Elaine Johnston > A&O Shearman > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile
A&O Shearman Offices

1221 AVENUE OF THE AMERICAS
NEW YORK, NY 10020
NEW YORK
United States
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Elaine Johnston

Work Department
Antitrust
Position
Partner
Career
Elaine has handled matters in a wide range of industries, including chemicals, pharmaceuticals and healthcare, oil and gas, engineering, banking and financial services, agricultural products, and vitamins, within A&O Shearman.
She has been featured in Chambers USA, BTI Client Service All-Stars, PLC Which Lawyer?, The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Competition and Antitrust Lawyers, and Global Competition Review’s Women in Antitrust 2021.
Elaine has an active practice before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) representing merging parties in connection with mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, as well as companies in non-merger investigations, and she is particularly experienced in coordinating U.S., European, and other foreign antitrust clearances on complex cross-border deals. Elaine also has an active antitrust litigation practice including representing the Belarusian Potash Company, Experian, Mercuria, and Saudi Aramco. In addition, she regularly advises companies on business conduct, including worldwide distribution and licensing arrangements, patent pools, information exchanges and benchmarking.
Elaine was ranked Band 3 in Chambers USA 2023 and has been ranked for 21 years.
Elaine is a member of the American Bar Association (Antitrust section) and the New York State Bar Association (Chair, Antitrust Law section). She is also a former member of the editorial board of the ABA’s Competition Laws Outside the United States, a former associate editor of the Antitrust Law Journal, and a former member of the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. She is a frequent speaker at antitrust conferences and seminars.
Lawyer Rankings
United States > Antitrust > Merger control
With antitrust expertise across Dallas, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington DC, the A&O Shearman merger control offering regularly handles complex, strategic transactions. The team’s international reach is particularly notable. David Higbee heads the global antitrust practice, with notable government experience and industry expertise across the defense, oil and gas, financial services, and technology sectors. The firm’s merger control offering is complemented by its antitrust litigation practice, headed by Todd Stenerson. For multi-national mergers, companies seek out Jessica Delbaum in New York, noted for her experience before the FTC and Department of Justice. Also in New York, Elaine Johnston has longstanding experience of matters in the chemicals, pharma, and healthcare industries. The intersection of antitrust law and intellectual property is an area of interest for Noah Brumfield, who splits his time between DC and Silicon Valley. Puja Patel departed the team in January 2025. Team members are based in Washington DC unless otherwise stated.
Lawyer Rankings
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Advertising and marketing: litigation
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
Firm Rankings
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: global offerings
- Finance > Commercial lending: Advice to bank lenders
- Environment > Environment: transactional
- Tax > Financial products
- Dispute resolution > Financial services litigation
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- Finance > Project finance
- Energy > Renewable/alternative power
- Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Finance > Commercial lending > Advice to direct lenders/private credit
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Finance > Fintech
- Tax > International tax
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Media, technology and telecoms > Outsourcing
- Antitrust > Cartel
- Energy > Energy transactions: oil and gas
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: middle-market (Up to $500m)
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Dispute resolution > International arbitration
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Real estate > Real estate
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- International trade and national security > CFIUS