Meet the Speakers

Panel Moderator

Iona McCall, Director, AlixPartners UK LLP, UK

Iona is a professional economist with 18 years of experience. She specialises in competition and regulatory matters and has an established reputation for delivering rigorous economic analysis both as an advisor and an expert witness, in particular with respect to anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominance infringements, and associated private damages claims. She has acted for the UK, EC, Dutch and French competition authorities, as well as lawyers and businesses, on antitrust matters across a range of sectors including transport, financial services, healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
In both 2019 and 2020, Iona was named by Who’s Who Legal as a "Future Leader" in the field of competition economics. Clients value her for her "sound and thorough analysis, which demonstrates command of the underlying detail" and for being a "down-to-earth economist who does not blind you with economist science".
Iona holds an MSc Economics from the London School of Economics and a BSc (First) in Economics and French from the University of Birmingham. Iona also spent a year studying economics at the Sorbonne in Paris.

AlixPartners UK LLP
AlixPartners’ investigations, disputes, and risk professionals have a 36-year record of responding to urgent client situations all over the world. We help counsel make sense of complex issues by evaluating business, economic, accounting, financial, and damage issues and by serving as expert witnesses and consultants to law firms and corporations.
Our teams includes forensic accountants, economists, industry experts, computer forensic technology experts, and former enforcement accountants. Our areas of expertise include antitrust, post-acquisition disputes, lost profits and business interruption, breach of contract, securities, bankruptcy, valuation and cross-border disputes. We have testified as expert witnesses in countless high-stakes cases and have a long record of success in international courts and arbitration forums.
We have been involved in over 250 investigations, in areas such as antitrust, AML, sanctions, and anticorruption, and have acted as monitors on behalf of regulators in various high profile cases. A global, integrated team in Europe, North America, and Asia differentiates us from other consulting firms.
We support companies and their counsel by providing expert evidence, testimony, and advice to address the most important issues when it really matters.
For more information, please visit: www.alixpartners.com.

Barry Nigro, Chair of the Global Antitrust and Competition Department and former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ's Antitrust Division and Deputy Director of the FTC's Bureau of Competition, Fried Frank, USA

Bernard (Barry) A. Nigro Jr. is chair of Fried Frank’s Global Antitrust and Competition Department. He divides his time between the Washington, DC and New York offices.

Mr. Nigro recently rejoined the Firm from the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, where as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General (2019-2020) he was the No. 2 official responsible for all civil and criminal antitrust enforcement and litigation. Previously, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General (2017-2019). While serving at the Department of Justice, Mr. Nigro played a critical role in advancing the Department's antitrust enforcement priorities and numerous policy developments, including implementation of the Procurement Collusion Strike Force, the 2020 Vertical Merger Guidelines issued in conjunction with the Federal Trade Commission, and modernization of the Department's Merger Remedies Manual and merger review process. Mr. Nigro has also served as Deputy Director for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, where he managed the Bureau's merger and anticompetitive practices investigations and litigation. Mr. Nigro received a commendation for Superior Service awarded by the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission.

Having served at both federal antitrust enforcement agencies, Mr. Nigro has participated in hundreds of civil and criminal matters involving a broad variety of industries, including commodities and consumer products, agriculture, transportation, retail, technology hardware and software, online markets and platforms, social media, financial services, healthcare, media, communications, supermarkets, casinos and gaming, defense, chemicals, energy, and professional services. Some of the notable matters for which Mr. Nigro was responsible for leading while at the Department include Bayer's US$63 billion acquisition of Monsanto, Sprint Corporation's US$26 billion merger with T-Mobile US, Inc., BB&T Corporation's merger of equals with SunTrust Banks, Inc., CVS Health's US$69 billion acquisition of Aetna, the indictment and prosecution in US v Christopher Lischewski, the deferred prosecution agreement resolving the felony charge against Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute LLC, and several HSR and order compliance enforcement actions, including the unprecedented Order enforcement action against Live Nation Entertainment.

Mr. Nigro served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles R. Richey, United States District Court for the District of Columbia (1986-1987). He received his JD in 1986 from George Washington University Law School.

