LAURA COLLINS works in all aspects of competition law but focuses primarily on the defense of mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures before the Federal Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and on coordinating merger defenses before other competition agencies around the world. Laura also acted in a number of antitrust litigations in the United States and counsels clients in transportation and other industries on antitrust compliance.
After graduating from law school, Laura joined the DOJ’s Antitrust Division as part of the honors program. While at the DOJ, Laura was part of the trial team in civil actions against Apple for price-fixing in eBooks (2014) and against the U.S. Airways/American Airlines (2014) and AT&T/T-Mobile (2012) mergers. Between college and law school, Laura worked as an economic analyst on antitrust matters at an economics consulting firm. As a result, she was frequently called upon to work with testifying economic experts while at the DOJ. In addition to her litigation work, Laura was the lead investigator in various merger investigations and participated in investigations of other mergers and potential monopoly and coordinated conduct.
Following her time at the DOJ, Laura went into private practice, first with the antitrust group of an international law firm headquartered in Europe and now at Sidley. In private practice, Laura has worked on numerous merger and non-merger antitrust matters in diverse industries such as aviation, pharmaceuticals, beverage cans, energy, hotels, technology platforms, and chemicals. Many of these merger matters involved international transactions reviewable in multiple jurisdictions, and Laura worked with local counsel to coordinate the merger control defenses across jurisdictions. Laura continued to participate in merger litigation, both for third parties and on behalf of RAG-Stiftung in the successful defense of the acquisition of PeroxyChem by its subsidiary Evonik, which had been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in federal district court. Alongside her merger control work, Laura counseled clients with respect to pricing and distribution, competitor collaborations, and monopolization in a number of industries, but with a particular focus in aviation. Laura’s international experience also includes secondments to antitrust practices in London and Brussels.
Most recently, Laura was recognized as a “Future Leader” in Competition in the 2023 edition of Who’s Who Legal. Laura was also named one of four 2020 “Rising Stars” in the Americas in the Competition and Antitrust category by the International Financial Law Review. She has also been listed by Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides as a 2021 Rising Star in Competition and Antitrust. Additionally, in spring 2019, she received the Burton Award for distinguished legal writing in Antitrust. Laura is an active member of the American Bar Association (ABA) section of Antitrust Law, where she currently serves as co-chair of the Intellectual Property Committee.
Laura is a regular contributor to the firm’s monthly Antitrust Bulletin, in which the Sidley team provides timely updates and thoughtful analysis on top of mind antitrust issues.