Sleepwalking Toward Autocracy: An Existential Threat to Federal Agencies’ Ability to Protect the American Public (with Thomas Dahdouh)

Thomas Dahdouh has spent over thirty years as a public servant—all with the Federal Trade Commission—focused on directing policy and achieving justice on behalf of consumers. As Attorney Advisor to 2021-25 FTC Chair Lina Khan, he reformed the Commission’s competition policy and supported vigorous antitrust enforcement. Before that, as Regional Director of the San Francisco and Los Angeles offices, he investigated and successfully led actions across a wide variety of sectors, including healthcare, education, and telecommunications. Recognizing his impact, the California Lawyers Association named Dahdouh the 2025 Antitrust Lawyer of the Year.

The FTC is presently facing an existential threat – from inside the U.S. government. As a Public Interest Fellow at the American Antitrust Institute, Dahdouh’s work now focuses on protecting and preserving the critical functions of the FTC in the face of current efforts to undermine the agency.  

Please join the UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice, the Antitrust Law and Economics Association of Berkeley (ALEAB), and the Consumer Advocacy & Protection Society (CAPS), and the CLA Antitrust and Consumer Protection Section for a lunchtime conversation with Dahdouh about the attack on the FTC and the future of economic justice in the US.

The conversation will be moderated by Prof. Chris Hoofnagle, author of the definitive history of the FTC.

Lunch provided!