ACC NCR: Steering Clear of Legal Pitfalls: How Employers Can Recognize and Avoid Antitrust Risk

This will be a collaborative discussion on key areas of cross-disciplinary risk for ACC National Capitol Region in-house general counsel, employment and antitrust practitioners, and a valuable opportunity to get ahead of the curve. With Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforcement priorities largely in the balance depending on this November’s election results, regardless of who wins, employers need to be prepared to manage the U.S. federal and state antitrust enforcement landscape that impacts the workforce in 2025. 

Employment law and antitrust experts will cover the FTC’s recent labor-specific enforcement priorities, including wage fixing, anti-poaching, and employee mobility regulation, along with the latest updates and guidance concerning the FTC’s noncompete ban and its fate in the federal courts of appeal.  We’ll also cover new topics, including the FTC’s prioritization of regulation of industry use of AI tools, with specific focus on AI tools for recruiting and hiring and the potential bias and collusion claims that could arise from such use.  And, we’ll discuss a completely new form of tech that is fast becoming a reality in the modern workplace—neurotechnology—which makes it possible for employers to read and evaluate employees’ thoughts and emotions using brainwave monitoring and other neurological markers and which we expect will become an enforcement priority for the FTC and labor regulators in the coming years.  In closing, we’ll discuss what the workforce/competition regulatory landscape might look like in 2025 depending on which party controls Washington after this November’s election.

Presented by: Jeremy Ben Merkelson and Gerald A. Stein, Partners at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, and David Grossman, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Consumer Technology Association.  Additional Panelist TBD

1.5 Hours of VA MCLE pending.