Hausfeld announces six senior promotions globally

London, Berlin, Washington, D.C. - Hausfeld is pleased to announce that three lawyers have been promoted to Partner and three lawyers have been promoted to Counsel across the United States and Europe. The promotions are effective immediately.

Partner promotions

Aqeel Kadri, Duran Ross, and Amanda Lee Das Gupta have been invited to join the partnership.

In London, Aqeel Kadri is an experienced competition litigator with a background in both public and private enforcement of competition law in the EU and UK. He is a key member of the team representing Hausfeld’s numerous clients in high-profile Trucks litigation as well as in the recently filed £900 million UK consumer claim against Amazon, the UK Buy Box claim. In 2023, Legal 500 recognised him as a key lawyer.

Also in London, Duran Ross, a solicitor-advocate, is an experienced commercial litigator specialising in complex multinational litigation and arbitration. He represents both individuals and companies in contractual disputes, tortious claims, insolvency disputes and other contentious matters. Since 2021, Legal 500 has included him as a ‘fantastic’ Rising Star. He currently acts on several disputes before the High Court and an expedited ICC arbitration.

In Washington, D.C., Amanda Lee-DasGupta’s practice focuses on human rights, environmental, and complex tort litigation. In a groundbreaking human rights case, Amanda represents a class of Sudanese refugees living in the U.S. who allege that BNP Paribas laundered billions for Sudan in violation of U.S. sanctions. In her environmental practice, she represents public entities in water contamination and natural resource damages litigation. In 2022, the National Law Journal recognised her as a Rising Star of the Plaintiff’s Bar.

Counsel promotions

In London, Sofie Edwards is a dual-qualified litigator with significant cross-border experience working on market-leading, large-scale competition and commercial disputes, with a focus on collective redress. Amongst other claims, she has been instrumental in bringing and running the opt-out collective actions against Qualcomm, Apple and Google - the latter two for their alleged abusive conduct in relation to the Apple App and Google Play Stores respectively.

In San Francisco, Kyle Bates focuses on complex antitrust, financial services, and consumer protection litigation. He has represented clients at every stage of litigation, including trial and appellate court work at state and federal level. Kyle also has a robust public entity practice in which he regularly serves as special outside counsel to state and local governments. He has been recognised as a Rising Star in the Plaintiff’s Bar by the National Law Journal in 2022 and by Super Lawyers for Antitrust Litigation since 2021.

In Washington, D.C., Mary Sameera Van Houten Harper has extensive experience in complex litigation, with a focus in human rights, immigration, consumer protection, and antitrust. She has litigated numerous class action matters in state and federal courts across the nation, representing plaintiffs in groundbreaking challenges in pursuit of social good. Mary currently works with a public entity in a challenge against heavy metals in baby food products and represents a class of purchasers challenging an unlawful price-fixing scheme.

Other promotions

We are also pleased to announce 18 further promotions: one senior attorney promotion in the U.S., nine senior associate promotions in Germany, the Netherlands and the UK, and seven senior staff attorney promotions in the U.S.

The 2023 promotions reflect the advancement of some 14% of our lawyers globally.

Commenting on the promotions, London Managing Partner Lianne Craig said:

“We are proud to celebrate our new partners and their accomplishments. We are committed to developing firm leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences to build on the ongoing success of our clients and the firm. Aqeel, Duran, and Amanda each have distinguished themselves as excellent lawyers, and they display an outstanding commitment to our firm values and culture.”

U.S. Managing Partner Melinda Coolidge added:

“We are thrilled to welcome this exceptionally talented group of 24 lawyers into our partnership and senior lawyer ranks. Their commitment and results on behalf of our clients, our communities, and our firm is exemplary. We have ambitious plans for the future, and having lawyers of diverse backgrounds, talents, and expertise is a core part of our future success. We look forward to their ongoing contributions.”

Notes to editors

  1. Other promotions
    In the U.K., Jonathan Amior, Chrysanthi Bampali, Inès Lulof, Antoine Riquier, Anna Stellardi, Stuart Warmington, and Julia Von Eitzen have all been promoted to senior associate.
    In Germany, Stephan Nitsios and Johannes Wick were promoted to senior associate as was Jantina Hiemstra in the Netherlands.
    In the U.S., Sean Zehmer has been promoted to senior attorney and Robert Dougherty, Jim Getz, Carlos Gutierrez, Vashali M. Johnson, Adel Khamidullin, James Oliver, and Bryan Reid have all been promoted to senior staff attorney.
  2. The U.S. and U.K. promotions became effective on 1st January 2023. The German and Dutch promotions became effective during the course of 2022.
  3. Hausfeld has 168 lawyers globally, including 46 partners. We are a gender diverse firm with over 45% female lawyers and 37% female partners and have an excellent track record of promoting women worldwide. This compares favourably to worldwide industry averages. In addition, 54% of the Global Management Group is made up of women, and the vast majority of our senior business professionals are women.
  4. The firm has a broad range of complex litigation expertise often with an international dimension. Hausfeld’s extensive experience with alternative and innovative fee models offers clients a diverse range of engagement options and maximum flexibility in terms of managing their cost exposure.
  5. Hausfeld is the only claimant firm to be ranked by Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners as a top tier firm in private enforcement of antitrust/competition law in both the U.S. and Europe. In the U.K., Hausfeld is also recommended as a top law firm for banking litigation by both Chambers and Legal 500 and for commercial litigation by Chambers. In Germany, Juve awarded Hausfeld as competition law firm of the year in 2022, while Legal 500 Germany continues to rank Hausfeld as a top competition law firm.