Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider

Antitrust

Partner and Chief Workplace Culture & Opportunity Officer

Leslie Overton is an antitrust partner and Axinn’s chief workplace culture & opportunity officer. With a wealth of experience from her time at the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division (DOJ), Leslie offers her clients a valuable combination of experience and insight. She guides companies through merger reviews, civil non-merger investigations, and criminal investigations involving federal, state, and/or foreign antitrust authorities. Her counseling practice focuses on delivering clear, actionable advice on pricing, distribution, and other strategic business matters. Leslie crafts tailored antitrust compliance programs that meet each client’s unique needs and business context.

While serving as deputy assistant attorney general for civil enforcement during the Obama administration, Leslie managed over half of the DOJ’s merger challenges in fiscal years 2012 – 2014, including litigation complaints, settlements, and transactions restructured or abandoned. She also supervised litigation and civil non-merger investigations, as well as several criminal antitrust matters.

Leslie’s role during the Obama administration also extended to leadership with respect to international engagement as well as healthcare policy. In the Bush administration, she served as counsel to the assistant attorney general, contributing to major investigations, litigation, and landmark healthcare hearings with and reports to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”).

Leslie is Chambers-ranked and included in The Legal 500 United States and Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Dealmakers in America.” She has also been honored by Global Competition Review: she was selected twice for inclusion in GCR’s “Women in Antitrust” and as one of eight American lawyers chosen for its “Forty Under 40″ list. The American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section’s Women.Connected inducted her into its “Hall of Fame-inism” for her role as a mentor and trailblazer in antitrust.

American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section, Task Force on the Future of Competition Law Standards (2019 – 2021) American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section, Consumer Protection & Diverse Consumers Task Force, Co-Chair and Nominating Committee (2021) American Bar Association Antitrust Law Section, Merger Practice Workshops, Co-chair (2016 – 2018) American Health Lawyers Association National Bar Association

JD – University of Michigan (1994) BA – University of Pennsylvania (1991)