Downey Law in the News
Chambers USA 2021 Lists Alicia Downey Among Leading Antitrust Lawyers
The 2021 edition of Chambers USA ranks Alicia Downey among leading antitrust lawyers in Massachusetts. According to the accompanying review, “She is an excellent commercial lawyer and a scholar of antitrust.” Alicia is the only solo practitioner among the twelve individually-recognized Massachusetts antitrust lawyers in Band 1 and Band 2. Chambers USA’s legal rankings are based on in-depth market analysis and independent research, conducted by a experienced team of researchers.
Our Curious Amalgam Podcast Hosted by Alicia Downey: Are “UDAPs” Protecting Consumers or Promoting Chaos? Exposing the Fault Lines under State Statutes Prohibiting Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices
State UDAP laws are powerful tools for private plaintiffs and state Attorneys General to redress marketplace misconduct and abuse of consumers. But with the growing proliferation of lawsuits based on novel theories of what constitutes “unfair” trade practices, is it time to rein them in? In this episode co-hosts Alicia Downey and Christina Ma talk to Matt Sawchak, UDAP scholar, antitrust litigator, and former solicitor general for the state of North Carolina, about the ongoing debate over the scope of and remedies afforded by UDAP legislation. Listen to this episode to learn about the sources of tension between state UDAP statutes and U.S. antitrust law. Click here to access the podcast.
Our Curious Amalgam Podcast Hosted by Alicia Downey: When Does Benchmarking Cause Antitrust Anxiety? The Use and Misuse of Competitors’ Data
Many industries routinely use data collected from multiple competing companies to develop price, cost and performance benchmarks. But when do benchmarking activities raise antitrust concerns? Co-hosts Alicia Downey and Christina Ma ask John Delacourt, general counsel to an international trade association and co-chair of the Antitrust Law Section’s Trade, Sports and Professional Associations Committee, about managing the risks of collective participation in benchmarking programs in an era of heightened antitrust scrutiny and enforcement. Listen to this episode to learn about the right way and the wrong way to collect and use competitors’ data. Click here to listen to the episode.
Our Curious Amalgam Podcast Hosted by Alicia Downey: Is It Time to Rethink Section 230? The Debate Over the Liability Exemption for Internet Platforms
Section 230 of the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act immunizes online platforms from civil liability based on third-party content as well as for removing such content in certain circumstances. Twenty-five years after its enactment, has this immunity gone too far in protecting the behemoth internet companies from accountability and facilitating their pervasive growth and online presence? In this episode, co-hosts Alicia Downey and Christina Ma talk to O’Melveny partner Tod Cohen, a former in-house legal and public policy counsel for a number of prominent social media and e-commerce companies, about the connection between Section 230 and antitrust concerns regarding certain Internet platforms, and why Section 230 has become such a focal point of controversy. Click here to access this episode.
Our Curious Amalgam Podcast Hosted by Alicia Downey: What Are Best Practices for Virtual Litigation?
Alicia Downey and John Roberti co-host an episode of Our Curious Amalgam that talks about the do’s and don’ts for litigating effectively in virtual proceedings, especially in complex antitrust cases involving multiple parties and far-flung witnesses. Alicia interviews Lisa Wood, Co-Chair of the Litigation Department of Foley Hoag LLP, and author of the long-running Notes from the Field column featured in Antitrust Magazine, to discover what she learned about best practice for virtual litigation from her survey of lawyers and judges across the country. Listen to or download this episode here, to hear about which virtual litigation proceedings are poised to become a permanent feature of complex civil suits and proceedings before the agencies.
The Boston Globe Quotes Alicia Downey on Staples/Office Depot Acquisition News
Alicia Downey was quoted in a recent article by Boston Globe business reporter Jon Chesto–“Amazon’s rise could help pave the way for Staples-Office Depot merger, finally.” Chesto’s article discusses the risk of an antitrust challenge to Staples’s proposed acquisition of Office Depot years after the FTC blocked a similar deal: “Alicia Downey, a Boston antitrust lawyer, said she’s not aware of any radical shift in how the FTC analyzes these deals in the past five years. Downey fully expects Staples will revive the argument about the threat posed by Amazon and other big retailers expanding into the office-supplies game. It’s not just the shift online, Downey said, but also the changing market as companies conduct more of their business digitally.”