‘Responsiveness, independence, commercial, and a keen knowledge of all relevant industry sectors.’

‘Felicity McMahon and Jacqueline Downes stand out for their experience, expertise and commercial approach. Not only do they have the most thorough understanding of the nuances of the Australian regime of any Australian practitioners that we have worked with (which is many), but they also understand how Australia fits in to the overall global strategy and filings.’

‘Excellent depth in associates and exceptional knowledge of the industry.’

‘They’re very strong on their competition law knowledge and a really friendly easy bunch to deal with. Ross in particular has a style of simplifying everything into consumable and understandable bites.’

‘The Competition team at Ashurst is a very capable, skilled and responsive team of partners and associates. The judgment the team brings to difficult strategic calls is unmatched in the market in my experience. The team’s advocacy, depth of analysis, cost-consciousness, and the thoughtfulness of their work is all market-leading.’

‘Peter Armitage’s long experience underpins the excellent judgment he offers on difficult strategic decisions and advice. Alyssa Phillips is highly efficient, analytical and service-oriented. Melissa Fraser’s work with us has been first class – focused, thoughtful, and very service-oriented, and providing excellent practical advice. ’

‘I have worked with Kirsten Webb (partner) and Sophia Haq (special counsel) on digital platform issues and both were excellent on technical detail and great to work with. They have excellent industry experience that they can bring to bear in our matters. ’

‘The Clayton Utz competition team has great depth and takes a client-focused and practical approach. I have been impressed by their enthusiasm to understand our business and look at issues from a variety of perspectives. They are my go-to team for strategic advice.’

‘Kirsten Webb and Bruce Lloyd are highly experienced, practical, and strategic thinkers.’

‘The firm is uniquely placed to project manage large-scale regulatory investigations and legal proceedings. The firm has a dedicated talent pool to readily draw from, including a team of paralegals and legal technology experts, to support large-scale matters. The legal technology team is able to set up secure document transfer to a Corrs’ portal to streamline the process of document review and cataloging.’

‘The firm’s practice consists of a highly skilled team of lawyers, senior associates and partners that take time to intimately understand client concerns and business operations for matters they support. Lawyers have diversity in skills to pivot across multiple aspects of a matter (eg financial data analysis) and are reliable with communication and work output. The firm’s practice adopts a collaborative and collegial approach to managing client matters and expectations. Of most help has been the firm’s ability to update clients on regulatory and legal developments on a needs basis (non-billable service) and provide a direct line of communication to present to a client’s Executive leadership team. ’

‘Richard Flitcroft is a stand-out legal professional. He approaches matters with a strong understanding of the key legal risks at hand and is pragmatic when advising on strategies for clients.

‘Excellent communication, availability, and technical expertise. I felt confident we were in safe hands and that G+T would make sure we met all deadlines, and the work product would be first-rate.’

‘G+T’s competition team has deep expertise from their partners to their junior lawyers, which is a real strength in how the firm is able to deliver advice and rely on its more junior members of the team accordingly. The team also has very strong relationships with the ACCC, with a number of their lawyers having worked at the ACCC, which gives them unique insights into the agency’s perspective, organisational structure, and personnel. ’

‘The best thing about G+T is that no matter who you are working with, they are first rate. There is a very reassuring consistency in advice and skill across the firm. This applies to partners, special counsel, and all the way down to graduates and paralegals. This is driven in part by the trust that G+T partners have in their lawyers – most of whom are operating at a level that is years above what would be expected for their PQE.’

‘Exceptional attention to detail and efficiency. Very accessible. Communicates complex concepts and nuance very effectively.’

‘KWM have a lot of sector-specific experience which puts them in a unique position of being able to deliver thoughtful, tailored advice for their clients. They are very focussed on delivering good outcomes for their clients and are highly receptive to feedback. This enables them to continually adapt and strive to better service their clients. KWM also have a very good grasp compared to other firms of the policy environment, not just the legal environment, in which their clients work which makes them well-rounded advisors. ’

‘Luke Woodward is a standout partner in the practice, with unparalleled experience and knowledge of ACCC strategy. He has the ability to cut through to isolate key issues, thinks laterally about problems, and gives clear, commercial and on-point guidance. ’

‘The team is genuinely capable and connected globally and can instruct and manage firms in and outside their network including in other areas of legal practice. They are very strong locally across the areas we need. We pay on a time-recorded basis but with a long-term regular client discount.

