Professor Kip Viscusi introduced HIein by quipping that when the Department of Justice first brought suit against the software giant, the question looming ominously before the public was, "Could anyone take on Bill Gates?"  Klein clarified the answer last month, when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson '64 held that Microsoft had violated the nation's anti-trust laws.

"I don't want to come up here and be a naysayer," Klein said, suggesting that the capitalist economic model is unquestionably dominant in today's world, and that "the U.S. economy is the envy of the world."

But Klein said he was concerned about another postulate which often accompanies capitalist rhetoric; namely "that government should get out of the way, and things will get better and better," he said, adding, "The success of the free market depends on markets remaining competitive."

"Business today has every incentive to collude, not compete.  If government steps aside, that's what will happen," Klein warned.  That concern is at the heart of antitrust."

Klein was critical of scholars who advocate abolition of the antitrust Laws, the result of which would be "to increase the profit of business at the expense of consumers."

Klein spoke of a major case several years ago in which the government cracked a commodities cartel which fixed prices for food additives.  The government clandestinely taped some of the cartel meetings, and obtained other evidence that resulted in the incarceration of several senior executives.

"We've cracked several other major cartels," Klein said.  "The antitrust division had a $100 million budget last year, and brought in $1.2 billion in fines."

Klein also took aim at columnists who find fault with government prosecution of antitrust violations, including one who claimed that "price fixing was not a big deal."

"I agree that cartel behavior is between consenting adults," Klein explained.  "The people being screwed are the public."  "Cartels are very enduring.  One we cracked last year was 17 years old," he said.

Klein explained that cartels are anathema to good business practices, claiming that the motto of one company was "our competitors are our friends, our customers are our enemies."  Klein explained that the price-fixing meetings are accompanied by dummy agendas and other documentation designed to mask their true purpose.

Klein showed the audience portions of a video which showed members of a commodities cartel caught in the act of price fixing.  "It's remarkable in terms of the brazenness and sophistication of these participants;" Klein commented.

Some of the cartel's tactics to avoid detection included referring to themselves as a trade association and staggering the entry of cartel members into the meeting.

In the video, the official of a colluding company, located in Japan, expressed concern at coming to the United States for a price-fixing meeting.  "These people know the U.S. is aggressive," he said.  "They don't want to come to the U.S., they know the penalties are severe."  Nonetheless, the cartel met in Hawaii in 1994, under the guise of setting up a new association.  The video showed executives debating the new level at which to fix their prices.

"What I want to emphasize is that what you were watching took place by people who knew their behavior was illegal and were facing big penalties," Klein said.

Klein began his discussion of the Microsoft case by noting that market share is a highly-prized commodity in the new economy.  "Dominance can be leveraged into adjacent markets," Klein said.  "Market power, how it is acquired and abused, is at the heart of the competitive economy."

Klein applauded the adaptability of antitrust theory, and its ready application to the facts of current economy.  "The [Microsoft] court heard all about market power, with 78 days of testimony and thousands of pages of depositions."

"The Microsoft monopoly is based on 90% market share," Klein said.  New entrants face substantial barriers because of network effects and feedback loops."

Klein said that Gates knew that "Netscape was trying to develop a cross-platform.  Gates says, 'Our core asset is at stake.'"

Klein described Microsoft's browser-related practices as "classic predatory antitrust acts."  The tactics allegedly included "exclusive dealings, predatory pricing and operations to protect the monopoly."

Klein said such practices cause serious harm by deterring innovation.  "Companies won't take the risk of what happened to Netscape," he explained.

"The argument in the press that technical issues move so fast misses the point," Klein said. "The important point is Microsoft's dominance on the desktop is every bit as real today as it was five years ago."

"If Microsoft is allowed to continue the same tactics, for example, in voice recognition, innovation will be stifled " Klein said.

"This case is not over.  Microsoft said they intend to appeal," Klein said.  "I look forward to expeditious resolution at the appellate level."

Klein ended his talk by tying his work to broader issues of justice and social welfare.  "What concerns me is the current preoccupation with wealth creation," he said.  "Wealth creation is important for societal goals, but I'm worried."  Klein said "The most troubling thing is that despite the enormous wealth creation, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is growing," he said.  "We don't seem terribly concerned, and are not prepared to address it.  But if we are not prepared to address it now, when will we be?"

"If our culture becomes so awash in wealth, we will end up being poor in the things that matter most," he said.

After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1971, Klein clerked on the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Powell on the U.S. Supreme Court.  After the clerkship, he worked at a public interest law firm where he litigated a number of notable law reform cases on behalf of the mentally ill and mentally challenged.  Mr. Klein then served as an associate and partner at a litigation boutique, and subsequently co-founded a law firm specializing in appellate advocacy.

Prior to assuming his current post, Klein acted as Deputy Counsel to President Bill Clinton.