Fried Frank
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP advises the world's leading corporations, investment funds and financial institutions on their most critical legal needs and business opportunities. The Firm's approximately 500 lawyers are based in North America and Europe.

Anne MacGregor, Managing Director, FTI Consulting Inc, Belgium

Anne MacGregor heads up the competition team at FTI Consulting in Brussels. Her work involves strategic communications (public affairs, government relations and public relations) for complex mergers, abuse of dominance and other antitrust cases. Anne has been in Brussels since 1993 and has spent most of her career practising EU competition, regulatory and trade law in large international law firms. She has also worked as a specialist antitrust journalist, establishing the merger reporting team at MLex in 2007-08, and setting up the Brussels Bureau of the DC-based antitrust risk reporting agency The Capitol Forum in 2018. Anne was born and educated in Australia, and has a German LL.M. She is admitted to practise law in Australia, England & Wales, New York and Ireland.

FTI Consulting Inc
FTI Consulting is an independent global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations manage change, mitigate risk and resolve disputes: financial, legal, operational, political & regulatory, reputational and transactional. Individually, each practice is a leader in its specific field, staffed with experts recognized for the depth of their knowledge and a track record of making an impact.
Collectively, FTI Consulting offers a comprehensive suite of services designed to assist clients across the business cycle – from proactive risk management to the ability to respond rapidly to unexpected events and dynamic environments.

Panellists

Sarah Cardell, General Counsel, Competition & Markets Authority, UK

Sarah Cardell was appointed as General Counsel at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on 11 September 2013. As a member of the senior executive team and an important adviser to the board, Sarah leads in the provision of legal advice across the CMA’s functions.

Previous career highlights include:
Legal Partner of the Markets Division at Ofgem, where her responsibilities included leading on competition law matters
Partner in the Competition Group at Slaughter and May, where she advised across a wide range of EU and UK merger and antitrust cases working on secondment at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT)

Competition & Markets Authority
The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority and carries out investigations into mergers and markets, and enforces competition and consumer law. Its mission is to make “markets work well in the interests of consumers, businesses and the economy”. The CMA assumed its powers on 1 April 2014 and is the successor of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the Competition Commission (CC).

Kayvan Hazemi Jebelli , Competition & Regulatory Counsel, Computer & Communications Industry Association, USA

Kayvan Hazemi Jebelli (Kay) is Competition & Regulatory Counsel for the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), based in Brussels, where he represents and advises the association on competition policy issues, and European regulatory policy matters.
Kay has over ten years’ experience as a competition lawyer in private practice, in the European Commission Directorate-General for Competition, in academia, and as Senior Legal Counsel at a leading UK media and communications company.

Computer & Communications Industry Association
CCIA is a not-for-profit membership organization for a wide range of companies in the computer, internet, information technology, and telecommunications industries, represented by their senior executives.
Created over four decades ago, CCIA promotes open markets, open systems, open networks, and full, fair, and open competition. CCIA serves as the eyes, ears, and voice of the world’s leading providers of technology products and services in Washington and Brussels.
CCIA members include computer and communications companies, equipment manufacturers, software developers, service providers, re-sellers, integrators, and financial service companies. Together they employ almost one million workers and generate more than $540 billion in annual revenue.

Linsey McCallum, Deputy Director-General, Antitrust, Directorate-General for Competition, European Commission, Belgium

Linsey McCallum is Deputy Director-General for Antitrust in the Directorate-General for Competition as of 1 October 2020.

She joined the Commission in 1993 from private practice, initially as a trade negotiator during the Uruguay Round. After joining DG COMP in 1995, she held a series of antitrust and merger case-handling and policy posts. From 1999-2002, she was a member of cabinet of Vice-President Kinnock before rejoining DG COMP as the assistant to the Director General for antitrust and mergers. From 2005-2011 she was Head of Unit for antitrust in transport. As of 2011, she was Head of Unit for mergers in digital sectors before her appointment as Director for technology, media and telecoms in 2013. As of 2014, she served as Margethe Vestager’s Deputy Head of Cabinet with oversight of the competition portfolio.

Linsey McCallum graduated with a first class degree in law from the University of Glasgow and holds a master degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges.

