Matthew O'Regan

Partner

Qualifications: LLB (Hons) (University of Nottingham) / LLM in EC International Trade Law (Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Admitted a solicitor 1997

Partner from 2012

Tel: +44 (0) 117 307 6015

matthew.o'regan@burges-salmon.com

Matthew is a partner in our Competition team and specialises in all aspects of British, European and international competition law. He joined Burges Salmon in January 2012 from the Brussels office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, where he had worked since 2001 and had been a Counsel since 2006. He has also practised in London with both Freshfields and Herbert Smith, where he trained and qualified in 1997. He was a member of the Brussels Bar between 2001 and 2011.

Matthew advises a broad range of British and international clients on all aspects of UK, EU and international competition law, both contentious and non-contentious. He has considerable experience of a broad range of industry sectors including chemicals, chemical distribution, upstream and downstream oil and gas, aluminium, nuclear, utilities, sporting and consumer goods, telecoms and broadcasting, private equity, defence equipment and transport. His areas of expertise include:

• complex, often multi-jurisdictional, Phase I and Phase II merger reviews by the Office of Fair Trading, Competition Commission, European Commission and other competition authorities, including several which have required remedies in order to be approved Recent mergers on which he has worked have included Brenntag/Multisol, Com Hem/Canal Digital Kabel-TV, Deutsche Bahn/Arriva, Dow Chemical/Rohm and Haas, Amcor/Alcan Packaging, StatoilHydro/Jet Scandinavia, Rio Tinto/Alcan and SABIC/GE Plastics.
• defending companies subject to cartel, antitrust and dominance investigations by the Office of Fair Trading and the European Commission, including dawn raids, leniency applications and follow-on damages actions
• representing and advising clients in cartel and state aid litigation before the European Courts, where he regularly appears as an advocate. He has successfully obtained reductions in cartel fines imposed on Solvay (hydrogen peroxide) and Low & Bonar (industrial bags) and represented ING Group in its challenge to the conditions imposed by the European Commission in its approval of aid provided by the Dutch government during the financial crisis
• advising public bodies, beneficiaries and complainants in state aid cases before the European Commission and on appeal to the European Courts, including the restructuring of British Energy and the provision of aid to Bombardier Aerospace for its new CSeries large commercial aircraft
• advising on the application of competition law to commercial agreements and strategies, economic regulation in various sectors (including utilities, broadcasting and telecoms) and general EU law.

Matthew publishes and speaks widely on a range of subjects and is a General Editor of Telecommunications, Broadcasting and the Internet: EU Competition Law and Regulation (3rd edition, Sweet & Maxwell, 2010), which is the leading practitioner text in this area and to which he contributed the chapters on market conduct and mergers.