Professor Stephen Calkins is the 2019 recipient of the Alfred E. Kahn Award for Antitrust Achievement.
Calkins returned to Wayne Law in fall semester 2015 after being on leave since 2011. During his leave, Calkins served as a member of The Competition Authority of Ireland and director of its Mergers Division and later as a member of the melded Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Ireland. He also served as an adjunct professor at University College Dublin Sutherland School of Law.
From 2008 to 2011, Calkins served as Wayne State University’s associate vice president for academic personnel, while continuing to teach at Wayne Law on a limited basis.
From 1995 to 1997, he served as general counsel of the Federal Trade Commission, a position to which he was nominated by FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky. At Wayne Law, Calkins taught courses and seminars that drew on this experience – Antitrust and Trade Regulation, and Consumer Law – plus Torts and occasionally Corporations. He has taught at the universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Utrecht (The Netherlands) and served as Wayne Law’s interim dean.
Calkins is in demand as a speaker, annually delivering many presentations on competition and consumer law and policy to governmental, professional and academic audiences across the United States and overseas. Before joining The Competition Authority of Ireland, he consulted with federal, state and foreign governmental agencies. He has testified before Congress and federal and state agencies. He is a prolific author with articles in leading academic and specialty journals. His books include Antitrust Law: Policy and Practice (4th ed. 2008) (with C. Paul Rogers III, Mark R. Patterson and William R. Andersen),Antitrust Law and Economics in a Nutshell (5th ed. 2004) (with Ernest Gellhorn and William Kovacic) and, as a co-editor, ABA Antitrust Section, Consumer Protection Law Developments (2009).
Calkins participates in a wide range of professional activities. He is a life member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the advisory boards for the American Antitrust Institute, Sedona Conference and National State Attorneys General Program Advisory Project at Columbia Law School. For the American Bar Association, he has served on the Councils of the Sections of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice and the Section of Antitrust Law (two, three-year terms). He is a former chair of the Association of American Law School’s Antitrust and Economic Regulation Committee.
At Wayne State, Calkins served three terms on the Academic Senate’s Policy Committee (its executive committee). He served as the Senate’s parliamentarian from 2000 to 2007. Previously, he served on various university committees, including the Review Advisory Panel for Economics and the university Promotion and Tenure Committee. At Wayne Law, he has served multiple terms on the promotion and tenure committee, budget committee, curriculum committee and faculty appointments committee. He was an elected member of the 2003-04 Strategic Plan Implementation Committee. Previously, he chaired the ad hoc committee on U.S. news and the task force on student recruitment.
He holds a bachelor of arts degree from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard University. He is the recipient of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law Fiftieth Anniversary Publications Award, Federal Trade Commission Award for Distinguished Service and Donald H. Gordon Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Calkins lives in Northville, Mich., and, with his eight siblings, he owns a summer place on Long Lake (near Traverse City, Mich.) that was established by his grandparents more than 80 years ago.
