Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP today announced that it has expanded its antitrust and litigation platforms with the additions of Boris Bronfentrinker, Elaine Whiteford and Nicola Chesaites. The team will join Willkie’s London office from Quinn Emanuel where Boris co-led the UK competition litigation practice, Elaine and Nicola were partners. They will be joined by a team of at least eight associates. Today’s announcement reflects Willkie’s commitment to continue to expand its antitrust and litigation practices in London and globally, to service our clients’ needs in the important area of competition disputes.
A recognized market leader, Boris Bronfentrinker has extensive experience representing both claimants and defendants, in high profile cases in the English courts, including the Supreme Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, as well as coordinating competition litigation proceedings for clients globally. His team is also experienced in litigating competition law matters before the European Courts in Luxembourg. Additionally, Boris and his team have represented clients in the defense of competition investigations by the European Commission and national competition authorities, as well as in relation to sector inquiries and managing internal investigations into competition law and bribery/corruption issues.
Boris is widely recognized as a leader in his field by legal ranking guides, uniquely acting regularly for both claimants and defendants. Boris and his team are acting on some of the largest and most important competition litigation matters that are presently before the courts, securing landmark judgments that are shaping the competition litigation landscape. The directories rank the team as at the top of the market in competition litigation; the recently published The Legal 500 UK 2022 Edition ranks the practice in Tier 1, and they are seen as the ‘go to’ team in the area of collective actions. Boris and the team have won multiple awards, including “Litigation of the Year – Non-Cartel Prosecution” for 2021 at the Global Competition Review Awards, and “Competition & Regulatory Team of the Year” at the Lawyer’s Awards in 2020.
Welcoming Boris and the team to the firm, London managing partner Peter Burrell commented: “We are very pleased that Boris, Elaine and Nicola will be joining the Firm. They are an experienced and highly regarded team who regularly advise clients on the most complex and high profile antitrust litigation matters. Their arrival represents another significant expansion of our London office and demonstrates our commitment to growing our services in response to the needs of our clients.”
“The opportunity to join Willkie’s impressive global antitrust and litigation platforms from which we can continue to develop and grow our market leading practice was too good an opportunity to let go. Willkie is a perfect fit for our practice and ambitions for the future,” said Boris. “Willkie is involved in some of the most complex compliance and antitrust matters and we will be able to offer clients on the defence side an end-to-end service from the investigatory stage through to the civil litigation stage, whilst also being able to continue to take on important cases for clients on the claimant side. We are excited about the opportunities ahead and look forward to joining the Willkie team, adding to their existing impressive capabilities in London and globally.”
“The antitrust challenges our clients are facing are becoming ever more complex,” said Philipp Girardet, Head of Willkie’s European Antitrust & Competition Group. “The arrival of Boris, an outstanding antitrust litigator, and his first class team, will further strengthen Willkie’s position as a ‘go to practice’ for complex compliance and cartel matters, offering expert advice at every stage of a case, including importantly protecting our clients’ interests in the courts.”
Elaine Whiteford is a highly experienced competition and EU litigator, having regularly counseled clients on contentious EU, competition and regulatory matters and has been involved in most of the significant competition damages cases that have come before the English courts. She is frequently sought after to represent clients facing investigations by the European Commission, the CMA, the FCA, Ofwat and Ofcom. Elaine has extensive experience litigating claims before the English and European courts, including one of the few abuse of dominance claims to go to trial in England.
Nicola Chesaites is a barrister and advocaat (Belgium), focusing on competition and complex EU litigation. She has extensive experience in competition damages litigation before the English courts and in challenging and defending European institutions in complex EU law matters including, EU trade, banking, sanctions, customs, pharmaceutical and competition law disputes. Nicola has developed a particular expertise in collective actions, being regarded as one of the market leaders in this important and developing area.
Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP serves an antitrust world without borders with a fully integrated, market-leading team of competition lawyers in the U.S. and Europe and with close connections to the leading competition law experts in all other major jurisdictions. We represent an international client base with global merger filings, U.S. and European antitrust investigations, private litigation and class actions, and the structuring of complex business ventures in multiple jurisdictions. We act across many sectors, including financial services and fintech, e-commerce and other online platform services, business and financial information, media, pharmaceuticals, transports, energy, telecommunication, retail apparel, industrial and chemical manufacturing, and satellite communications.
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Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP is an international law firm of approximately 1000 attorneys with offices in Brussels, Chicago, Frankfurt, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rome, San Francisco and Washington. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue. The Firm is headquartered in New York City at 787 Seventh Avenue.
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