The American Antitrust Institute will present Colorado’s Attorney General, Philip Weiser, with the 2023 Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement for his significant contributions to antitrust enforcement at AAI’s 24th Annual Policy Conference: Taking Stock of Antitrust’s Pro-Enforcement Movement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on May 23, 2023.
“We are delighted to present the Award for Antitrust Achievement to Attorney General Weiser,” said AAI President, Diana Moss. “He has dedicated a career to promoting stronger and more effective competition enforcement, with tangible, positive effects for consumers and workers. In creating an ongoing legacy through the multiple prongs of enforcement, policy, and scholarship, AG Weiser is indisputably a leader of the pro-enforcement era,” she added.
Twice elected as Attorney General for Colorado, AG Weiser’s exceptional leadership in antitrust has resulted in numerous successful cases that have protected consumers and promoted competition in a variety of industries. His work shows a commitment to protecting competition and consumers from harmful business practices.
Most recently, AG Weiser urged the courts to block the proposed merger of retail grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. He has championed numerous investigations and prosecutions of antitrust violations in the telecommunications, pharmaceutical, and tech industries. In 2019, the Colorado Department of Law joined a coalition of state attorneys general in suing to block the T-Mobile and Sprint merger. He sued Purdue Pharma for its role in the opioid crisis and Big Pharma for alleging price-fixing, and was involved in antitrust lawsuits against Google and Facebook.
Pamela Gilbert, Chair of AAI’s Board of Directors, explained that “AG Weiser’s contributions span a remarkable portfolio of influential and respected work across scholarship, enforcement, and policy. The substance and spirit of his contributions are at the heart of AAI’s Award for Antitrust Achievement.”
AG Weiser is Adjunct Faculty & Dean Emeritus of the University of Colorado Law School. While on the law school faculty, he was the Hatfield Professor of Law and Telecommunications, served as Dean, and was Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. AG Weiser also served as Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation to the National Economic Council Director at the White House and as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.
AG Weiser has made leading contributions to scholarship in antitrust and competition policy. He has co-authored three books: Digital Crossroads: American Telecommunications Policy in the Internet Age, Telecommunications Law, and Policy, and The Jury and Democracy: How Jury Deliberation Promotes Civic Engagement and Political Participation. He has written numerous articles in both law journals and publications such as the Washington Post and Foreign Affairs, and has testified before both houses of Congress.
Prior to becoming Attorney General for Colorado, Weiser remained engaged in public service, arguing a number of pro bono cases before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, co-chairing the Colorado Innovation Council, and serving as the lead agency reviewer for the Federal Trade Commission as part of the 2008 Presidential Transition. He was also law clerk to Justices Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the United States Supreme Court and to Judge David Ebel at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The AAI Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement, first presented in 2000, honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the field of antitrust. Attorney General Weiser joins the following 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, Donald I. Baker, Jonathan W. Cuneo, William Baer, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Stephen Calkins, Albert A. Foer, Robert Skitol, and Senator Richard Blumenthal.
