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.
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.
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.
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.”
The Women.Connected Committee of the ABA Antitrust Law Section recently inducted four prominent women in the field of antitrust into its “Hall of Fame-inism.” How did they overcome career challenges and gender bias to make it to the top of their field? In this episode of Our Curious Amalgam, co-hosts Alicia Downey and Christine Ma interview Margaret Guerin-Calvert, Deborah Majoras, Lisa Phelan, and Bonny Sweeney about how they achieved (and continue to achieve) professional success and what more can be done to advance women within the antitrust bar. Listen to or download the episode here to learn how each of these role models forged her own path to a fulfilling career in antitrust. Alicia also put together video tributes for playback at the virtual award ceremony on November 10, 2020. The videos are posted on the Antitrust Law Section’s YouTube page here.
Best Lawyers includes Downey Law LLC in their 2021 rankings of “Best Law Firms” in the areas of Antitrust Law and Litigation. Recognition by Best Lawyers is based on peer review and the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
Antitrust class actions are rarely tried all the way through to a jury verdict. Alicia Downey hosts an episode of Our Curious Amalgam to find out how a team of lawyers from Columbus, Ohio and Washington, D.C. won defense verdicts in not one, but two antitrust trials in an 18-month period. Alicia and co-host John Roberti interview the team leaders, Jim King and Jay Levine, and their younger colleagues about the lessons they learned and the most memorable moments in the courtroom. Listen to or download this episode here to catch up with a case that has been ongoing since 2008, with yet more twists and turns to come.
On September 28, 2020, Alicia Downey co-hosted a special episode of Our Curious Amalgam, the ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s weekly podcast. In this special one-year anniversary episode, Alicia interviews Brian Henry, immediate past chair of the ABA Antitrust Law Section, and John Roberti, the regular co-host of OCA, about how they created a podcast from scratch, including the origin story of the show’s “curious” name. Listen or download the episode here.
Best Lawyers in America© has again included Alicia Downey among the top antitrust lawyers in the U.S. and metropolitan Boston. Alicia has been recognized for her antitrust work in every annual edition of Best Lawyers since 2010.
On April 22, 2020, the ABA Antitrust Law Section released a video of prominent antitrust and consumer protection lawyers role-playing Hollywood-inspired scenarios designed to test the audience’s knowledge of professional ethics for lawyers. Alicia Downey was a panel member of the humorous CLE program, entitled “Antitrust and CP Ethics Meets Hollywood Squares.” The presentation was one of numerous CLE programs that had to be presented virtually, as the Antitrust Law Section was forced by the global COVID pandemic to take its Annual Spring Meeting online. You can watch the video here.
On December 5, 2019, Alicia Downey presented a program entitled, The Antitrust Issue-Spotting Checklist, as part of The 60-Minute Lawyer series of webinars produced by the non-profit Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE New England). The one-hour presentation is designed to provide lawyers with a working knowledge of the circumstances in which antitrust risks typically arise, and how to reduce those risks.
A definitive guide to antitrust compliance has just been published by the American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section. Alicia Downey served as co-Project Editor of the nearly 400-page Antitrust Compliance Handbook: A Practitioner’s Guide. The Handbook aids outside and in-house counsel charged with developing or updating antitrust compliance programs. Chapters examine the full spectrum of practical and substantive compliance issues, including conducting risk assessments, program design, benchmarking programs, employee training, using online technology in training/audits, preparing for dawn raids, and special considerations for competitor collaborations, trade associations, and distribution relationships. The book is available for purchase at the ABA Bookstore and elsewhere.
