Areas of Specialization
Antitrust Law; Constitutional Law; Business Associations; Economic Analysis of Law; and Political Economy
Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Professor Meese graduated first in his class with high honors in Ancient Greek from the College of William and Mary, where he also earned a secondary concentration in Economics. He then attended the University of Chicago Law School from which he graduated with honors, served as a Comment Editor on the Law Review, earned a John M. Olin Fellowship in Law & Economics, and was elected to Order of the Coif. After law school he clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. He was admitted to the Virginia and District of Columbia Bars and practiced law at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom in Washington, D.C.
Professor Meese joined the William and Mary faculty in 1995 and was a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Virginia in the 2001-2002 academic year. He was the Cabell Research Professor of Law in 2001-2002, 2011-2012, 2013-2014, 2014-15, and 2018-19, and was the Tazewell Taylor Research Professor in 2016-17. He is a 2022-2023 Dean's Faculty Fellow.
Meese is the author or co-author of over 50 scholarly articles and essays appearing one or more times in The Green Bag, Antitrust Bulletin, Virginia Law & Business Review, Harvard Law Review Forum, Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, Hastings Law Journal, Antitrust Law Journal, Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the Georgetown Law Journal, Law and Contemporary Problems, the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal, and the University of Pennsylvania, Creighton, Fordham, Michigan, George Mason, Illinois, Boston University, Cornell, Southern California, Iowa, UCLA, North Carolina, Minnesota, Florida State, NYU, Wake Forest, University of Chicago, and William & Mary law reviews. He is a frequent lecturer on antitrust issues and has served as a referee for the Journal of Legal Studies, Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Journal of Competition Law and Economics, History of Political Economy Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal and William & Mary Policy Review.
Professor Meese has been an active participant in Faculty Governance and Leadership at the University Level. Most recently, he served for two years as the Faculty representative on the College's Board of Visitors. He previously served as Vice President and then President of the Faculty Assembly, and he co-chaired the Committee on Religion in a Public University. He has twice chaired the College's Procedural Review Committee, co-chaired the Faculty and University Priorities Committee and served for three years on the University Planning Steering Committee.
Professor Meese received the Walter L. Williams Jr. Teaching Award in 2000 and received a Plumeri Fellowship for Faculty Excellence in 2010 and 2013.
Meese serves on the Boards of the Bork Foundation and the Antitrust Education Project. He is an Academic Affiliate of the International Center for Law & Economics and recently chaired the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Antitrust and Economic Regulation. In the summer of 2013, Professor Meese participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on the History of Political Economy at Duke University. He also served as a Senior Advisor to the Antitrust Modernization Commission from 2004-2007. In April, 2007, the Virginia Bar Association included Meese on a list of 11 candidates it recommended for nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. In 2017, Professor Meese received the William Small Award, conferred by the Society for the College, in recognition of his "professional commitment to the academic excellence of the College of William & Mary and to the furtherance of the education of his students."
Prof. Meese's publications on SSRN.
Center for the Study of Law and Markets webpage.
Scholarly Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
- New Vision, Old Model: How the FTC Exaggerated Harms When Rejecting Business Justifications for Noncompetes, 109 Cornell L. Rev. Online 13. SSRN.
- Regulation by (bad) Proxy: How Selective Application of Transaction Cost Economics Tainted the FTC’s Proposed Ban of Employee Noncompete Agreements, 100 Indiana L.J. Supplement __ (forthcoming 2024). SSRN.
- Are Employee Noncompete Agreements Coercive? Why the FTC's Wrong Answer Disqualifies It from Rulemaking (For Now), 18 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 245 (2024). SSRN.
- The Rule of Reason’s Prima Facie Case: Did Harvard Get it Right?, 170 U. Penn. L. Rev. Online _____ (forthcoming 2023) (invited submission).
- The Constitutional Moment that Wasn't: 1912-1914 and the Meaning of the Sherman Act, (2022). Online.
- Don't Abolish Employee Noncompete Agreements, 57 Wake Forest L. Rev 631 (2022). SSRN.
