Jonathan W. Cuneo received the AAI’s Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement at the AAI’s Annual Conference on June 16.
Mr. Cuneo is the founding member of Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP, and its predecessor firms (including the Cuneo Law Group, PC). Forty years ago, he began his career in antitrust and consumer protection at the Federal Trade Commission before joining with Warren Grimes as antitrust counsel to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino. At the agency and on the Committee, Mr. Cuneo worked to defend the antitrust laws that were under siege by both the business community and Congress.
When Mr. Cuneo left the Judiciary Committee in 1986, there was no sustained private policy voice in favor of antitrust law in the nation’s capital. At the time there were only two types of private lobbyists and voices – those whose clients wanted the antitrust laws weakened, and those who said the antitrust laws should not apply to their clients. Mr. Cuneo was the only person outside of the government to be a spokesperson, clearinghouse, and advocate for strong antitrust enforcement. He took the legal skeleton of the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL) and filled it with life.
In 1998, Mr. Cuneo founded the AAI along with Albert A. Foer and Robert H. Lande. For 10 years, Mr. Cuneo helped formulate the governance and early direction of the organization, raised funds, and attracted new Advisory Board members from the plaintiffs antitrust bar. He provided political and strategic insights drawn from his long and varied experiences as an all-around Washington lawyer. He always stressed keeping the organization small and simple, able to move quickly without much bureaucracy and with minimal structure — ideas that remain paramount.
Mr. Cuneo, along with Herb Milstein, also organized the he Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship, which is presented each year at the AAI’s Annual Conference.
Mr. Cuneo was the 18th recipient of the Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement and joins past honorees: Joel Klein, Robert Pitofsky, F.M. Scherer, Alfred E. Kahn, Lloyd Constantine, Thomas B. Leary, Senators Herb Kohl and Mike DeWine, Maxwell Blecher, John Shenefield, Eleanor M. Fox, Steven Salop, Mario Monti, Roger G. Noll, Kathleen Foote, John M. Connor, and Donald I. Baker.
