Leading Competition Team boosts expertise with latest Partner appointment
8th February 2021
Walker Morris has appointed Sarah Ward as a Partner to its growing Competition Team.
Sarah joins the team from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner where she was an Associate Director advising clients on all the key areas of competition law, with a particular focus on the financial services, retail, consumer goods and real estate sectors.
With over a decade’s experience practising as a competition lawyer at major international law firms in London, Sarah also has considerable in-house experience having spent time on secondment to the legal teams at De Beers, Unilever, Tesco and Royal Mail.
Recommended by Legal 500 for EU and Competition law, Sarah has acted on cases before the European, UK and other national competition regulators; in litigation in the High Court and before the Competition Appeal Tribunal; as well as on a number of investigations by the UK’s sectoral regulators.
Commenting on Sarah’s appointment, Trudy Feaster-Gee, Partner (Barrister) and Head of Competition at Walker Morris, said:
“We are very pleased to welcome on board our new partner Sarah to assist our clients at a time when UK business is facing an anticipated increase in domestic merger control investigations and antitrust enforcement following Brexit; new subsidy control rules; and Government proposals for a new National Security & Investment regime. Sarah contributes specialist expertise across all of these areas.
Following Sarah’s appointment, there are now four Partners, three Senior Consultants and eight qualified lawyers working on competition matters at the firm.”
Sarah, newly appointed Partner, added:
“I’m excited to be joining one of the UK’s few independent law firms outside the City with a first-rate competition team. Along with its unique position as a one-site firm located in Leeds, Walker Morris’ entrepreneurial philosophy, excellent reputation and breadth of expertise give it a distinctive edge.”
“I wanted to join a firm where I could make a positive impact and where there was a strong collaborative culture, so I’m looking forward to working with Trudy and all my other colleagues to deliver a first-class service to clients.”
Uniquely, Walker Morris has followed a strategy of investing in the full spectrum of commercial legal expertise including specialist practice areas such as competition law, financial services and consumer finance which, typically, are reserved for City firms. Whilst Walker Morris works with a number of Yorkshire clients, it also works with national and international clients, with a fifth of its clients headquartered overseas.
Read more about Walker Morris’ competition specialism here.
