Antitrust Law and the Algorithms that Set Your Rent: A Conversation with Professor Bilal Sayyed

Antitrust Law and the Algorithms that Set Your Rent: A Conversation with Professor Bilal Sayyed

Antitrust law touches almost every aspect of everyday life, from Big Tech mergers all the way down to the price of groceries. But it’s a niche area of law that few law students, at least initially, decide to pursue. We sat down with ASU Law Professor Bilal Sayyed to talk about the goals of antitrust law and why it’s a great option for law students to pursue.  We ground our conversation in the ongoing suit filed by the Arizona Attorney General against RealPage, which uses data-driven algorithms to advise institutional real estate investors on rent prices. Arizona, along with several other states, thinks that this algorithmic “price-fixing” is bad for consumers - but is that the case? Could algorithmic price fixing even be a form of protected speech under the First Amendment? Professor Sayyed walks us through all this and more. In this episode: • Antitrust law, from the Sherman and Clayton Acts to the modern age  • How antitrust law balances consumer interests in competition and innovation • How RealPage operates, and how it represents a new frontier in anticompetitive practices • BigTech, AI, and emerging battlegrounds in antitrust law • Why students should get involved in antitrust. Bilal Sayyed is an adjunct professor at ASU Law and Counsel at Cadwalader. He also serves as Senior Competition Counsel at TechFreedom, and was the Director of the FTC Office of Policy Planning from 2018-2021. Professor Sayyed is an expert in antitrust law, competition, consumer protection, and privacy. Hosted by Abdi Lopez and Ethan Watson 📧 asulawradio@gmail.com [asulawradio@gmail.com] #ASULaw #Antitrust #RealPage #PriceFixing #Competition #BigTech #FreeSpeech

From the Arizona Republic to the Supreme Court: Chief Deputy AG Daniel Barr on Tariffs, Teamwork, and Thinking Like a Lawyer

What happens when an Attorney General's office with zero tariff experience files a lawsuit — and ends up arguing before the Supreme Court seven months later? Chief Deputy Attorney General Daniel Barr takes us inside the remarkable story of Arizona's role in the landmark IEEPA tariffs case, from a casual conversation at a town hall in Oregon to the opinion that struck down presidential tariff power. But that's only part of the story. With 411 lawyers, 67 badge-carrying officers, and 27 million seized fentanyl pills, Arizona's AG office is far bigger — and far more bipartisan — than most people realize. Dan shares what he learned having dinner with Republican chief deputies in Denver, why he left a 38-year partnership at Perkins Coie for public service, and the one quality he values most in a young lawyer. In this episode: • How 14 states coordinated to challenge the Liberation Day tariffs — and won • The five divisions of the AG's office most people never hear about • Why Dan says law students should pick professors, not subjects • His secret to persuasive legal writing, learned as a newspaper reporter • How a poetry class at Hamilton College changed his life Dan Barr is Chief Deputy Attorney General at the Arizona Attorney General's Office. He previously spent 38 years as a partner at Perkins Coie LLP and began his career as a reporter at The Arizona Republic. Hosted by Abdi Lopez and Ethan Watson 📧 asulawradio@gmail.com #ASULaw #AttorneyGeneral #IEEPA #Tariffs #SeparationOfPowers #PublicService #LegalCareers #FirstAmendment

HOW THE WORLD DOES IP: Inside WIPO, Lessons from Taiwan & Dominican Republic, and the Misconceptions We Need to Unlearn

Host: Abdi Lopez, 2L, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Co-Host: Professor Jon Kappes, Teaching Professor, ASU Law Featured Guest: James “Jim” Pooley, Former Deputy Director General, WIPO What happens when 200,000 of the world's most cutting-edge inventions flow through a single office in Geneva — and you're responsible for keeping them secret? In this episode, Abdi Lopez speaks with Jim Pooley — IP Hall of Famer, 50-year Silicon Valley trial lawyer, and former Deputy Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization — alongside ASU Law Professor Jon Kappes, patent practitioner and nationally recognized IP educator. Together, they pull back the curtain on how intellectual property actually works at the global level: the North-South divide that turned "harmonization" into a dirty word, why TRIPS left developing nations feeling betrayed, and what a 12-person patent office in the Dominican Republic can teach Big Law about mission-driven practice. They also go deep on the strategic realities practitioners face every day — from talking clients out of filing in 200 countries, to why most granted patents are worth less than $5,000, to how Taiwan's TSMC built the world's most sophisticated trade secret program from the ground up. Whether you practice IP or not, this conversation will reshape how you think about innovation, sovereignty, and what the patent system is really for. Key topics: the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) explained, trade secrets as the dominant IP asset, global patent enforcement gaps, TSMC's Golden Trade Secret Award, the economics of patent value, and why Jim Pooley thinks law schools should teach improv.

Architects of Change: Building the Law Firm of 2030

AI Won't Replace Lawyers—But Lawyers Using AI Will | Prof. Whitney Stefko From litigator to tech entrepreneur to Ford's legal innovation leader, Professor Whitney Stefko shares how AI is transforming legal practice—and why someone recently mistook her for an AI avatar. In this episode: • Why the biggest legal tech revolution is happening in everyday tools like Microsoft Copilot, not custom solutions • How AI can predict case outcomes (but still needs human judgment)• The surprising ways AI is expanding access to justice • What law students should do NOW to prepare for an AI-driven legal market • Why Professor Stefko taught herself to code—and what it taught her about legal innovation Professor Stefko is Director of Policy & Legal Operations at Ford Motor Company and teaches "AI in Legal Operations and Innovation" at ASU Law. 📚 Resources mentioned: * "Co-Intelligence" by Ethan Mollick * "Mindset" by Carol Dweck 🎓 ASU Law Student Radio 📧 asulawradio@gmail.com #LegalTech #AIandLaw #LegalInnovation #LawSchool #ASULaw #FutureOfLaw #LegalEducation #LawStudents

Perdomo and Profiling: When Looking Latino Becomes "Reasonable Suspicion".

What happens when the Supreme Court says your race, language, and job can justify a federal stop? Professor David Lopez—Obama's twice-nominated EEOC General Counsel who just returned to ASU Law—breaks down the Perdomo decision that's authorizing racial profiling by immigration enforcement. Drawing from Arizona's successful fight against SB 1070, Professor Lopez reveals how communities beat "show me your papers" laws before and can do it again. He exposes the reality: 86% of Latinos are here legally, yet face profiling at work sites, schools, and hospitals. Key takeaways:  * Why Perdomo creates "second-class citizens" * • Arizona's resistance playbook that actually worked * • Impact on U.S. citizen kids in mixed-status families * • What law students can do beyond posting online * From Birmingham to the Sonoran Desert, Professor Lopez traces how civil rights movements win—with smart litigation, grassroots action, and electoral consequences. "Every day you fight the bear. Some days you win, some days the bear wins, but you get up and do it again." Essential listening for understanding this pivotal moment in constitutional law. ASU Law Student Radio | Host: Abdi Lopez  asulawradio@gmail.com