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Sidley Austin said in an announcement on its website on 30 October 2026 that Elaine Whiteford has joined its Litigation practice group in London from Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where she was a partner in the firm’s Litigation and Antitrust & Competition practices.
Key points
- Sidley said Ms Whiteford’s work at the firm will be centred on competition and antitrust litigation, along with investigations and connected matters.
- Sidley said that before joining, she was a partner in Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP’s Litigation and Antitrust & Competition practices.
- Sidley said she has spent more than 25 years acting for large multinational companies in some of their most prominent competition and antitrust disputes.
- According to Sidley, her casework includes competition damages claims, covering both cartel and abuse-of-dominance matters, heard by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, the English High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the UK Supreme Court.
- Sidley said she has worked on claims brought under the UK’s collective actions regime and advised on investigations involving the Competition and Markets Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority, other regulators worldwide and, before Brexit, the European Commission.
Rankings and regulatory work
Sidley said Ms Whiteford has also acted for clients contesting regulatory rulings, including decisions blocking mergers, and that she is highly ranked by both Legal 500 UK and Chambers UK in the fields of competition law and competition litigation.
Yvette Ostolaza, Chair of Sidley’s Management Committee, said clients with exposure to the UK and Europe continue to encounter competition claims ranging from follow-on damages actions to collective proceedings, and are seeking advisers with direct experience of major cases. She said: “Elaine brings exactly that deep experience.”
London growth
Tom Thesing, who leads the firm’s London office as managing partner and also sits on Sidley’s Management and Executive Committees, linked the hire to continued investment in the office. He said: “Elaine’s arrival is a further step in the sustained investment we are making in London, where we have grown significantly and continue to add leading partners across our disputes, regulatory, and transactional practices.”
Sidley said it has added more than 30 partners in London and promoted 15 of its lawyers to the partnership over the last three years. Among those it named as part of that growth were Philip Hertz, Melissa Coakley and James Inness, as well as Jeremy Trinder, Sean Carney and Ed Gander, together with David Stewart, Clive Gringras and Jayanthi Sadanandan, and also Sam Hamilton, James MacArthur and Ramy Wahbeh.
Separately, Sidley said it counts more than 750 litigators worldwide.