Tim Blanchard

Partner
Joined firm 2006. Partner since 2020.

Tim has a broad investigations and contentious regulatory practice, which spans a wide range of authorities, including the UK Financial Conduct Authority, the Serious Fraud Office, the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority.

Tim’s particular expertise includes advising major corporations and financial institutions in respect of bribery and corruption, regulatory, antitrust and consumer protection investigations. He also has extensive experience of related competition litigation matters.

Highlights include advising:

  • Northern Powergrid on its appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority against Ofgem’s ED2 price control decision for electricity distribution. 

  • JPMorgan Chase Bank on cross-border investigations conducted by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, US Department of Justice, European Commission and other regulators worldwide in relation to alleged misconduct in the G10 spot FX market, and on the subsequent settlements. Tim is also acting on potential collective proceedings and High Court litigation brought in the UK following the regulatory decisions.
  • Warner Music Group in relation to the CMA’s music and streaming market study.
  • British American Tobacco plc in connection with its defence of the SFO’s investigation of suspicions of corruption in the conduct of business by BAT plc, its subsidiaries and associated person.
  • John Wood Group on an investigation by the SFO into alleged bribery at certain AMEC Foster Wheeler companies it acquired in 2017 and strategic advice on parallel international investigations by the US, Brazilian and Scottish authorities. We successfully negotiated a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the SFO announced in July 2021.
  • Google in relation to the European Commission’s antitrust investigation into allegations that certain of its business practices in the search and advertising sectors violate European competition rules.
  • Coca-Cola Europacific Partners on a range of competition law matters.
  • A global manufacturer of technical products in relation to various compliance related issues.
  • Ericsson in relation to its Article 102 (abuse of dominance) complaint to the European Commission concerning Qualcomm’s patent licensing practices.

Tim is recognised as a leading individual in Who’s Who Legal: Competition - Future Leaders, Partners 2023 publication.

Tim is recognised as a Next Generation Partner for Competition Litigation by Legal 500 2024.

Tim is also described as having “tremendous ability” in the competition litigation space and is “a terrific pick to run a competition law dispute”. Legal 500 2022, Competition Litigation