Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer announced today that leading antitrust litigators Heather Lamberg and Justina Sessions have joined the firm in Washington DC and Silicon Valley respectively. Lamberg has a long track record of working with her clients from a variety of industries to successfully navigate high-stakes antitrust cases ranging from criminal cartel investigations, multi-district class actions, to competitor cases. Sessions represents a roster of clients ranging from small start-ups to Fortune 500 companies in business-critical disputes with competitors and enforcement authorities, with a particular focus on the technology sector.

“Heather and Tina are extremely impressive additions to our team,” said Eric Mahr, Joint Head of Freshfields’ Global Antitrust Litigation Group. “I have had the privilege of serving as co-counsel alongside both Heather and Tina in joint defense groups over the years, and I am confident they will be invaluable to our clients and excellent additions to our team.”

Lamberg has led teams on bet-your-company antitrust matters during her time both at Winston & Strawn and Shearman & Sterling. Her experience spans a wide variety of antitrust claims – from conspiracy claims of market allocation or price-fixing, to monopolization claims of exclusive dealing, bundling, tying to and unfair competition claims. In addition to private litigation, Lamberg has significant experience defending companies and individuals in criminal price-fixing investigations before the DOJ. A few of her representative matters include:

• Defending Englewood Hospital in a trial against the FTC challenging its plan to merge with another health system
• Defending Zillow in a case brought by an alleged competitor alleging predatory pricing, unfair competition and false advertising relating to for-sale-by-owner posting
• Defending pharmaceutical companies in various antitrust cases, including recent MDL class action alleging an overarching industry-wide conspiracy to allocate markets and fix prices
• Representing Japanese auto parts manufacturers in DOJ cartel investigation into alleged price fixing of certain auto parts, and related private follow-on litigation – including successfully defeating class certification
• Representing the North American Soccer League (NASL) in its lawsuit against the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer

Lamberg has been listed as “Key Lawyer” in The Legal 500 in Cartel and Civil Litigation/Class Actions: Defense. She is also regularly included in The Best Lawyers in America for Litigation—Antitrust. She has been recognized in Benchmark Litigation as a “Litigation Star,” a “National Practice Area Star,” and a “District of Columbia Litigation Star” for Antitrust and General Commercial Litigation.

Sessions has tried numerous antitrust and IP matters in courts and agencies across the country during her tenures at Wilson Sonsini and Keker, Van Nest and Peters. Her representative matters include:

• Defending a major technology platform in several monopolization cases brought by enforcers, private plaintiffs, and putative classes
• Key member of the trial and appellate teams that obtained a landmark victory in a closely watched case for a major semiconductor company in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
• Represented a major semiconductor company in a consumer class action concerning the company’s patent licensing practices. Obtained a Ninth Circuit reversal of class certification decision on interlocutory review
• Defended Google and Lucasfilm in a suit that alleged defendants agreed not to poach each other’s employees

Sessions has been recognized in the Daily Journal’s list of the “Top 40 Under 40” and Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in America. Additional recognition includes being named in the Daily Journal’s “Top Antitrust Lawyers”, Global Competition Review’s Women in Antitrust, Law360’s “Rising Star” list and Benchmark Litigation’s “Hot List”.

“The rise of antitrust enforcement in the US continues to be a top-of-mind threat for our clients,” Global Head of the Firm’s Antitrust Practice Thomas Janssens said. “With their combined backgrounds in big defense and class action cases, Heather and Tina are invaluable additions to our already unmatched team of litigators. Clients navigating the evolving antitrust landscape turn to Freshfields for unrivaled knowledge and experience in merger control and antitrust litigation in the US.”

With more than 50 partners and 300 lawyers across the United States, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Freshfields is the global market leader in all aspects of competition law, including mergers, cartel investigations and stand-alone antitrust litigation. For the fifth consecutive year, the firm is ranked first in Global Competition Review’s Global Elite rankings, with specific call outs for the firm’s merger control and antitrust litigation practices. Freshfields’ US antitrust team includes an impressive list of former lead trial attorneys and senior officials from multiple government agencies including the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

This news is the latest in a series of curated strategic partner additions in the US and around the globe. This week, Freshfields announced it had brought on board financial regulatory partner David Sewell and finance partner Damian Ridealgh in New York, as well as a four-partner strategic risk team based in Silicon Valley and Washington DC led by Beth George.