Ten Alston & Bird Antitrust Team attorneys, including seven partners, have been appointed to leadership posts in the largest and most prominent antitrust bar organization, the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law. Several appointments are new for the Section’s 2020-21 term that begins this month, while others are continuations of previous appointments.
- Partner Debra Bernstein continues as vice chair of the Antitrust Section’s Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. Bernstein is an experienced trial lawyer working principally on complex antitrust litigation for both corporate plaintiffs and defendants.
- Partner Adam Biegel continues for a third year as co-chair of the Antitrust Section’s Spring Meeting, the largest competition and consumer protection conference in the world. This year’s Spring Meeting, which was converted into a virtual event, earned the ABA’s prestigious 2020 Section Officers Conference Meritorious Service Award, an annual honor covering all ABA section activities throughout 2019-2020 and recognizing the meeting for its extraordinary benefit to the profession, public, and ABA. Co-leader of Alston & Bird’s Antitrust Team, Biegel has been prominent in the antitrust bar for almost 20 years, having served previously on the Antitrust Section’s Council and as chair of its Corporate Counseling Committee.
- Partner Alex Brown continues as a member of the Antitrust Section’s Federal and State Privacy Legislation Task Force. He previously served as a Young Lawyer Representative on the Antitrust Section’s Privacy and Information Security Committee. A commercial litigator, he focuses his practice on antitrust, consumer protection, and data privacy matters.
- Partner Matthew Kent is newly appointed to the Section’s Advisory Board on Section Reserves and continues to serve as liaison to the National LGBT Bar Association. He previously served as chair of the Antitrust Section’s Unilateral Conduct Committee and Competition Torts Committee and vice chair of the Compliance and Ethics Committee.
- Partner John Snyder, former counsel to the head of the U.S. Justice Department Antitrust Division, continues as vice chair of the Antitrust Section’s Insurance and Financial Services Committee. He is a former vice chair of the Antitrust Section’s Antitrust Law & Economics Institute for Judges and vice chair of the Agriculture and Food Committee.
- Partner Andy Tuck continues as vice chair of the Antitrust Section’s Intellectual Property Committee. Tuck is a patent-barred commercial litigator focusing on federal antitrust litigation and international arbitration.
- Partner Valarie Williams continues as the Antitrust Section’s liaison to the Canadian Bar Association National Competition Law Section. She previously served as a member of the Antitrust Section’s Council and has held numerous other Antitrust Section leadership posts, including chair of the Books and Treatises Committee and editorial board member for the 2017 Antitrust Law Developments (Eighth), the seminal comprehensive review of federal antitrust law.
- Senior associate Deona Kalala was appointed chair of the Section’s Diversity.Advanced Initiative and as vice chair of both the Membership, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee and the Women.Connected Initiative. She also will continue to serve as liaison from the ABA Young Lawyers Division to the Antitrust Section. She is an experienced antitrust lawyer who previously served as co-chair of the Antitrust Committee of the ABA Young Lawyers Division and the Young Lawyer Representative on both the Antitrust Section’s Economics Committee and Programs Committee.
- Senior associate Hilla Shimshoni continues as vice chair of the Antitrust Section’s Federal Civil Enforcement Committee. A former economic analyst in antitrust litigation and trade disputes, she advises clients on a wide range of matters, including mergers and acquisitions clearance and risk, strategic counseling, investigations, and compliance. She previously served as the Young Lawyer Representative on the Section’s Pricing Conduct Committee.
- Associate Kaelyne Wietelman was appointed as the Young Lawyers Representative to the Section’s Presidential Transition Report Task Force. Her practice focuses on a broad range of civil litigation and antitrust matters, and she previously served as the Young Lawyers Representative to the Section’s Programs & Teleseminars Committee and is actively involved in its Diversity.Advanced Initiative.