European Commission
The Commission, together with the national competition authorities, directly enforces EU competition rules, Articles 101-109 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). Within the Commission, the Directorate-General (DG) for Competition is primarily responsible for these direct enforcement powers. DG Competition can act against several types of anti-competitive activity if it affects cross-border trade. This includes enforcement powers against anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance, merger and state aid control and the monitoring of liberalised markets.

Rebecca Larsen, Manager - Regulatory Strategy, Liberty Global plc, Netherlands

Rebecca Larsen is Regulatory Strategy Manager for Liberty Global in Amsterdam. Rebecca is an Australian lawyer and has 9 years of experience in competition law and telecommunications regulation.
Originally starting her career at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in the investigations and telecommunications branches; Rebecca is currently responsible for network, digital, consumer and content regulation policy within Liberty Global, a leading European converged video, broadband and communications provider.

Liberty Global plc
Liberty Global is one of the world’s leading converged video, broadband and communications companies, with operations in seven European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Telenet, UPC, the combined Sunrise UPC and VodafoneZiggo, which is owned through a 50/50 joint venture. Our substantial scale and commitment to innovation enable us to invest in the infrastructure and digital platforms that empower our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Liberty Global delivers market-leading products through next-generation networks that connect customers subscribing to 26 million broadband, video, fixed and mobile telephony services across our brands. We also have significant investments in ITV, All3Media, ITI Neovision, LionsGate, the Formula E racing series and several regional sports networks.

Sarah Abram, Brick Court Chambers, London, UK

Sarah Abram is a leading junior at the Bar.
Current directories include comments that Sarah is “a superstar – brilliant on her feet”, “always a pleasure to work with on even the most stressful cases” and has “[g]reat confidence and courtroom presence as well as expertise”. She was nominated as EU and Competition Junior of the Year in the Legal 500 UK Bar Awards 2019 and in 2020.
Sarah is instructed in the most high-profile competition/EU law and commercial cases, frequently acting unled against silks, including in large-scale multi-jurisdictional litigation.
Sarah’s current work includes: acting unled in the Rail Fares CPO litigation; appearing unled in the EU General Court in Case T-9/19 Client Earth v EIB; acting on the FRAND aspects of Sisvel v Archos, multi-jurisdictional patent licensing litigation (Lawyer Top 20 case for 2020); representing Telefonica in the litigation regarding the collapse of Phones4U; acting in competition damages litigation including in Trucks, Power Cables and FX (Lawyer Top 20 case for 2020); a high-profile data breach claim against the Marriott hotel group.
Sarah speaks fluent French and some German; she is frequently instructed in cases involving documentary evidence in either or both languages. She is called to the Irish Bar and is a member of the Irish Law Library.

London

Rob Williams, Queen's Counsel, Monckton Chambers, UK

Rob is a highly experienced barrister and advocate practicing in competition law, procurement law, public law and other regulatory litigation. He acts for the range of commercial and public sector clients, and has been described in the Legal Directories as:
“a first class brain, very strategic, very commercial” “a joy to work with”
“strong in court”
“truly outstanding: super clever, brilliant drafting and outstanding judgement”
“extremely talented, approachable and diligent”
“a star junior”
“an encyclopaedic mind”
“unimpeachable analytical skills”
and “one of those barristers who actually seems to care about what the outcome is and works really hard to get you where you need to be”.
Since 2015, Rob has been Standing Counsel to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Before taking silk, Rob was awarded Competition Junior of the Year at the Chambers UK Bar Awards in both 2019 and 2017. He was nominated for the same award at the Legal 500 UK Awards in 2018. Rob is recommended by the Directories in Band 1 in in his main practice areas.
Rob’s work is principally divided between the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal, and he appears frequently in the appellate courts. Rob has appeared in many of the leading cases in competition and public procurement law.
Before joining Monckton Chambers, Rob worked as an in-house advocate at a large City law firm. His experience has given him a particular insight into the needs of both solicitor and lay clients at all stages of the litigation process, and as a result, Rob places particular importance on being user friendly and accessible.

Monckton Chambers

Kristina Barbov, Head of International Policy, Ofcom, UK

Ofcom
Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day. We make sure people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services, as well as keeping an eye on TV and radio.