- Federalism, Free Competition, and Sherman Act Preemption of State Restraints, 16 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 115 (2021) (reprinted in _____ Defense L.J. _____ (forthcoming 2023)). SSRN.
- Requiem for a Lightweight: How NCAA Continues to Distort Antitrust Doctrine, 56 Wake Forest L. Rev. 1103 (2021). SSRN.
- Will the Supreme Court Recover its Own Fumble? How Alston Can Repair the Damage From NCAA's Sports League Exemption, 11 Wake Forest L. Rev. Online 70 (2021). SSRN.
- Antitrust Regulation and the Federal-State Balance: Restoring the Original Design, 70 Am. U. L. Rev. 75 (2020). SSRN.
- Wickard Through an Antitrust Lens, 60 W&M. L. Rev. 1335 (2019) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Justice Scalia and Sherman Act Textualism, 92 Notre Dame L. Rev. 2013 (2017) (symposium article). SSRN.
- Were the 1982 merger guidelines old news?, 13 (2017) (with Sarah L. Stafford).
- In Praise of All or Nothing Dichotomous Categories: Why Antitrust Law Should Reject the Quick Look, 104 Geo. L.J. 835 (2016). SSRN.
- Antitrust Federalism and State Restraints of Interstate Commerce: An Essay for Professor Hovenkamp, 100 Iowa L. Rev. 2161 (2015) (invited submission for Centennial Symposium). SSRN.
- Hobby Lobby, Corporate Law, and the Theory of the Firm: Why For-Profit Corporations are RFFA Persons, 127 Harv. L. Rev. F. 273 (2014) (with Nathan B. Oman). SSRN.
- Antitrust, Regulatory Harm, and Economic Liberty, 99 Iowa L. Rev. Bulletin 115 (2014). SSRN.
- Robert Bork's Forgotten Role in the Transaction Cost Revolution, 79 Antitrust L.J. 953 (2014) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Assorted Anti-Leegin Canards: Why Resistance is Misguided and Futile, 40 Fla. St. L. Rev. 908 (2013). SSRN.
- Competition Policy and the Great Depression: Lessons Learned and a New Way Forward, 23 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 255 (2013). SSRN.
- Reframing the (False?) Choice Between Purchaser Welfare and Total Welfare: How the Partial Equilibrium Trade-off Model Distorts Normative Antitrust Debate, 81 Fordham L. Rev. 2197 (2013) (invited submission). SSRN.
- The Market Power Model of Contract Formation: How Outmoded Economic Theory Still Distorts Antitrust Doctrine, 88 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1291 (2013). SSRN.
- Section 2 and the Great Recession: Why Less (Enforcement) Might Mean More (GDP), 80 Fordham L. Rev. 1633 (2012). SSRN.
- Standard Oil as Lochner's Trojan Horse, 85 S. Cal. L. Rev. 783 (2012) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Debunking the Purchaser Welfare Account of Section 2 of the Sherman Act: How Harvard Brought Us a Total Welfare Standard and Why We Should Keep It, 85 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 659 (2010). SSRN.
- Reframing Antitrust in Light of Scientific Revolution: Accounting for Transaction Costs in Rule of Reason Analysis, 62 Hastings L.J. 457 (2010). SSRN.
- A Careful Examination of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster Merger, 2009 (with Barak Richman). SSRN.
- Competition and Market Failure in the Antitrust Jurisprudence of Justice Stevens, 74 Fordham L. Rev. 1775 (2006) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Exclusive Dealing, the Theory of the Firm, and Raising Rivals' Costs: Toward a New Synthesis, 50 Antitrust Bull. 371 (2005) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Judicial Review and Nongeneralizable Cases, 32 Fla. St. U. L. Rev. 323 (2005) (with Neal Devins) (invited submission, symposium article).
- Market Failure and Non-Standard Contracting: How the Ghost of Perfect Competition Still Haunts Antitrust, 1 J. Competition L. & Econ. 21 (2005). SSRN.
