On October 11, Prof. Hiba Hafiz was named an expert advisor to the Federal Trade Commission. She will advise the commission in an emerging area of law—antitrust enforcement against employers who abuse their buyer power in labor markets in ways that reduce hiring, wages, benefits, or workplace quality.
Hafiz, who helped pioneer this use of antitrust law in private practice before joining the BC Law faculty, now hopes to see it expanded by regulators. Her articles on the topic appear in numerous publications, including the University of Chicago Law Review, Duke Law Journal, the University of Wisconsin Law Review, and the Cardozo Law Review, among others. “Very few scholars have worked in this area,” Hafiz says, “so it’s a rare opportunity to be a part of developing agency policy from the ground up.”
Hafiz will also advise the FTC chair and commission staff on how best to coordinate with agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as the FTC takes up labor competition enforcement. The need for this kind of coordination—what she views as part of a “whole-of-government approach” to labor market regulation—is another topic she has published on.