Kellie Lerner Honored With 2022 Hollis Salzman Memorial Leadership Award

Robins Kaplan is pleased to announce that Kellie Lerner has been selected to receive the 2022 Hollis Salzman Memorial Leadership Award. This award, created by the American Antitrust Institute (AAI) and the Committee to Support the Antitrust Laws (COSAL), honors the life of our partner, colleague, and friend, Hollis Salzman, who passed away in 2020.

“It would be an honor just to be recognized by these two preeminent antitrust organizations, but I am deeply humbled by a distinction that also bears the name and legacy of Hollis Salzman,” Lerner said. “Hollis appreciated the humanity that lies at the core of everything we do as antitrust lawyers. Her wisdom, and the mentorship she generously offered me, are my north star in any challenging situation.”

Lerner, co-chair of the firm’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Group, has two decades of experience litigating high-stakes antitrust disputes in federal courts throughout the country. Her practice includes identifying and initiating new antitrust actions at Robins Kaplan. In this capacity, she has initiated the first antitrust class action lawsuits in the country in dozens of cases that have resulted in billions of dollars in recoveries for victims. She currently serves in leadership positions in BCBSM, Inc. v. Vyera Pharmaceuticals, LLC, et al., In re Merck Mumps Vaccine Antitrust Litig., In re Hard Disk Drive Suspension Assemblies Antitrust Litig., and Sterk, et al. v. The Bank of Nova Scotia, et al.

Lerner is the previous co-chair of the firm’s diversity committee, a role in which she led an influential movement within the firm to take issues of diversity and inclusion into account in every aspect of the firm’s operations. In one of her most influential initiatives, she pushed for the firm’s adoption of an attorney hiring policy modeled on the NFL’s “Rooney Rule.” Within the rule’s first year, the firm increased its hiring of associates of color by 30% and those identifying as LGBTQ by 13%.

An experienced and trusted adviser to the younger generation of attorneys at Robins Kaplan, Lerner has served as a mentor through the New York State Bar Association Antitrust section’s mentorship program as well as through the firm’s formal mentorship program. She also serves as chair of the New York Women in Antitrust Group, where she utilizes her prominence in the antitrust field to spearhead events and programs that foster cross-generational mentorship and inclusive dialogues.

An agent of change within her wider community as well, Lerner co-founded Roseann’s Gift, an organization named for her late mother and dedicated to raising research funding to cure lung cancer. She is also a member of the Tri-State Area Advisory Board of Jumpstart, which provides literacy education for preschool children in low-income communities, and provides pro bono assistance to KIND (Kids In Need of Defense) and Lambda Legal.

Lerner will be honored at AAI’s Awards Night on November 9 in Washington, DC.