of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division Field Office in San Francisco. He could be a multi-year winner based on his stellar career investigating and criminally prosecuting a host of international industry cartels. And his antitrust career continues. This year Phil joined The Covington Firm as a partner in the firm's San Francisco office. We congratulate Phil.

Please join us for GSI 2014 and the award dinner honoring Phil on October 16th. It will be a special event, from start to finish. More information will be available in Section email updates and on the Section's website, antitrust.calbar.ca.gov/Education/GoldenStateInstitute.aspx

For those who will be attending the State Bar's Annual Meeting in San Diego on September 11-14, please consider attending our Section's presentations. We will have two, back-to-back scheduled on...