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Simon Holmes  Partner
+44 (0)20 7111 2281
simon.holmes@sjberwin.com

Simon Holmes is an experienced competition and trade lawyer. He is recognized as a 'Leading Lawyer' in Chambers, as a 'legal expert' in Legal 500 and features in the Guide to the World's Leading Competition and Anti-Trust Lawyers and Who's Who of Competition Lawyers.

Although based primarily in London, Simon has spent several extensive periods in Brussels and continues to work there on a regular basis. As a result, he has close contacts with the European Commission, OFT, DTI and Competition Commission.

For nearly 25 years or so, Simon has had a broad diet of contentious and non-contentious competition law and (unusually among London-based lawyers) international trade and customs work. His competition law work also involves advising clients on a broad range of issues including bringing, defending and settling all types of competition disputes, cartels, dawn raids, compliance programmes, dominance, pricing, discounts, promotions, parallel trade, refusals to supply, state aid and the application of competition law to a wide range of commercial agreements - both online and offline.

He regularly advises on mergers under UK and EU law, acting for either one of the merging parties or third parties, such as complainants or investors. Through this latter work, he has advised on a very high proportion of the largest deals.

His trade work covers a wide range from anti-dumping through to customs issues and other forms of trade protectionism. Simon won scholarships to both Cambridge and Brussels Universities. At Cambridge, he obtained a first class honours degree in Economics and Law. In Brussels, he obtained a Grande Distinction in European Law.

He is fluent in French, and has written a number of articles on competition and international trade, and has spoken in these areas in London, Brussels, Washington, Tokyo, France, Italy and Brazil.

From 1983 to 1986, he taught EU Law at the London School of Economics and is a recent chairman of the Law Society's European Group.