Abraham Lee Wickelgren is an American lawyer who is currently the Fred And Emily Marshall Wulff Centennial Chair In Law at the

University of Texas School of Law The University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law) is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Texas at Austin, a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas. According to Texas Law’s American Bar ...

. He was previously the Bernard J. Ward Centennial Professor of Law. He is currently the co-editor of ''

The Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization ''The Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering law and economics. It was established in 1985 and is published by Oxford University Press. The founding editors were Oliver E. Williamson and ...

'' and was formerly the co-editor-in-chief of the '' American Law and Economics Review''. Wickelgren worked as a visiting professor at

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

from 2012 to 2013 and

Duke University School of Law The Duke University School of Law is the law school of Duke University, a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. One of Duke's 10 schools and colleges, the School of Law is a constituent academic unit that began in 1868 as the ...

between 2008 and 2009. He also was a staff economist for the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...

in the Bureau of Economics for 5 years between 1999 and 2004.

Early life

Wickelgren was born on May 14, 1969, to Wayne Wickelgren and Barbara Gordon-Lickey. He is the brother of physicist Peter W. Graham and mathematician Kirsten Wickelgren. He also has 1 other sister, 1 half-sister, and 3 step-siblings. In his freshman year of high school, he was class president and in his sophomore year, he was class vice president. He won the Berkeley debate tournament in his junior and senior year. During his senior year, he got to octofinals of the

Tournament of Champions A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

in cross examination debate. He graduated from

South Eugene High School South Eugene High School is a public high school located in Eugene, Oregon, United States. History The school was founded as Eugene High School in 1903, and was located at Willamette Street and West 11th Avenue in a brick building that later se ...

College

Wickelgren attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. He was on the policy debate team during his freshman year and got to the finals of novice nationals. He graduated

Cum Laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

Applied Mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematics, mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and Industrial sector, industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a ...

to Economics in 1999. He got a JD and a Ph.D. in economics, also from Harvard. During his last year in law school, he was on the Harvard Law Review.

Academic Research

Wickelgren started doing research as part of his job for the

. Then he moved to the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

to become a lecturer in the economics department but still made time for research. In 2006, Wickelgren moved to the Northwestern University school of law to become an assistant professor for 3 years. In 2018, he wrote an article for

Brookings Brookings may refer to: Organizations * Brookings Institution, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. Places * Brookings, Oregon, USA * Brookings, South Dakota, USA * Brookings County, South Dakota, USA ...

about a solution to gun control. He has also written several book chapters on contracts, antitrust enforcement and affirmative action among other topics. He also frequently writes papers that have been published in peer-reviewed journals with Ezra Friedman and Ronen Avraham. At the University of Texas, he teaches a seminar in Law & Economics every semester, in the fall he teaches a course on antitrust and in the spring he teaches a course on Law and Economics.

Consulting and Testifying

Wickelgren spoke at a committee hearing in the Texas legislature in 2021 against the requirement that electric vehicles have to be sold through a dealership. He also worked on E-books litigation as a consulting expert for the State of Texas between 2010 and 2013 and also was an expert in the settlement between June 2012 and 2013. Wickelgren also comments to news outlets on issues of antitrust. In 2024, he gave an interview to Vox on the antitrust issues associated with the potential sale of

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

to any major tech firms. In 2017, he was interviewed by UT News on the subject of if

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

and

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

are monopolies.

Personal life

Wickelgren lives in Austin with his two children, Maya Mikelson and Justin Wickelgren. He is married to Kelly S. Mikelson.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wickelgren, Abraham University of Texas School of Law faculty Texas lawyers American academic journal editors Harvard Law School alumni Harvard University alumni Living people 1969 births South Eugene High School alumni