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Taylor Owings
Partner
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Taylor M. Owings is a partner in the New York office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she represents clients in civil merger and non-merger matters both before government agencies and in private litigation. She also counsels clients on the application of antitrust law to their business operations, with an emphasis on issues arising in technology-focused industries.
Prior to joining the firm, Taylor served in the front office of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from 2018 to 2021, first as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General and then as chief of staff. She was a key advisor on the application of antitrust law to technology industries, including in the DOJ’s review of the business practices of market-leading online platforms and in the application of antitrust law to the exercise of intellectual property rights and standard setting organizations. She was the recipient of both the Assistant Attorney General’s Award and the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service.
Taylor is intimately familiar with all phases of merger review, drawing on her direct experience reviewing mergers at the DOJ to counsel and represent clients before regulatory agencies. Her experience includes mergers involving vertical theories of harm, the acquisition of a nascent or potential competitor, and the implications of a merger for innovation and data accumulation.
Taylor also has deep experience crafting both trial and appellate strategy in headline-making antitrust and competition litigation, and has argued matters before the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the First and Fourth Circuits.
Upon leaving the DOJ in 2021, Taylor joined Baker Botts as a partner in that firm’s Washington, D.C., office.
Earlier in her career, she clerked for the Honorable Douglas H. Ginsburg on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Recent Articles by Taylor Owings
IP/Antitrust Policy Changes are Afoot in the Biden Administration’s DOJ
The intersection of intellectual property (IP) and antitrust law is again a hot debate after a recent speech by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division’s (“DOJ” or “Division”) Economics Director of Enforcement, Jeffrey Wilder, titled Leveling the Playing Field in the Standards Ecosystem: Principles for a Balanced Antitrust Enforcement Approach to Standards-Essential Patents. Before we dive in on the key takeaways from the speech, and our thoughts on potential ramifications, it bears briefly mentioning how we got here.
The FTC’s Repair Restriction Ambition May Face Friction
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has pledged to use more of its enforcement resources to ensure that consumers are free from manufacturer-imposed restrictions on self-repair or third-party repair, to the maximum extent allowed under the law. The unanswered question is: how far does the law allow the FTC to go? The answer is, quite possibly, not as far as the White House or the new Chair of the FTC, Lina Khan, would like. One problem for the FTC: doubts about the authority granted to the agency under the FTC Act. Another hurdle will be the legal protections granted to manufacturers—both as market participants responding to consumer demand and, in many cases, as the owners of intellectual property rights. This blog has already discussed some of the ways that the “right to repair” movement might conflict with copyright protections. Here, we focus on the limits of the FTC’s authority and antitrust doctrine, as well as conflicts with patent law.
