CMS has lost one of its co-heads for competition and trade to international law firm Cooley. Caroline Hobson started her new role yesterday and has joined the firm’s antitrust and competition practice group. She advises on a wide range of EU and UK competition law, regulatory issues and foreign investment control in the UK. “Cooley […]
Herbert Smith Freehills has lost a challenge over new UK Government import duties for sugar despite a Brick Court silk’s “formidable submissions”, in one of the first major trade cases following Brexit. The firm represented British Sugar in its appeal against an autonomous tariff quota (ATQ) for raw cane sugar introduced by the Secretary of […]
Kirkland & Ellis has lost another competition partner from its London office, the second so far to leave the US firm this year. Ropes & Gray has recruited Annie Herdman, who was made partner at Kirkland in 2019. Before joining, she trained and worked at Berwin Leighton Paisner between 2011 and 2014. Her practice sees […]
The High Court has ruled in favour of the NHS against French pharma giant Servier, in the latest bout of 11 years of prolonged litigation. The dispute concerns a pharmaceutical prescription-only drug, perindopril, used in the treatment of several conditions. First launched in 2011 against Servier, the case had three actions heard together on claims […]
An £150m opt-out class action targeting car shipping cartels is the latest to be given the go-ahead by the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). The CAT confirmed that a special purpose company led by Mark McLaren, formerly of The Consumers’ Association, will act as the class representative on behalf of millions of UK consumers and businesses […]
Hourly rates have increased for the Willkie Farr & Gallagher team leading on Sir Walter Merricks’ £17bn competition claim against Mastercard, an updated funding agreement has shown. Recent cost estimates seen by The Lawyer show that lead partner Boris Bronfentrinker is now charging £825 per hour in the mammoth competition case, which has been running […]
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has today announced it has launched a multibillion-pound opt-out claim against Meta, formerly Facebook, on behalf of 44 million UK users of the social media website. The claim, advanced by proposed representative Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen, maintains that Facebook profited from UK consumers by only permitting access to its network […]
The Court of Appeal has upheld a judgment handed down by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, striking out a defence of cost mitigation. In 2014, a decision by the European Commission found that NTN Corporation, NTN Waelzlager (Europa), NTN-SNR Roulements and five others had engaged in a collusive tendering cartel that spanned a seven-year period between […]
Goodwin Procter has recruited its first antitrust partner in London from Kirkland & Ellis, after a spate of lateral hires last year. The firm will be joined by partner Sarah Jordan at the end of her notice period. Jordan will be the firm’s first antitrust partner outside the US, as the firm seeks to build […]
Shoosmiths has opened an office in the city of Brussels, drafting in EY’s Kiran Desai to take the helm of its base. The recent branch is the firm’s first office outside the UK. It is anticipated the move will help bolster its clients’ needs for UK and EU competition, regulatory and trade law. It also […]
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson is opening an office in Brussels, the latest US firm to set up shop in the Belgian capital. The move is aimed at making the most of financial and regulatory hubs where it operates, with a view of using the Brussels office to work on EU merger control proceedings […]
Allen & Overy (A&O) has strengthened its antitrust capabilities by hiring Sidley Austin’s global co-head of the practice, Kristina Nordlander. Nordlander will join as a partner in A&O’s antitrust team in London, while also continuing to spend time working out of the key European antitrust hub of Brussels. She joins A&O with a wealth of […]