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Microsoft Lawyer To Lead ABA's Antitrust Section

Posted by timothy on from the takes-one-to-know-one dept.

Dan writes "Wired is reporting that a top lawyer from Microsoft will take over later this year as chairman of the American Bar Association's antitrust section. The panel is organizing opposition to a congressional plan that would require more aggressive oversight by the courts of such antitrust settlements. Considering the next major ruling in MS's case is due soon, you can figure out how important this is to MS."

11 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. What's the deal with anti-trust? by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why does Microsoft have so many anti-trust concerns? I mean, is there anybody left who still actually trusts Microsoft?

  2. It doesn't matter what the law is by beamdriver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It only matters who is intepreting it and who is enforcing it. This is a lesson Microsoft has learned well.

    1. Re:It doesn't matter what the law is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If this had happened in a third world country many in USA would have called it corruption or unacceptable.

    2. Re:It doesn't matter what the law is by yintercept · · Score: 5, Insightful
      If this had happened in a third world country many in USA would have called it corruption or unacceptable.

      That is completely absurd. If an appointment like this happened in the third world, the adminstration would assess the impact on US business (especially on campaign contributors). If they found a negative impact, then they would call it corruption based on their findings.

      This blanket statement that the US condemns all third world corruption is absurd. We are highly selective.

  3. Brought to you by... by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Funny

    And when I read the article... I had a nice big MSN butterly ad breaking it up. Does Microsoft have it's finger into everything?

  4. Well, look on the bright side... by JayBlalock · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Even if America is no longer willing to keep Microsoft in line, it would appear that Europe has no such compunctions. Rumors are flying that the EU's economics enforces are about to really lay down the hammer on Microsoft. And considering that the EU now represents a larger consumer base than the US (although, granted, some of them in countries without so much technology), the EU could effectively force them to revamp the way they do business.

    Even Microsoft would be in trouble if it was suddenly cut off from 300+ million potential customers.

    --
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  5. Corrupt by BWJones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, I would really like to give the profession more credit than this, but does not anyone see a conflict of interest here? The standard should be "avoiding even the appearance of impropriety", so how is it that the entire American Bar Association think this is a good idea? Are they that owned?

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    1. Re:Corrupt by ArgumentBoy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The ABA itself is one of the great barrier-to-entry monopolies. If you went back 100 years, you'd find that lots of people could practice law without going to law school - they would clerk, or, in some cases, would be admitted to the bar because they were or had been a state legislator. The ABA has a substantial financial interest in limiting the number of people who are eligible to be paid for their kind of work, and have insisted on laws that make it illegal for nonlawyers to do certain kinds of law-related work. Frankly, I see this whole thing as analogous to having Senators writing the legislation controlling what's a bribe and what's a contribution. I think it's silly to pay much attention to the ABA on an issue like this.

  6. So what? by 0x54524F4C4C · · Score: 5, Funny


    Bush and Blair were nominated for the nobel peace award.

  7. Does it really matter? by Marx_Mrvelous · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I somehow doubt he's still on MS's payroll anymore. Maybe the fact that he's been defending Microsoft will give him good insight into just how they've handled things (well or poorly). And wouldn't a lawyer with a lot of antitrust expereince make the ideal candidate for this position? After all, there are more cases out there than Microsoft. (Not to mention, are there any antitrust lawyers out there who, at one point, *didn't* work for MS? ;)

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  8. This isn't really a big deal by n8ur · · Score: 5, Informative

    This appointment doesn't have any real significance. The ABA is not a government agency; it's a private lawyer's organization that is voluntary (lots and lots of lawyers don't belong).

    The ABA has a lot of different subgroups, on anti-trust, patent law, corporate law, etc. They do training on their areas of specialty, have meetings to talk about their area of interest, and do sometimes lobby about pending legislation.

    The ABA Antitrust section has been pro-business, anti-enforcement forever, so this is really no big deal.