England - London • Dispute resolution

Stewarts Law LLP

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Stewarts Law LLP houses a ‘highly skilled, highly motivated’ practice, which regularly appears in damages claims before the Supreme Court and the CAT. The group acts for notable clients, including Marks & Spencer Plc and QVC UK. Practice head Kate Pollock is a ’wonderful, brilliant litigator’ who advises a number of domestic and European corporates on claims arising from abuse of a dominant position and cartel activity. ‘Superb technician’ Inge Forster primarily focuses on European disputes, particularly in relation to multi-party claims involving several and joint liability within the energy sector. The ’super smart‘ Stuart Carson handles a broad range of cases, including jurisdiction challenges before the Court of Appeal, and large-scale pan-European claims. The team is bolstered by in-house economist Mark Lewis.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • Kate Pollock, Inge Forster and Leah Keen are all really excellent competition lawyers. Leah is really clever and works diligently with clients to build claims and liaises with numerous individuals to pull together the necessary evidence. Inge is a really excellent organiser, who is fantastic at pushing cases forward. Kate is a real class act, super clever, really commercial, and very good at seeing the strategic implications of cases and points.’

  • ‘Kate Pollock is a fantastic role model. She is collaborative and has exceptionally well-made and persuasive arguments.'

  • 'Stuart Carson is super smart and great to work with. Very entrepreneurial.’

  • ‘An excellent competition team, handling very heavy competition disputes, mainly from a claimant perspective. They are supremely well-organised with deep expertise.'

  • 'Inge is a superb technician who knows her way round commercial and competition litigation like the back of her hand. Very hard-working and a good tactician.'
  • ‘The team is across all the detail, highly skilled, highly motivated, and superbly led by Kate.’

  • ‘Kate has excellent strategic judgment, a tremendous ability to motivate and lead a highly-skilled litigation team, and an a fine eye for the detail which really matters. Kate is a wonderful, brilliant litigator, who is full of good ideas, with a strong grasp on how to handle heavy, often multi-party litigation and always with an eye on the ultimate prize. Very adroit client-handling ability, and extremely personable.'

  • ‘They are highly experienced, claimant-centred competition damages litigators.’

Key clients

  • Marks & Spencer Plc
  • ASDA Stores Limited
  • Argos/Home Retail Group Plc
  • Wm Morrisons Supermarkets Limited
  • Vattenfall AB
  • Thales SA
  • Centrica Plc, British Gas
  • LafargeHolcim Ltd
  • iiyama UK Limited
  • Ingram Micro Inc
  • QVC UK
  • Victoria Plum Limited
  • The Works Stores Limited
  • J D Williams & Company Limited trading as N Brown
  • American Golf (Trading) Limited
  • Sportswift Limited trading as Card Factory

Work highlights

  • Advising ASDA Stores Limited, Argos Limited/Home Retail Group PLC, and Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited in the Supreme Court on liability which recently settled on confidential terms prior to an eight-week quantum trial in the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
  • Acting for Thales Group SA (formerly Gemalto SA) and 14 others in the pan-European smart card chip cartel claim at first instance, Court of Appeal and on appeal to the Supreme Court which resulted in a novel decision on limitation in a competition damages context.
  • Acting for Marks and Spencer Plc against DAF and Mercedes-Benz Group in a claim following on from the Trucks Decision of the European Commission.

Lawyers

Leading individuals

Inge Forster

Inge Forster

Stewarts Law LLP

Partner in the Competition Litigation department. Inge specialises in competition litigation damages claims in the English Courts. Inge is a skilled negotiator and has significant experience in settling disputes without involving the Court including at the pre-action stage. She is also an experienced trial lawyer. Recent cases of note include: Acting for major power company in its claim for damages in relation to the High Voltage Power Cables Cartel Acting for a multi-national distributor of electronic products and services in connection with the Liquid Crystal Displays Cartel Acting for major UK retailers in multi-billion pound claims against Visa and MasterCard Acting for global corporation in its claim arising from the Smart Cart Chips Cartel Inge was ranked as a Leading Individual in the Legal 500 and described in the legal directories as “extremely impressive” and “highly responsive and engaged with the detail of the case” with “wide-ranging experience of competition litigation”.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Kate Pollock

Other key lawyers

Inge Forster, Stuart Carson, Mark Lewis, Zach Sananes, Leah Keen