Allen & Overy adds high-profile Sidley hire, lifts European antitrust team

Allen & Overy adds high-profile Sidley hire, lifts European antitrust team

Having secured the co-head of antitrust for Sidley, a UK firm makes competition law as strategic priority.

Kicking off in 2022, Allen & Overy (A&) has added a high-profile member to its European competition team after O securing Sidley Austin's global co-head of antitrust, Kristina Nordlander.

Having spent more than 16 years at Sidley, Nordlander is moving across to the Magic Circle UK firm's London office after joining the Chicago-based firm's Brussels office soon after it launched, shortly after she joined Cleary in 2003 after its launch.

After losing former co-head of global antitrust, Antonio Bavasso, to Simpson Thacher in 2021, her arrival will reinforce A&O's senior leadership before Brussels office launch in September.

Nordlander, a native of Sweden, will be based in London but will spend time also in Brussels. Over the past decade, she has established a highly regarded practice in EU antitrust and litigation focusing on big tech and life sciences.

A&O highlighted her 'strong client base on the US West Coast', aligning her practice with the seven-partner technology team that it hired from White & Case last year to open offices in Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

"Kristina's hire demonstrates A&O's commitment to invest in our global antitrust team, as a strategic priority," said Philip Mansfield, A&O's global co-head of antitrust.

In October 2020, Nordlander earned plaudits for winning a landmark case on behalf of Shop-Apotheke, when the European Court of Justice ruled against several advertising limitations imposed by France. In it, the Court interpreted the substantive free movement provisions of the EU e-Commerce Directive for the first time.

Women's Competition Network, an international professional forum for experts in competition law and policy, was founded by Nordlander in 2008. It now has more than 2,000 members.

In Chambers and Partners' rankings, A&O is ranked as the second-best firm for competition law in London after Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Slaughter and May. Based on the directory, A&O and Sidley are both ranked in band three in Brussels.

White & Case and Dechert, both of which have added two partners in Washington DC in 2022, are also investing in their competition practices.