Alicia Downey was one of several former SJC law clerks who aided the Court in its annual celebration of Law Day on May 1, 2015, at the John Adams Courthouse. This year, the clerks worked with small groups of visiting Boston high school students, comparing some of the key provisions of the English Magna Carta with important rights incorporated into the Massachusetts and federal constitutions.
On November 11, 2014, Alicia Downey moderated a 90-minute American Bar Association Continuing Legal Education webinar entitled, “But We Want to Close in Two Weeks” – HSR Process and Timing. The speakers, S. Lynn Diamond of White & Case LLP and Sarah Rabinovici of Pepper Hamilton LLP, covered a wide range of issues arising in deals subject to review and clearance by the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. The program was geared toward transactional lawyers who need to understand which deals are subject to reporting requirements, HSR requirements and timing of investigations, and how to protect the confidentiality of client documents submitted to the agencies.
Alicia Downey is a faculty member for the Practising Law Institute’s upcoming annual Antitrust Counseling and Compliance seminar on October 31, 2014, in New York. The all-day Continuing Legal Education program will be presented live and via webcast to a large audience of in-house counsel and lawyers in private practice. Alicia’s segment will focus on pricing conduct, including price discrimination, resale price maintenance, and predatory pricing. The complete agenda and event details are available here.
Alicia Downey has been appointed to chair the Search Committee responsible for vetting candidates for the position of Executive Director of the Boston Dance Alliance, for which Alicia has served on the board since 2010. BDA is a service organization that helps the Greater Boston dance community operate more efficiently and deliver artwork more effectively. With a comprehensive matrix of programs and services, BDA strives to build dance audiences, increase access to dance for communities of all kinds, and promote artistic quality of the highest order in all dance genres.
The Business Law Section of the American Bar Association has appointed Alicia Downey to the 2014-2015 Editorial Board of The Business Lawyer. Published quarterly, The Business Lawyer is the premier business law journal in the country, circulating peer-reviewed articles on a variety of business law topics to approximately 50,000 readers.
The ABA Section of Antitrust Law has appointed Alicia Downey as the incoming Chair of the Distribution and Franchising Committee, beginning in August 2014. In addition, Alicia has been appointed Liaison to the ABA Business Law Section, a role that entails working closely with the leaders of both sections to identify matters of common interest and opportunities for collaboration in programming and publications.
On May 1, 2014, The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts invited students from West Roxbury High School to participate in the Court’s annual celebration of Law Day. This year’s theme was “American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters.” As part of the day’s events, Alicia Downey and other former SJC law clerks spoke with the students about the historical treatment of voting rights in the United States. More details about the event are available here. Afterwards, Alicia (third from right) and the other volunteers posed for a photo with SJC Associate Justice Fernande Duffly.
Alicia Downey was a speaker in a program entitled, Arm Yourself with the Necessary Tools to Avoid Antitrust Pitfalls in Merger and Non-Merger Agreements, at the Spring Meeting of the ABA Business Law Section in Los Angeles, California. Alicia’s segment of the two-hour CLE program focused on antitrust constraints on price discrimination, most favored nation pricing, and loyalty discounts.
Alicia Downey was a panel member in the Pathways to Leadership program at the 62nd ABA Section of Antitrust Law Spring Meeting in Washington, D.C. Each of the speakers described their experiences as leaders in various roles in the Section of Antitrust Law, as well as ways in which lawyers and economists can become more involved in the section’s work.
Alicia Downey was on the faculty of Antitrust Primer and Pitfalls for Corporate Counsel, presented by MCLE-New England in Boston, Massachusetts. In this three-hour live and webcast program, Alicia and her co-presenters covered a wide variety of antitrust topics as well as recent developments bearing on corporate transactions, sales and marketing practices, and collaborations with competitors.
Downey Law prevailed in Suffolk Superior Court on a motion to compel arbitration of a ten-count complaint by an aggrieved member and former employee of a Delaware limited liability company. The plaintiff invoked multiple legal theories in support of claims for alleged “unpaid wages,” as well as treble damages, and attorneys’ fees against our clients, three affiliated business entities and individuals. The court ruled that all of the claims were subject to the arbitration clause in the company’s operating agreement.