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In-House Council

In-House Counsel of the Month, Dr Gordon Christian, Senior Competition Counsel, Siemens AG

Posted by on 12 December 2016
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Each month we focus on the work and interests of either a regulator or an in-house counsel. This month wevinterviewed Dr Gordon Christian, Senior Competition Counsel, Siemens AG.

What does your career look like to date?

After making a decision to study law rather than economics, I studied law at the University of Exeter in the UK. Exeter is a lovely place, both from a location point of view and because of a high quality Law School. After completing my undergraduate degree with an Erasmus year in Saarbrücken (LLB (Euro) (with German)), I stayed on at Exeter to do a Masters (LLM in European Legal Studies) and a PhD in European Law, thereby staying rather longer in Exeter than I initially anticipated!

Although I had never formally studied competition law at University, it seemed to me that a Competition Law Department at a major law firm was a good way to continue to be active in the European law area. Therefore, after a year of Law School in York I joined SJ Berwin (now King & Wood Mallesons) in London as a trainee, and two years after that on qualification I joined SJ Berwin’s EU & Competition team.

At SJ Berwin, I advised on a wide range of both EU and UK competition law issues in a number of industry sectors such as media, retail and FMCG, food and drink, energy and mining, telecoms, construction and press products, and was a member of the firm's Consumer Sector and Energy & Infrastructure Groups. I advised on Article 101 / Chapter I as well as Article 102 / Chapter II issues, mergers and both Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority) investigations and inquiries.  In addition, I advised on competition litigation matters, both before the ordinary courts and before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the UK and before the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg. During my time at SJ Berwin, I also spent six months on secondment in SJ Berwin’s Munich office and six months on secondment at the BBC’s Competition & Regulatory team.

Having got the taste of in-house work at the BBC, I was delighted to join the Siemens Competition team in October 2011, where I now advise on competition law issues worldwide across all Siemens business lines.

What does a normal day at work look like?

In common with many other in-house lawyers, I find that there is no such thing as a “normal day at work”. It is one of the main features of in-house legal work that you are likely to be working on a large number of matters at the same time, ranging from ad-hoc queries through to major strategic projects. In addition, working for a major multinational company such as Siemens, with a very broad product portfolio and activities across the world, you never know what issues may pop up from one day to the next.

However, in general terms I spend my working days dealing with issues such as merger control in the context of M&A transactions, advising on antitrust aspects of collaborations with other companies, antitrust compliance and risk analysis as well as supporting Legal and Compliance colleagues in the regions on antitrust topics.

You have experience in both EU and UK competition law, what would you say are the major differences between the two?

The general principles of competition law in the EU and the UK are in my view very similar, and I do not think that Brexit will change much in that regard. Post-Brexit, the UK will likely introduce an equivalent competition law, in which the principles are likely to remain very similar to current EU competition law. From my point of view, the most significant difference between the two regimes remains the voluntary nature of merger control in the UK, which is in stark contrast to many other EU countries.

The market study / market investigation regime (with significant CMA remedy-imposing powers) is also a feature of competition law in the UK that does not exist in such form in many other EU countries. However, given that many experts regard the outcome of recent market investigations in the UK (e.g. banking and energy) to have been somewhat lacklustre, there appears to be a question mark over whether the existing UK instruments are being used to their full potential.

Finally, the UK continues to play a leading role in competition damages actions, particularly following the introduction of opt-out collective class actions under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. We have seen headline-grabbing lawsuits being filed in the UK (such as the recent GBP 14 billion claim against MasterCard), and it will be interesting to see whether the implementation of the EU Damages Directive into national law of other EU countries by the end of this year will lead to similar developments elsewhere.

What particular issue in competition law is interesting you at the moment?

I think there are many interesting issues in competition law at present, and it is very difficult to single out a particular one. One important trend for in-house antitrust lawyers is definitely both the increasing number of competition authorities all around the world taking enforcement action, and the increasing cooperation between competition authorities when doing so. In addition, we see some competition authorities pushing the boundaries of traditional antitrust enforcement, or considering new theories of harm, particularly in the online space. Furthermore, antitrust enforcement activities these days appear to relate to practically every sector under the sun – shrimps, endives, Christmas trees, modelling agencies and nappies are just a few sectors that have been under antitrust scrutiny recently. What this comes down to is that in-house antitrust counsel can no longer safely assume that there are countries or sectors of the economy that are not of interest to competition authorities around the world, and this means that antitrust advice and training for staff remains key to ensure that companies remain compliant with their obligations under competition law.

Is it rewarding being an Exeter university ‘eXepert’? Do you think there are different issues facing law students today than when you were studying?   

As I spent about ten years studying at the University of Exeter, I developed a keen interest in following its progress, and when I was asked whether I would like to assist current students as a mentor or a career expert, I gladly accepted. It gives me the opportunity to pass my experience and career advice on to the students who are now agonizing over the same choices as I did twenty years ago. One of the reasons I wanted to get involved was that, when I was a law student, we did not have the opportunity of seeking advice from a mentor, although I would have found it helpful at the time. I have now been an eXepert for the last few years, and I have found the mentoring partnerships in that time to be very rewarding. My mentees tell me that they have found my advice and insights helpful, and some mentees have successfully applied for internships with other lawyers that I put them in touch with.

I think many of the issues that I faced as a law student are still issues that face law students today, although generally I believe it certainly hasn’t become easier to successfully gain funded places at Law School, training contracts etc.! I often advise my mentees that they need to consider not just their immediate next steps, but to take a medium- to long term view of where they think their career is headed. That way, it is hopefully easier to make the right decisions early on and go from strength to strength!


Dr Gordon Christian

Dr. Gordon Christian is a Senior Counsel Competition in the Legal department of Siemens AG. Gordon advises Siemens AG and its group entities in the field of domestic, cross-border and multi-jurisdictional merger control as well as on all other areas of antitrust and competition law in the context of M&A transactions, business transactions (including distribution, licensing, R&D and other cooperation agreements) and compliance-related matters.

Gordon studied law at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom. Before joining Siemens, Gordon was an associate at SJ Berwin (as it then was), London, UK, with a focus on antitrust and competition law. Gordon is a member of the Bracton Law Society, the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht e.V. and the Münchner Kartellrechtsforum e.V.

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