Overview
Elaine Horn represents clients in a broad range of complex civil and commercial litigation matters, with an emphasis in the areas of employment disputes, products liability, and commercial contracts. Her trial experience includes the representation of both defendants and plaintiffs in federal and state court, bankruptcy court, and arbitrations.
In her products liability practice, Elaine represents major pharmaceutical companies in mass tort litigation, including serving on the national coordinating counsel team. Elaine’s work in this area has included coordinating case management and discovery activities in dozens of parallel state and federal proceedings, drafting and arguing dispositive motions and motions regarding class certification, and drafting appellate briefs in state and federal court. She has also served in various capacities on trial teams in state and federal court, assisted with the design and implementation of bellwether trial programs, and assisted with the design and implementation of an innovative large-scale national settlement program. Most recently, the MDL Court appointed Elaine to the Defense Steering Committee in the federal Zantac MDL.
Elaine’s employment practice includes conducting internal investigations, providing counseling on corporate and non-profit employment policies, defending employers in class action litigation, and litigating individual civil and administrative cases. Elaine serves as Co-Chair of both Williams & Connolly’s Employment Litigation practice group and the Employment Counseling practice group. Elaine has been recognized as a “Labor and Employment Star” by Benchmark Litigation (2020-2024).
Over the course of her career, Elaine has also litigated claims involving major hospitality and commercial real estate companies, and a wide variety of plaintiffs’ litigation, including favorable multi-million dollar judgments for a defrauded plaintiff. Elaine’s pro bono work has included the representation of asylum applicants, supervising representation in landlord-tenant matters and administrative proceedings involving disability benefits, and supervising attorneys on appellate criminal matters.
Elaine grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and received double degrees from Texas A&M University in 1991, and her J.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was on the Editorial Board of The University of Chicago Law Review. Following law school, Elaine clerked in Los Angeles for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following her clerkship, Elaine spent a year in New York working for the Office of the Appellate Defender, a non-profit organization that represents indigent criminal defendants on appeal. Elaine joined Williams & Connolly in 1996. She serves on the Firm’s Associate Evaluation Committee and its Discovery Attorney Committee. She previously served on the Williams & Connolly Hiring Committee. Elaine recently completed ten years of service on the Board of Directors for the House of Ruth, a local non-profit organization that provides housing and other services to homeless and abused women and their children.