Matthew, a former Solicitor, is a specialist competition and regulatory lawyer. He was Called to the Bar and joined St John’s Chambers in 2015, having previously been a Partner in the Competition Group of Burges Salmon LLP. He has a strong international perspective, having practised for over a decade in the Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP.
Matthew has a broad-based practice, with extensive experience in all aspects of competition law, EU law, State aid and subsidy control, public procurement and economic regulation, including competition disputes, regulatory investigations, transactional matters and advisory work. He combines his technical expertise and experience to provide pragmatic, commercially-focused and solution-oriented strategic advice and representation.
Matthew acts as an advocate in competition-related proceedings (including disputes, appeals and judicial reviews) in the UK courts. He also represents and advises clients in all types of competition and regulatory investigations including in cartel, dominance and other investigations by the Competition and Markets Authority, other UK regulatory authorities and the European Commission. He advises clients on UK, EU and international merger control proceedings, the application of the State aid, subsidy control and procurement rules, and the application of competition law to a wide range of transactions, commercial agreements and business practices.
He has broad sector experience, advising clients from numerous sectors, including: oil and gas, energy, nuclear, transport, airports and aviation, aerospace and defence, chemicals, telecommunications and media, financial services, consumer and sports goods, food and drink, aluminium, mining and natural resources, packaging, sport, private equity and retail and wholesale distribution.
Matthew accepts instructions from solicitors, overseas lawyers and in-house legal departments on all types of matters. He also assists solicitors firms, whether by providing an additional resource to those with established competition practices, including during dawn raids, or by assisting those firms without their own competition law capability.
Matthew has recently joined the editorial team of Chitty on Contracts, published by Sweet and Maxwell. Chitty is the leading reference work on contract law in the Common law world. Now in its 34th edition, its two volumes contain full coverage of the law of contract as practiced in the United Kingdom. Matthew has responsibility for Chapter 45 of the 34th edition, which examines in detail the application of both UK and EU competition law to contracts. Read more here.
He is also an Editor of the Competition Law Journal (published by Edward Elgar Publishing).
Matthew is included in the Who’s Who Legal guide for his top-tier advocacy in high-stakes competition claims.
