Freshfields Hires Top UK Antitrust Regulator as Partner

Freshfields Hires Top UK Antitrust Regulator as Partner

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a prominent global law firm, is pleased to announce the addition of Colin Raftery, a competition specialist, as a partner in the firm’s antitrust practice in London.

Raftery will be moving to Freshfields from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), where he served as the senior director of mergers for five years. With a career spanning over two decades, he has experience in both private practice and government service, including a role with the Scottish Government. Notably, it is a kind of homecoming for Raftery as before joining the CMA in 2016, he worked as a senior associate in Freshfields’ antitrust team.

With his extensive background in U.K. and EU competition law, Raftery’s unique insights derive from his recent leadership of the CMA’s merger control function. This role involved active engagement with senior officials at the European Commission, U.S. antitrust agencies, and various national competition authorities on significant global merger control matters. In an era when the CMA has gained increasing prominence within the global M&A landscape, his unparalleled experience will enhance the firm’s already strong position in the antitrust field, further bolstering its growth strategy on both sides of the Atlantic.

Freshfields holds a commanding global position across the spectrum of competition law, including mergers, cartel investigations, and standalone antitrust litigation. Notably, the firm has achieved the top rank in Global Competition Review’s Global Elite rankings for over a decade consecutively. Raftery’s inclusion will enhance the already noteworthy roster of former senior government officials within the team.

“Colin is an impressive lawyer and a leading figure in international antitrust circles. Bringing him into the team as a partner will make our unique proposition in relation to global M&A transactions even more compelling and further cement our position as the leading antitrust practice worldwide,” Thomas Janssens, Freshfields Global Head of Antitrust Thomas Janssens, said.

Welcoming Raftery to the firm, Freshfields London Antitrust partner James Aitken said: “At a time of fast-moving developments in CMA merger policy, and in the context of significant proposed reforms in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill, his unique strengths will play an important role in enhancing our ability to serve our clients’ needs on their most challenging matters.”

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has recently added several new partners to its antitrust practice. Besides Raftery, other recent partner hires include Heather Lamberg and Justina Sessions in Washington DC and Silicon Valley respectively, and Rikki Haria and Jenny Leahy in London.