- Monopolization, Exclusion, and the Theory of the Firm, 89 Minn. L. Rev. 743 (2005). SSRN.
- Property Rights and Refusals to Deal: The Real Story of Aspen Skiing Corp., 73 Antitrust L.J. 81 (2005) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Intrabrand Restraints and the Theory of the Firm, 83 N.C. L. Rev. 5 (2004). SSRN.
- Property Rights and Intrabrand Restraints, 89 Cornell L. Rev. 553 (2004). SSRN.
- Price Theory, Competition, and the Rule of Reason, 2003 U. Ill. L. Rev. 77. SSRN.
- Raising Rivals' Costs: Can the Agencies Do More Good Than Harm?, 12 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 241 (2003) (invited submission).
- The Team Production Theory of Corporate Law: A Critical Assessment, 43 Wm.& Mary L. Rev. 1629 (2002). SSRN.
- Don't Disintegrate Microsoft (Yet), 9 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 761 (2001) (invited submission). SSRN.
- The Externality of Victim Care, 68 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1201 (2001). SSRN.
- Bakke Betrayed, 63 Law & Contemp. Probs. 479 (2000) (invited submission).
- Farewell to the Quick Look: Redefining the Scope and Content of the Rule of Reason, 68 Antitrust L. J. 461 (2000) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Economic Theory, Trader Freedom, and Consumer Welfare: State Oil v. Khan and the Continuing Incoherence of Antitrust Doctrine, 84 Cornell L. Rev. 763 (1999). SSRN.
- Liberty and Antitrust in the Formative Era, 79 B.U. L. Rev. 1 (1999). SSRN.
- Monopoly Bundling In Cyberspace: How Many Products Does Microsoft Sell?, 44 Antitrust Bull. 65 (1999) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Regulation of Franchisor Opportunism and Production of the Institutional Framework: Federal Monopoly or Competition Between The States?, 23 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 61 (1999) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Will, Judgment, and Economic Liberty: Mr. Justice Souter and the Mistranslation of the Due Process Clause, 41 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 3 (1999) (invited submission). SSRN.
- Reinventing Bakke, 1 Green Bag 381 (1998).
- Price Theory and Vertical Restraints: A Misunderstood Relation, 45 UCLA L. Rev. 143 (1997). SSRN.
- Tying Meets the New Institutional Economics: Farewell to the Chimera of Forcing, 146 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1 (1997). SSRN.
- Antitrust Balancing in a (Near) Coasean World: The Case of Franchise Tying Contracts, 95 Mich. L. Rev. 111 (1996). SSRN.
- Limitations on Corporate Speech: Protection for Shareholders or Abridgement of Expression?, 2 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 305 (1993). SSRN.
- Inadvertent Waiver of the Attorney-Client Privilege By Disclosure of Documents: An Economic Analysis, 23 Creighton L. Rev. 513 (1990). SSRN.
Other
- The End of an Idea: Progressive Constitutionalism is a Dead End, National Review Online, July 5, 2010 (with Nate Oman) (op-ed). Online.
- The New DOJ: Lessons Learned from the Ticketmaster/Live Nation Decision, The Huffington Post, Jan. 29, 2010 (with Barak D. Richmond). Online.
- What the "Rule of Law" Requires, The Daily Press, Feb. 4, 2006, at A13.
- Why Kerry's Global Test Threatens Our Security, Virginia Gazette, Oct. 13, 2004, at 18A (op-ed). Online.
- Honorable Service, New York Post, Feb. 23, 2004, at 28 (op-ed). Online.
- Annan Leaves Door Open for U.S. Action, The Daily Press, Feb. 17, 2003, at A13.
- The Majority Decision in Bush v. Gore Vindicated the Rule of Law and Upheld the U.S. Constitution, Insight in the News, Jan. 15, 2001, at 40 (op-ed). Online.
- Premerger Review and Bankruptcy: The Meaning of Section 363(b)(2), Antitrust Mag., 1993, at 35 (with Robert B. Greenbaum). Online.