Beyond the schmoozing, there were some good panels. Much more consumer protection then past years but seemingly less international and comparative ones. I attended part of the IP panel until I realized that it was a rather technical rehash of the FTC recent report on suggested changes to the patent laws (none of which are going to happen anytime soon). From there went to a better panel on settlements of indirect purchaser cases including recently retired federal judge Vaughan Walker who was both interesting and candid. In the afternoon, there was my panel on New Approaches to Remedies. Big crowd, seemed engaged, almost no one left or slept which seemed like a good thing. More of a structured conversation rather than just talking heads reading powerpoint slides which people seemed to appreciate. Panel included Patty Brink of DOJ, Dick Steuer of Mayer Brown, Frank Maier-Rigaud of OECD and Howard Morse of the Colley firm.
That took us to 5:15 when I then hit various law and economic consulting firm parties. I miss Howrey & Simon, they always had the best sushi. Over ate a bit but enjoyed the schmoozing and the relief from being done with my part of the show.
Today, I slept in and managed to miss the editorial board meeting of the Antitrust Law Journal (something you should get involved in). Thoroughly enjoyed the 2 hour chair's showcase on Competition and Consumer Protection in Web 3.0. Even though it was mostly people with a dog in the fight (Google, Micosoft, etc) reading the party line, I learned a lot that will eventually go into my piece on Social Networking and Antitrust for Haifa in May and then North Carolina in the fall. Hung out with the AAI crowd for lunch and then headed home. Now playing catch up on a bunch of projects that I put on the back burner while I prepared for the spring meeting panel.
I think I may have seen you in the middle of a crowd on Thursday. I caught just a few programs -- the deception program on Thursday morning was interesting, right up until I saw what is I think the fifth talk devoted nearly entirely to Kodak-bashing that I personally have seen at Spring Meetings (and I would guess it was the 19th such in total, this being the 19th Spring Meeting since Kodak was before the Court). I then went to the dinner with an Indianapolis-based law firm, at the invitation of a remarkable lawyer who will be teaching my antitrust course while I am on leave this coming spring). I then went for a run instead of the Friday enforcer's round-table. Agreed that there is more consumer protection going on at the meeting in recent years, a salutary development that owes not just a small debt to people like you (Spencer) and Maurice Stucke.
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