In this month’s Signal Disputes report we set out the state of competition litigation in the UK — one of the most exciting areas of the litigation market. The report considers the history and development of the modern competition litigation regime in the UK, analyses market participants, exploring the largest firms and chambers acting in the market, and looks at The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker data on the most active firms and sets. It also outlines the roles of the two UK Government bodies central to the market and breaks down the key issues the market faces right now, and what the future may hold for competition litigation.
Over the past two decades competition teams have become a central part of many leading City firms. The list of firms featured in this report contains most of the leading litigation firms in the UK. Just under 30 firms were found to have five or more competition partners, and 15 employ more than 20 competition lawyers overall.
Despite the potential for growth in competition disputes, partner hirings in the past five years have been lower than one might expect. Of the firms considered in this report, which all have between four and 17 competition partners, one firm hired three new partners, three firms hired two and 14 hired one. Notably, some of the largest practices in the market have not brought in any external partners over the past five years. The established firms have seemingly preferred to promote internally. Since 2018, at those firms considered in this report, there have been 23 lateral partners hired but 60 internal promotions.
To find out which firms sit at the top end of the market read the report now.
