The American Antitrust Institute (AAI) and the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL) are pleased to announce that Heidi Silton has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Hollis Salzman Memorial Leadership Award. Silton will be honored at AAI’s Awards Night on October 30, 2024, in Washington D.C.
A partner at Lockridge Grindal Nauen P.L.L.P., Silton is a seasoned litigator with more than 25 years of experience representing clients in high stakes complex civil litigation. Silton is known as consistently positive and courteous in dealing with co-counsel, opposing counsel, and the courts, even while pressing her clients’ best interests. She is a vigorous defender of the need for antitrust enforcement by the civil justice system and also devoted to training the next generation of antitrust lawyers and ensuring that the bar is ever more prepared, diverse, and knowledgeable. She stands out as a leader in the antitrust bar and possesses many of the characteristics of Hollis Salzman: honest, tough, mentor, friend.
Silton is an active member of both the AAI Advisory Board and COSAL. For AAI, Silton has served on AAI’s Antitrust Enforcement Awards Judging Committee since 2017, when it was chaired by Hollis Salzman. She has been committee chair or co-chair since 2020. For COSAL, Silton has served in numerous leadership positions, including as President in 2021, when she helped create the Hollis Salzman Memorial Leadership Award. Silton was on the leadership team that established COSAL’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, and she presided over the first annual COSAL Leadership and Diversity Summit. Silton is also a past chair of and current council member emeritus of the Minnesota State Bar Association Antitrust Law Section.
Silton has led her firm’s Business Development Committee, the Hiring Committee and the Summer Associate Program and has been active in the firm’s efforts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. She currently sits on the firm’s Executive Committee. Silton mentors lawyers inside and outside her firm to support diversity in the bar. She regularly encourages new law clerks and associates, including from underrepresented groups, to work with her on writing projects that allow them to get published and start making their mark professionally. More than that, she works with an open door and a welcoming smile that encourages everyone at her firm to do their best work and strive to both lead and learn.
AAI and COSAL created the Hollis Salzman Memorial Leadership Award in 2021 to honor the life of Hollis Salzman, a friend, colleague, and incomparable member of the antitrust community. The inaugural recipient was Lin Chan, followed by Kellie Lerner in 2022, and Judith Zahid in 2023.
One of the nation’s leading antitrust attorneys, Ms. Salzman spent more than 25 years litigating some of the world’s largest cases and recovered over $2 billion in settlements for victims of antitrust cartel and unfair competition practices. She was a champion of gender equality and diversity in her profession, embracing her role as a mentor and role model to other female attorneys, and helping to inspire them to shine on their own merit. “Women can succeed and lead blockbuster investigations, even in a male-dominated field, without losing their identity or acting in a way that is not true to themselves,” Ms. Salzman said. Her tireless dedication to advocating on behalf of women included an extensive pro bono practice representing indigent women and victims of domestic violence. View a video remembering Hollis.
AAI and COSAL thank the members of the 2024 judging committee:
- Lin Y. Chan, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP
- Harry First, NYU Law
- Meegan Hollywood, Robins Kaplan
- Milton Marquis, Cozen O’Connor
- Judge Jon S. Tigar, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
- Judith Zahid, Zelle LLP
Randy Stutz represented AAI and Robert Kitchenoff represented COSAL as non-voting members.
