Einer Elhauge Receives the Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship

Harvard Law School’s Einer Elhauge was presented the Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll’s Dan Small at the American Antitrust Institute’s Annual Conference on June 21. The Cohen Award was created through a trust established in honor of the late Jerry S. Cohen, an outstanding trial lawyer and antitrust writer. It is administered by the law firm he founded, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll.

Elhauge’s winning article “Horizontal Shareholding,” 129 Harv. L. Rev. 1267 (2016), Elhauge argues that horizontal shareholding can help explain fundamental economic puzzles including executive compensation methods, reluctance of firms to invest, and the rise of income inequality. He also argues that current antitrust law can tackle this problem by challenging stock acquisitions that create anticompetitive horizontal shareholdings in concentrated markets.

The award is given each year to the best antitrust writing during the prior year that is consistent with the following standards established by the Board of Trustees of the Jerry S. Cohen Memorial Fund. To be considered eligible and selected for the Award, submissions should reflect a concern for principles of economic justice; the dispersal of economic power; and the maintenance of effective limitations upon economic power or the federal statutes designed to protect society from various forms of anticompetitive activity. Submissions should reflect an awareness of the human and social impacts of economic institutions upon individuals, small businesses and other institutions necessary to the maintenance of a just and humane society—the values and concerns that Jerry S. Cohen dedicated his life and work to fostering. Submissions may address substantive, procedural or evidentiary matters that reflect these values and concerns.

The award selection committee has also conferred six category awards, as follows:

The award committee consisted of Zachary Caplan, Warren Grimes, John Kirkwood, Robert Lande, Christopher Leslie, Roger Noll, and Dan Small.