Competition and trade

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Recommended for its ‘deep insight into the digital sector’, Corrs Chambers Westgarth‘s competition and trade practice has longstanding experience working with high-profile technology industry clients. Its expertise includes work in the development of competition class actions in Australia. Mark McCowan heads the competition practice from Sydney, with work including merger clearances, major investigations and inquiries, and litigation. Also in Sydney, Andrew Korbel is head of trade, working with producers, importers, exporters and industry bodies in complex commercial disputes. Ian Reynolds is the go-to in Melbourne, noted for his international merger clearance work and often supporting the firm’s corporate and M&A teams. Sydney-based Richard Flitcroft is praised for his ’industry knowledge’.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘Team works effectively together to ensure work is done at the appropriate level but with strong partner oversight and involvement.’
‘Highly commercial and focused on understanding the outcome we want to achieve before getting into the detail.’
‘The Corrs team as a whole are extremely reliable, responsive to client requests and queries, adept in managing global corporate structures by ensuring they are available to attend meetings and calls across various time zones, and highly skilled at managing large-scale investigations and proceedings.’
‘Richard Flitcroft has a wealth of knowledge in the Consumer and Competition Law space as well as working with regulators such as the ACCC. His industry knowledge was what enabled our company to receive effective, timely advice when critical decisions needed to be made by business stakeholders. Richard was an inclusive partner and ensured his team were deeply involved at each stage of handling the matter.'
‘Knowledge of international trade law and associated administrative law and principles and process in litigation in the Federal Court of Australia.’
‘Andrew Korbel at Corrs has extensive knowledge and experience in international trade law, particularly anti-dumping, and associated administrative law and principles and process in litigation in the Federal Court of Australia. He is diligent, proactive and responsive, with sound analysis and judgement on complex technical legal issues in litigation. Advice can be relied upon.’
‘The team gained a deep understanding of our business and was able to quickly identify the issues of concern and advise how they might be addressed. They have deep insight into the digital sector. They preempted the issues we'd encounter and appropriately started early preparation to ensure we'd be equipped to address the issues within the timeframes needed. I felt that they were very invested in our commercial wishes and concerns - they displayed deep understanding of our commercial concerns and commitment to the work needed to protect our interests.’
‘Mark McCowan is very smart - quickly understood complex parts of our business and the commercial imperatives driving us, and explained very clearly where there might be problems or negative perceptions from the regulator. He's also able to speak in a very clear, well-pitched way to non-lawyers.’

Key clients

Commonwealth Bank Australia
Google
Stockland
REA Group
Guardian Early Learning Group
Tradeweb Markets Inc
TPG Telecom
Meta
Albemarle Corporation
Blackstone
ComfortDelGro Corporation Australia Pty Ltd
Press Metal Group
Rio Tinto

Work highlights

Appointed to defend Google in a landmark private antitrust litigation commenced by Epic Games, a US$30 billion online gaming giant responsible for the “Fortnite” game.
Appointed to assist Meta, formerly Facebook, as the ACCC alleges that scam ads promoting investment in cryptocurrency schemes were likely to mislead Facebook users.
Advising a consortium of M Resources Pty Ltd and Golden Energy and Resources Pte. Ltd (GEAR) (together, the Consortium) on its acquisition of the Illawarra Metallurgical Coal (IMC) business from South32 (ASX: S32) for up to USD$1.65 billion (approximately AUD 2.5 billion).