Davina Garrod

Partner, Head of International Competition & Co-Leader of AI Practice at Akin

Speaker

Davina Garrod leads Akin Gump’s International Competition Group. With more than 27 years’ experience, in addition to conducting multijurisdictional merger control analyses, navigating and obtaining antitrust and regulatory approvals for complex transactions within and outside of the EU, and negotiating remedies packages, Davina advises multinationals, corporates, technology platforms, LLMs and trade associations on mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and restructurings, as well as representing leading sovereign wealth funds, private equity (PE) firms, global institutional asset managers and banks in the context of their strategic and financial investments (transactional and contentious). She also represents technology companies in EC DMA and UK DMCC proceedings, as well as studies, including the CMA’s Foundation Model Initial Report and Update Paper.

Davina is recognized by The Legal 500 for her “encyclopedic understanding of competition and merger control laws” and her “in-depth understanding of the regulatory landscape in markets.” Davina is also recognized as a Leading Foreign Investment lawyer for her representations in complex national security investigations in the UK and EU, including the first retroactive call-in under the UK National Security & Investment Act (NSIA), the first NSIA Judicial Review and high-profile FDI mitigation cases in various jurisdictions, including the UK, Germany, France and Italy. Davina’s practice extends to behavioural, EU FSR and State aid investigations, together with counselling and litigation, for clients across sectors, including technology/AI, energy, retail, life sciences, construction and aviation. London based, Davina has also worked in Washington, D.C. and Brussels.