‘Lynsey Edgar and Jeremy Hardy are individually and collectively excellent. They each have the legal, technical and commercial acumen and experience we need and are up-to-date with regulatory action and cases. ’

‘The individuals in the practice have extensive expertise in the area, are diligent and incredibly thorough, and think legal issues through in terms of further consequences both practical and commercial. The senior associates in this team are outstanding.’

‘JWS’ real strength is their collaborative, commercially informed approach. The Competition team at JWS really knows our business and the industry in which we operate, which makes their advice actionable and hyper-relevant.’

‘Aldo Nicotra blends extensive technical expertise with pragmatic commercial advice to guide his clients through an increasingly complex area of Competition and Trade.’

‘Sar Katdare is a stand-out partner who is commercial, and pragmatic and has taken the time to really get to know our business. He is a complete pleasure to work with and has built strong trusted advisor relationships with our internal legal team as well as members of senior management across our business. We can rely on him for timely, relevant, commercial, and actionable advice, every time.’

‘The team worked under difficult circumstances and had to adapt their usual process in order to comprehend the documents and understand the case. Their out put was exceptional under very difficult circumstances whilst keeping the client informed and as calm as possible. ’

‘Paul Schoff and Haydn Flack are excellent in understanding a very complex case under difficult circumstances and Haydn was outstanding in managing the client throughout the process.’

‘The firm has a very strong competition practice, with key partners supported by a talented group of lawyers. The practice makes excellent use of legal technology (particularly in relation to document searching and production) and the technology services area is integrated into the legal practice so that it feels like one ‘seamless’ service when those technologies are leveraged. ’

‘The team stands out for the timeliness and accuracy of the advice provided in situations where there is little time to respond.’

‘Claire Forster and special counsel Zoe Lonard stand out as commercially astute and capable. Their understanding of our business lead us to make legally well-informed and sound commercial decisions.’

‘Very knowledgeable, commercial and creative.’

‘Peter McDonald is an outstanding creative and commercial thinker.’

‘Prudence Smith is always available and has an exceptionally deep knowledge of competition law. Her advice is always practical and commercially valuable.’

‘Strategic advice on competition issues and clearance applications. Compared to other firms Jones Day is extremely knowledgeable in relation to specific subsectors and industry thematics, which allows them to provide highly useful commercial advice.’

‘Matthew Bull has a deep understanding of the specific subsectors in which we operate and the regulator’s approach to key issues, which he is able to leverage to provide highly commercial advice.’

‘K&L Gates assisted us on a regulatory compliance matter in which there was limited scope for innovation. Despite this, K&L Gates were able to share their depth of knowledge based on their own experience with respect to utilising technology that existed within our own organisation. This was invaluable in assisting us to prepare for the actions we needed to undertake. ’

‘Ayman Guirguis is a stand out in this space. Ayman is attentive, highly responsive, knowledgeable, and experienced. Ayman is deeply experienced in liaising with regulators and understands what is required. Ayman’s advice is practical, honest, and succinct, all of which are critical when working to strict timeframes. ’

‘We have used Clifford Chance in Australia and internationally. The strength that I see in using Clifford Chance is that their antitrust team operates globally and seamlessly, which means we benefit from the international experience of solicitors who have oversight of regulatory actions in our markets in overseas jurisdictions, as well as local expertise. This capability cannot be under emphasised, and cannot be delivered by law firms that only operate in Australia.

‘We always value collaborative, responsive and skilled personnel. Clifford Chance’s culture is particularly collaborative – both with each other and with their clients. They operate collectively and as part of our team. This makes them stand out. A special mention goes to Angel Fu, a Senior Associate in the Sydney office was highly responsive and easy to work with.’

‘The exceptional skill and expertise of individuals within the team make this team a standout amongst its competitors. The advice provided is always very timely, commercial and practical which helps to ensure that it gets cut through and supported within other business units within my organisation.’

‘A robust pragmatic practice that you can rely on. They can speak to all levels of an organisation – you don’t need a law degree to decipher their advice.’

‘Kathryn Edghill is brilliant to work with – she is very responsive and gives insightful and pragmatic answers. Her off-the-cuff answers are appreciated too – I am not left with a very legalese unclear answer.’

‘Kathryn Edghill stands out. She is highly experienced, has excellent instincts, and is extremely diligent. Clients also love Kathryn because she is personable and practical.’