Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral argument in North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. FTC, involving an antitrust challenge to the Board’s sending of cease and desist letters to non-dentists engaged in teeth whitening services. You can access the filings and more detailed coverage at Scotusblog. In my PR class today, we will discuss conflicts of interest inherent when regulators are members of the industry they regulate, and this case does a nice job of setting the issues, albeit in a somewhat different context than the way lawyers are regulated. I’m planning to use this NPR audio clip to spark discussion. For more detail on how the Court’s decision in this case might impact the legal profession, you can read this amicus brief, which I helped put together. And Scalia did ask a few questions about implications for the legal profession during oral argument (transcript here).
Chapter 5: Conflicts of Interest / Chapter 9: Why Do Lawyers Have Special Privileges and Responsibilities