Sophie Lawrance

Partner at Bristows

Speaker

Sophie specialises in EU and UK competition law and litigation. She is a trusted advisor to businesses in the technology and pharmaceutical sectors in particular, and in relation to the competition issues that arise in connection with standardised technology. Her practice spans all competition issues, but has a particular focus on litigation and investigations, alongside antitrust advisory work.

Sophie has significant experience of competition litigation in the UK courts and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, including appeals up to Supreme Court level. She has been involved both in pure competition law actions, acting for both claimants and defendants, and in numerous patent and other intellectual property claims in which competition issues have been raised. Sophie has market-leading experience of cases involving FRAND licensing obligations, acting for both implementers and patentees. Alongside this, Sophie’s case load to date has included defending applications for interim injunctive relief, handling mixed stand-alone/follow-on damages claims, raising and defending competition issues arising from the seeking of remedies in IP cases and claims arising from IP licences.

Alongside her litigation case load, Sophie handles competition authority investigations at both EU and national level. Her experience spans the full timespan of investigations, from dawn raids to final appeals. Issues on which she has advised in this context include both substantive competition law and procedural issues, such as legal professional privilege, as well as dealing with competition director disqualification cases which are now a focus for the UK competition regulator.

Sophie is Vice Chair (Competition) of the Competition Law Association (CLA) Committee. She is co-editor of the ‘IP and Competition’ chapter in the latest edition of Bellamy and Child, the leading competition law text book (publication forthcoming) and regularly contributes feedback on competition policy issues, as well as speaking at conferences and writing on competition law issues in journals and blogs. She also teaches the competition law module on the University of Oxford Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice course.