At Burges Salmon LLP, the competition practice remains a popular choice from a wide range of clients stemming from the retail, transport, healthcare, and technology sectors. The firm is able to advise on the full breadth of EU and competition matters and counts areas such as merger control work, compliance issues and antitrust litigation among its strengths. Practice head Chris Worrall has a strong track record with regard to antitrust issues, while John Houlden focuses on state aid and subsidy control work. Anti-competitive agreements, economic regulatory matters, and merger controls form part of director Noel Beale‘s advisory work portfolio.

With a ‘great sense of teamwork, deep knowledge and good judgment’, the competition and EU law practice at TLT advises clients on CMA investigations, where the team is frequently called upon to manage investigations and handle disputes. Merger control issues, competition law compliance work and commercial agreements are further elements of the firm’s advisory portfolio. ‘Exceptional competition lawyer‘ Miles Trower helms the group and has vast experience across a range of competition matters including compliance mandates as well as UK and EU merger control matters. Clean energy is a particular area of expertise for Bill Hull, who heads up the commercial practice and is also a popular choice for clients in the public sector.

The team at Womble Bond Dickinson (UK) LLP has significant expertise in the financial services, retail, energy and transport sectors and handles both contentious and non-contentious matters for its EU and competition clients. Recently, it has acted on a number of disputes including those relating to CMA enforcement actions, and advised regional and international clients on merger control and subsidy control matters. Plymouth-based Andrij Jurkiw acts as practice head and is well versed in investigations brought by different competition regulators at a UK and EU level.

Ashfords LLP fields a specialist subsidy control and procurement team that caters to clients within the public, private and third sectors on a variety of topics ranging from housing and regeneration projects to telecoms and infrastructure developments. Based in Exeter, the team is headed up by Lucy Woods, whose advisory portfolio includes assisting public sector clients with public procurement and state aid matters. Senior associate Ruth Yates, praised for being ‘incredibly commercially minded’, is another key member of the practice and handles a large volume of subsidy control and procurement work. Angela Watson left the firm in July 2022.

Osborne Clarke LLP sports a vibrant competition law practice which is known for its ability to handle merger control in relation to large international deals as well as CMA investigations and state aid matters. The team, which is led by Simon Neill in London, counts technology, retail, and life sciences among its key sectors. In Bristol, Marc Shrimpling has in-depth experience advising on competition, state aid and regulatory matters, while associate director Rebecca Malone is noted for her expertise in subsidy control compliance, merger control, and FDI regulation mandates.

Maitland Walker LLP advises on the full spectrum of competition law and is known for its expertise in group actions and CMA infringement investigations. Under the leadership of founding partner Julian Maitland-Walker, the firm is adept at handling matters relating to mergers, public procurement issues and state aid work. Adrian Render is experienced in opt-out collective action cases.