William Kovacic, Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy; Professor of Law; Director, Competition Law Center, The George Washington University, USA

Before joining the law school in 1999, William E. Kovacic was the George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law. From January 2006 to October 2011, he was a member of the Federal Trade Commission and chaired the agency from March 2008 to March 2009. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from June 2001 to December 2004. In 2011 he received the FTC’s Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Since August 2013, Professor Kovacic has served as a Non-Executive Director with the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority. From January 2009 to September 2011, he was Vice-Chair for Outreach for the International Competition Network. He has advised many countries and international organizations on antitrust, consumer protection, government contracts, and the design of regulatory institutions.

At GW, Professor Kovacic has taught antitrust, contracts, and government contracts. He is co-editor (with Ariel Ezrachi) of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. His publications since returning to GW in 2011 include “Good Agency Practice and the Implementation of Competition Law” in European Yearbook of International Economic Law (Christoph Hermann ed. 2013); “Antitrust in High-Tech Industries: Improving the Federal Antitrust Joint Venture” in George Mason Law Review (2012); “Behavioral Economics: Implications for Regulatory Agency Behavior” in Journal of Regulatory Economics (2012) (with James Cooper); “Competition Agency Design: What’s on the Menu?” in European Competition Journal (2012) (with David Hyman); “Plus Factors and Agreement in Antitrust Law” in Michigan Law Review (2011) (with Robert Marshall, Leslie Marx & Halbert White); “Ensuring Integrity and Competition and Public Procurement Markets: A Dual Challenge for Good Governance” in The WTO Regime on Government Procurement: Challenge and Reform (Sue Arrowsmith & Robert Anderson, eds. 2011) (with Robert Anderson & Anna Caroline Mueller); “The International Competition Network: Its Past, Current, and Future Role” inMinnesota Journal of International Law (2011) (with Hugh Hollman); “The William Humphrey and Abram Myers Years: The FTC from 1925 to 1929” in Antitrust Law Journal (2011) (with Marc Winerman); Professor Kovacic also is co-author (with Andrew Gavil & Jonathan Baker) of Antitrust Law in Perspective: Cases, Concepts and Problems in Competition Policy (2d ed. 2008) and Antitrust Law & Economics in a Nutshell (5th ed. 2004) (with Ernest Gellhorn & Stephen Calkins).

The George Washington University
Established in 1865, The George Washington University Law School is the oldest law school in Washington, DC. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and is a charter member of the Association of American Law Schools. The law school is located on the GW campus in the downtown neighborhood familiarly known as Foggy Bottom. The main GW Law complex is located at 2000 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20052.

Feedback from previous IICJ events

“Interesting broad theme conference, covering a variety of topics relevant to the in-house counsel, delivered by specialists in their domain.”

Anca Plovie
Senior Legal Counsel
Alcatel-Lucent Bell NV, Belgium

“I found the format very, very good and would recommend your conference to anyone. The atmosphere was excellent and allowed a fruitful exchange of ideas with colleagues.”

Holger Hohmann
Senior Competition Counsel
Siemens AG, Germany

“Knowledge- sharing with brilliant colleagues in a productive and collaborative environment”

Gabriella Porcelli
Senior Advisor to CEO
Philip Morris Italia, Italy

“General covering many topics concerning in-house counsel”

Jeroen Diels
Senior Corporate Counsel
Riverbed Technology , Netherlands

“I find this to be a useful journal for sharing the experience and knowledge of other in-house counsel.”

David Newkirk
General Counsel
Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, USA

“IICJ succeeds in bringing together a broad range of in-house experience across a variety of fields of expertise and from diverse geographic backgrounds. ”

Nicole Linda Kelsey
General Counsel & Secretary
Amyris, Inc., USA

“The IICJ is excellent resource for the in-house practitioner. The articles are always practical and germane to the issues that most general counsels face daily. ”

Bryan Yeazel
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer (Former GC)
Stock Building Supply Holdings, Inc., USA

“Very enriching”

Hala Raphael
General Counsel
Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Lebanon

Tuesday 20th April 16.30 (UK Time) - Duration 60 minutes

Meet the Speakers

Panel Moderator

Panellists

Feedback from previous IICJ events