Recent Developments and Antitrust Careers in Insurance and Financial Services

On April 25, 2022, the ABA Antitrust Section’s Insurance and Financial Services and Membership committees co-hosted a panel exploring recent antitrust developments and career paths for law students and young lawyers in the insurance and financial services sector. The panel comprised Keira Campbell from American Express, Michelle Conston from Scott+Scott, and Lauren Riker from the US Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division. The panel was moderated by Justin Lorber and Bruno Renzetti, law student ambassadors to the Insurance and Financial Services Committee.

Ms. Riker identified innovation around payment services, particularly consumer financial services and payment solutions, as a key trend in financial services. She added that competition and consumer protection enforcers are paying attention to how this trend and associated regulations affect competition and entry into the payment services space, as well as M&A activity that potentially stifles competition and entry, referencing DOJ’s recent enforcement action against Visa’s proposed acquisition of Plaid in 2020.

From the plaintiffs’ side, Ms. Conston detailed some of the cutting-edge work she is doing related to the manipulation of certain bond and other financial markets. In explaining the differences between private and public litigation in this area, Ms. Conston added that government findings often serve as the impetus and baseline for private litigation complaints, because investors often do not know they have been wronged until the government has uncovered misconduct. These findings are then supplemented based on private interests and harms.

With respect to DOJ’s enforcement action in June 2021 against two of the world’s largest insurance brokers, Aon and Willis Towers Watson, Ms. Riker walked through the fact-specific inquiry involved in defining product markets around different customer segments, principally in connection with defining large customer markets and meaningfully distinguishing them from other customer markets based on their unique respective needs. Regarding pressure points for the insurance sector going forward, Ms. Riker explained that there appears to be significant consolidation, and that she expects to see continued activity in the space.

Switching gears to antitrust careers in insurance and financial services, the panelists described their unique paths to antitrust law and the implications of the various roles in which lawyers can practice – including roles in companies and in public and private practice. Ms. Campbell began her career in Australia, where she selected antitrust as one of three areas that she wanted to explore further. Despite initially ranking antitrust last among the three, she grew interested in the field because it combined her legal and business interests. Ms. Campbell ultimately moved to the United States to further pursue practicing antitrust in private and now in-house capacities. Ms. Riker has spent her career in public practice, explaining that DOJ has afforded her many substantive opportunities on litigation-track antitrust matters. Ms. Conston knew she wanted to be a litigator after law school but did know exactly in which field she wanted to practice. Antitrust appealed to her due to its complexity and never-ending evolution, which keeps the field interesting to her. She was drawn to the plaintiffs’ bar because of the autonomy and flexibility that it provides when deciding whether to bring a case and how to develop the best evidence to support the case.

Each panelist also offered advice to law students and young lawyers grappling with what and where they want to practice. Ms. Riker offered that law students and young lawyers should balance their natural academic interests with practical considerations like location, job security, and compensation in selecting where they might want to begin their careers. Ms. Campbell said that young lawyers should not stress about needing to chart their career pathway perfectly. She recommended that lawyers frequently check in with themselves to assess whether their professional interests are being fulfilled by the work they are doing. Regarding remote work and interviews, Ms. Conston recommended that young lawyers be vocal and make a concerted effort to develop professional and personal relationships with their colleagues, and that law students or prospective laterals create a professional environment that removes distractions when interviewing for jobs.