Adam Farra might have graduated from Maryland Carey Law in 2011, but he has remained closely connected to his alma mater ever since. As an Order of the Coif and magna cum laude graduate, Farra has established a successful legal career in litigation, teaching, and pro bono work. As an Associate with Gilbert LLP, Farra acts as legal counsel for various clients, including businesses, governments, institutional investors, and individuals. He assists clients bringing forth litigation as plaintiffs when they have suffered from anti-competitive, fraudulent, negligent, or unlawful business practices. He also serves as the firm’s Pro Bono Committee chair. With a distinguished career that includes teaching Sexuality and the Law at Maryland Carey Law since 2013, Farra is now poised to further share his experience as he assumes the responsibility of instructing Antitrust Law in the upcoming Fall 2023 term.
Attending law school during the Global Financial Crisis, it’s no surprise that Farra is fascinated by Antitrust Law. “I went to law school in 2008 facing the Global Financial Crisis so a lot of my interest was shaped by that; these major institutions failing all around us. There was a feeling that all of these ‘smartest guys in the room’ that were purportedly ‘too big to fail’ were uncontrolled and unregulated. So my personal interest in antitrust really grew from that.”
Farra represents the plaintiffs in the putative class action, In re: Credit Default Swaps Auctions Litigation, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. In this case, the plaintiffs claim that major Wall Street Banks such as Bank of America, Barclays, JPMorgan, and Deutsche Bank conspired to “rig” credit default swap auctions in violation of federal antitrust and anti-market manipulation laws. The court recently denied the motion to dismiss and the case is now headed towards discovery.
Antitrust Law has been making headlines with increasing frequency, and it's no wonder. “Nearly every day you check the major news outlets and you will find a significant development in antitrust law and policy. People and regulators are really rethinking the purpose of antitrust law and the role of enforcement. Big Tech, Amazon, cases involving wage fixing in various industries, the President’s executive order on competition, and so many merger trials in the past 24 months – those are just a handful of the onslaught of antitrust news out there.”
Farra plans to incorporate these greater societal debates into the classroom. “My style is to encourage the students to engage with each other. Yes, we’ll learn the black letter law but there’s a lot of policy in there, there’s malleability in the doctrines, and that’s what I’m hoping will make teaching antitrust pretty fun and engaging for the students.”
As with most faculty, Farra makes a compelling case for why students should consider taking Antitrust Law above other courses. “Students who care about fairness and wealth inequality and the cost of supermarket goods and the consolidation of economic and political power – you should probably take antitrust because it has the answer or at least the beginning of the answer to these enormous issues.” The course will provide an in-depth exploration of federal antitrust law, with some consideration given to antitrust and economic theory as well as focusing on examining U.S. antitrust litigation, specifically delving into cases involving public enforcement, private enforcement, and antitrust class actions concerning collusion, monopolization, and mergers.