Freshfields Adds DOJ Antitrust Lawyer

London-founded Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is expanding yet again in the US, adding former Justice Department (DOJ) antitrust lawyer Julie Elmer as a partner in Washington, DC. 

Elmer is the latest in a recent series of high-profile moves by the firm. Freshfields has been making good on growth plans in the US, which kicked into high gear last fall following the addition of a four-lawyer group from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton that included mergers and acquisitions rainmaker Ethan Klingsberg. 

Earlier this month, Freshfields opened an office in Silicon Valley, hiring five California lawyers in total from Big Law competitors Davis Polk & Wardwell, Latham & Watkins, Sidley Austin, and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm also recently added former Willkie Farr & Gallagher business and corporate litigation practice group chair Mary Eaton in New York as the co-head of Freshfields’ new securities and shareholder litigation practice. 

Elmer joined the DOJ’s antitrust division in 2015 as a trial attorney in its technology and financial services section. In 2017 she led the Division’s successful trial victory blocking Energy Solutions Inc.’s merger with Waste Control Specialists and more recently led the trial team in the DOJ’s challenge to Sabre’s acquisition of Farelogix. She played significant roles on trial teams in its cases involving AT&T, Time Warner, and United Continental Holdings. 

Elmer, a former partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, said she enjoyed her time in government, but missed the client relationships she developed in private practice. Freshfields, with its global footprint, commitment to expansion in the US, and familiar faces, was the best fit.

Full Content: Freshfields

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