The Legal 500 > Asia Pacific > Australia > Competition and trade

‘The team has a strong understanding of the challenges which its clients face. This is coupled with knowledge of the way in which the regulators work and of how to navigate through the regulatory environment to reach a constructive outcome’

‘The technical skills and knowledge across Allens’ team are extremely strong, but more importantly, the team is able to engage with both legal and non-legal members of our team in a collaborative and encouraging way, which proves useful in delivering a better outcome’

‘Always available and accessible, Fiona Crosbie stands out for her strength, directness, the ability to cut through noise to get to the key issues, ability to think outside the box and identify an outcome’

‘Rosannah Healy is able to step through complex legislation and regulations and break it down well for non-legal folks’

‘One of the key strengths of Ashurst’s team is its ability to handle crucial aspects of transactions in a streamlined and targeted fashion, which requires a strong understanding of clients’ commercial intentions and key legal concerns‘

‘Team members are quick to respond and always ensure that the legal issues are addressed efficiently, which increases the level of certainty when it comes to reaching certain outcomes for our stakeholders‘

‘The department understands all relevant commercial drivers in the industry and all associated pressures – it is able to handle these without overcomplicating its legal advice‘

‘Ashurst fields a highly collegial and professional team — an impression based on the efficient interaction between team members which I have observed‘

‘All team members focus on understanding the things which are important to the client commercially, without losing sight of the importance of paying attention to the relevant legal details‘

‘Peter Armitage and Tihana Zuk could be relied upon to provide practical legal advice that leads to success of the deal‘

‘Alyssa Phillips and Angie Ng are just awesome – they are very helpful, demonstrate strong skills in working as a team, and work tirelessly to protect the client’s interests‘

‘The leading competition law team on the Australian market, which demonstrates a great depth in knowledge as well a focus on the needs of the client‘

‘The team knows our products, our business and our goals, and is able give us strategic, savvy and pragmatic advice‘

‘Gina Cass-Gottlieb is an exceptional competition practitioner who not only knows the law, but is also very client-friendly and shows a high level of credibility in her interaction with people across the whole structure of the client’s business‘

‘Elizabeth Avery is a strong team leader‘

‘The competition team at Herbert Smith Freehills has the firepower to deal with the biggest and most urgent of cases, which is coupled with the kind of experience which one can only garner by actually running these types of cases. This enables team members to give clear and confident advice on the prospects and the expected course of proceedings‘

‘Herbert Smith Freehills has a strong bench of competition-focused lawyers providing practical and insightful advice. They are particularly strong in competition disputes matters, which includes both private litigation and government investigations‘

‘Patrick Gay offers deep competition expertise, and is particularly useful due to his consumer products knowledge as well as his strong relationship with the regulators‘

‘What makes the team unique is its long-term relationship with us and their extensive knowledge of our business‘

‘A very experienced team that provides clear and pragmatic advice, which shows a thorough knowledge of the industry of the client; also good at predicting the views of the regulator‘

‘Extremely business-oriented, the team is exceptional at learning and understanding the specifics of the client’s business‘

‘The department strikes a rare balance between being technically excellent as well as very commercial and pragmatic. Team members also have a great ability to distill very complex issues and concepts into plain English‘

‘Up-to-date, thorough, hardworking, responsive, and a pleasure to work with‘

‘The team is extremely knowledgeable and experienced, especially in relation to ACCC inquiries‘

‘Sharon Henrick has an enormous amount of experience dealing with the ACCC and is well known to the regulator. Her guidance is always very practical and specific, which has made her support invaluable on many occasions‘

‘Sharon Henrick is very experienced in competition law matters across multiple industries and is able to take complex issues and simplify them for clients and in-house teams‘

‘Peta Stevenson and James Darch work diligently and efficiently to break down and understand complex issues. Their availability and accessibility is also greatly appreciated‘

‘Caroline Coops is an industry expert who brings years of experience acting on competition law matters, which equips her with a perspective that others struggle to match‘

‘Andrew Monotti and Simon Cooke are technically excellent lawyers, who are also highly commercial‘

‘Senior associate Christopher Kok is a very good senior associate, knowledgeable and approachable‘

‘Very pragmatic and straightforward advice‘

‘The team has excellent knowledge of the competition law regimes across the APAC region as well as good relationships with the regulators‘

‘The team’s quality of work is outstanding. Team members exercise excellent judgment, they are hardworking and very efficient at the same time, and they do not waste time on unnecessary tasks‘

‘Team members are a pleasure to work with‘

‘The team has extensive experience of handling the merger control process and merger-related litigation‘

‘Lawyers on the team stand out for their drafting and analytical skills‘

‘Linda Evans is not only a very knowledgeable competition law practitioner but also very practical in the manner in which she approaches competition legal issues. She is very collegiate and works well with firms in other jurisdictions on cross-border matters. She is ably supported by excellent colleagues in Elizabeth Richmond and Trina Storm‘

‘Linda Evans is one of the most impressive competition lawyers I have come across. She is extremely smart, she has a wealth of industry and competition law knowledge, she has great judgment, she is delightful to work with and she appears to manage her team very well‘

‘Elizabeth Richmond is very impressive. She has very good knowledge of competition law, she is always on top of the detail, and is a pleasure to work with‘

‘The team understands how the regulator operates, which allows it to foresee what may be around the corner in terms of issues and procedural requirements. Team members are also able to keep clients well-informed by translating often complex legal concepts into a language which their clients can understand‘

‘Individuals on the team show work of exceptional quality‘

‘Paul Schoff has the full set of expertise and technical skills one would expect from a top-tier market leader, but differentiated by particularly high levels of emotional intelligence. He is very astute in reading his audience and anticipating and circumnavigating concerns at both the strategic and the personal levels. Amazingly easy to deal with and very confidence inspiring, so I am comfortable putting him before our board of directors‘

‘Paul Schoff is one of the best in the business – his record speaks for itself, given the stellar strike rate in merger approvals across a broad range of industries. Paul is also a natural at dealing with senior executives and giving comfort to a variety of stakeholders across the business‘

‘Geoff Carter gives clear and easy-to-understand advice. He is also pragmatic in his approach to issues, which ensures that the quality of his work is second to none‘

‘Justin Oliver is a regulatory lawyer who does not sit on the fence, and gives succinct and commercial advice‘

‘Katrina Groshinski is excellent. She has great sectoral experience and also took the time to understand the concerns and objectives of our organisation‘

‘Senior associate Haydn Flack has excellent legal knowledge, coupled with a strong set of technical skills‘

‘Solid technical knowledge‘

‘Peter McDonald has good insights when it comes to strategy in regulatory matters.‘

‘The team is easy to deal with. It clearly has significant experience in competition law matters, including dealing with the ACCC, and adopts a practical, solutions focused approach‘

‘Matthew Lees is excellent to work with.  He has a great combination of smart and practical, and does not come with a big ego‘

‘The team has excellent knowledge of this complex area of the law, which is combined with the delivery of practical advice that meets clients’ commercial objectives‘

‘Richard Westmoreland brings outstanding knowledge and experience in Australia’s and New Zealand’s competition and consumer laws, and delivers advice in a manner which can be easily digested and implemented by the business. He is equally professional, regardless of whether he is dealing with an in-house lawyer, a senior executive from the business, or a more junior member of the company‘

‘The team demonstrate in-depth knowledge, expertise and experience’.

‘Excellent response times, commercial approach, appropriateness of advice, and excellent value for money’

‘Kathryn Edghill is by far the best external legal adviser I engage – she is very responsive and commercial in her advice‘

‘Kathryn Edghill has excellent interpersonal skills‘