Ilkka Leppihalme

Practice Areas

Partner Ilkka Leppihalme has more than a quarter of a century of experience in competition law – including also in Brussels. He has been involved in various landmark competition cases, including the largest cartel cases in Finland and many ‘first-ever’ situations. He possesses significant experience in both national and multijurisdictional merger control procedures across a wide range of industries as well as in foreign direct investment (FDI) control.

Leppihalme has represented clients in numerous significant competition law related damages cases. He defended two companies in the precedent-setting asphalt cartel damages cases until the end of the hearing in the Helsinki Court of Appeal – all of the claims against both companies were dismissed.

Leppihalme has been a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network – a network of more than 130 competition authorities – since 2010. He was one of the few members of the Competition Law Expert Group of the Finnish Bar Association in 2010-2024. He is a regular chairman and speaker at competition law conferences and seminars, including being chairman of Finland’s biggest annual commercial competition law conference annually since 2009.

Leppihalme is listed as a leading competition law expert in all major international ranking publications, including e.g. being again ranked in ‘Band 1’ by Chambers Europe in 2026, being again ranked in ‘Hall of Fame’ by The Legal 500 EMEA in 2025, being again the only Finnish competition lawyer ranked as ‘Global Elite Thought Leader’ in Lexology Index – Competition 2026, and being again the only Finnish competition lawyer Lexology Index awarded the ‘Client Choice’ award in the Lexology Index Client Choice 2026 report.

Career

Dittmar & Indrenius Attorneys Ltd. (2016–present)

Peltonen LMR Attorneys Ltd., Partner, Head of Competition (2011–2015)

LMR Attorneys Ltd., Senior Associate; Partner, Co-Head of Competition (2004–2011)

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Brussels), Associate, (2001–2004)

District Court of Vantaa, Trainee Judge (1999–2000)

Timo Esko & Sami Uoti Attorneys Ltd., Associate (1998–1999)

Professional Memberships

Finnish Bar Association;

International Bar Association;

Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network

Publications

Several articles in various international competition law publications over the last approx. two decades, incl. e.g. an article “Economic Continuity of Liability in Antitrust Damages – CJEU Preliminary Ruling in C-724/17 Skanska et al.” in Richard Whish KC (Hon.) Liber Amicorum ”Taking Competition Law Outside the Box”, published by Concurrences in 2020.

In 2021, regarding that article, Leppihalme was nominated for the international Antitrust Writing Awards 2021 by Concurrences and the George Washington University for the best Academic article in the subcategory of Private Enforcement. He was one of only 10 nominees in that subcategory as well as the only nominee from Finland in any of the categories. All in all, there were 1,200+ papers submitted for consideration to the Editorial Committee that year.

Education