‘Highly esteemed for its leadership in handling both competition and competition-adjacent claims’, members of Brick Court Chambers remain at the forefront of the most prominent matters in competition law across a variety of courts and tribunals. ’One of the most outstanding barristers of her generation’, Marie Demetriou KC led proceedings on behalf of millions of consumers in Merricks vs Mastercard, the first collective action to be certified, in a four-day appeal in the Court of Appeal, while Sarah Ford KC represented Mark McLaren Class Representative Limited on the second ever collective proceedings to reach trial following the CAT’s decision to make its first ever Collective Settlement Approval Order. The ‘creative and fantastically adaptable’ Daniel Jowell KC was successful in the high-profile and cross-border Epic Games vs Google matter, in obtaining permission for the claimant to allege excessive pricing by the technology giant for use of its app store, and Mark Hoskins KC was instructed to lead for a class representative in collective proceedings against Apple in litigation concerning its app store. An ’exceptionally strong advocate’, Tony Singla KC led on behalf the defendant in Gormsen vs Meta in hearings at the CAT and the Court of Appeal in a class action valued around £3bn.
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Profile
Position
Sarah Ford KC was called to the Bar in 2002 and took silk in 2017. She is a leading advocate in the field of competition law and acts for Claimants and Defendants in both follow-on and standalone claims as well as collective proceedings. Sarah has extensive experience of interlocutory, trial and appellate advocacy. Her broad practice includes pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, financial markets, regulatory appeals, FRAND and vehicles.
Sarah is frequently instructed in leading competition cases and appears in the Chancery Division, Commercial Court, Administrative Court, Competition Appeal Tribunal, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
Sarah is instructed in numerous follow-on damages claims including in Trucks for Volvo/Renault and Smart Card Chips and DRAM for Infineon. She appeared for ABB in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in BritNed, the first cartel damages claim to reach judgment. She has appeared in appeals to the Court of Appeal in leading cases concerning mitigation in Ballbearings; limitation in DRAM and binding recitals/abuse of process in Trucks.
Sarah has a strong collective proceedings practice, being instructed for JPMorgan in FX, for BT in Le Patourel and for the Proposed Class Representative in McLaren. She appeared in the Court of Appeal in BT’s appeal concerning whether proceedings should be certified on an opt-in or an opt-out basis.
Career
Qualified 2002, Lincoln’s Inn; appointed AG’s C panel 2007.
Languages
French, German.
Memberships
Commercial Bar Association; Bar European Group; ALBA; Competition Law Association.
Education
University of Warwick (2000 LLB Law with European Law); Harvard Law School (2001 LLM (Kennedy Scholar)); Inns of Court School of Law (2002 BVC (Denning Scholar & Hardwicke Entrance Award)).
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Testimonials
Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.
- 'The clerks provide an excellent service with Tony Burgess and Ben Rippengale being particularly impressive.'
- 'Very experienced clerks. Tony Burgess is particularly user friendly.'
- 'The clerks room is generally very good and responsive. Day-to-day, James Knapp in particular is very good to deal with.
- 'Clerks' outreach is very good. They're responsive and constructive.'
- 'The go-to competition set. Their team's experience, both in top flight competition work and commercial work, sets them apart.'
- 'Brick Court have great bench strength throughout and have a breadth of excellent counsel at all levels, ensuring that a strong, joined up team, is available to assist even with complex multi-party matters.'
- 'The pinnacle of competition law chambers.'
- 'Brick Court is one of the preeminent barristers' chambers for commercial and competition law, including group litigation.'