Overview

Jonothan has considerable experience in both competition and commercial disputes and extensive trial experience having gone through multiple full trials in the High Court and the Competition Appeal Tribunal. He demonstrates litigation expertise, working on cases ranging from smaller claims in the County Courts to multi-billion-pound cases in the High Court, along with specialist courts such as the CAT and the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court.

Expertise

Jonothan commenced his legal career as a paralegal at Allen & Overy and trained at Travers Smith across several practice areas, including litigation, investment funds, banking and competition where he became a pivotal member of the firm’s litigation department. He worked full time on Sebastian Holdings v Deutsche Bank, a claim and counterclaim in excess of $2 billion which went to trial in the High Court.

Jonothan progressed to Mishcon de Reya and spent three years as a litigation solicitor in their competition team, where the highlight was advising Sainsbury’s in their successful interchange-fee litigation against Mastercard. Most recently, Jonothan practiced at a regional firm as the sole commercial litigator with full responsibility for the conduct of cases, acting for various household brands.

At Hausfeld, Jonothan acts for tens of thousands of clients in relation to the Mercedes emissions group litigation and advises on various cartel damages claims and collective proceedings orders before the CAT. Jonothan is adept at advising clients on how they can manage their litigation risk by utilising third-party litigation funding, ATE insurance and various risk-based fee structures including CFAs and DBAs and has a high-level understanding of how to tailor and combine each product depending on the particular case.

Jonothan believes that there are many ways of working and has taken time out throughout his career to reconnect with his passion for travel and exploration, while periodically advising on a pro-bono basis for startups abroad.

Clients

Jonothan has worked with clients spanning several sectors, including large retailers, global automobile manufacturers, software companies, record labels, construction companies and supermarket chains.

Education

Postgraduate Diploma in Competition Law, Kings College London
Legal Practice Course, BPP Law School, London
Graduate Diploma in Law, BPP Law School, London
MA English Language and Linguistics, University of Liverpool
BA (Hons) English Language and Literature, University of Liverpool

Bar Admissions

Solicitor, England and Wales, 2012

Affiliations

Founder and Member - the Junior Competition Network

Experience

Antitrust/Competition

His previous competition experience encompasses the following cases:

Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd v Mastercard: Successful litigation against Mastercard in the High Court and Competition Appeal Tribunal. Sainsbury's were awarded £68m in damages, being at the time the highest ever competition damages award in Europe. Pursuant to Article 101 TFEU and other UK competition laws, arguing that Mastercard's processing fees for debit and credit cards constituted a restriction of competition. Jonothan also advised further retailers on similar damages claims after this successful litigation.
Microsoft Mobile Oy v Various Batteries Manufacturers: Cartel damages case pursuant to Article 101 TFEU and various other UK, US, Japanese, Korean and Finnish competition laws with parallel international arbitration proceedings and US District Courts proceedings. Microsoft alleged in the High Court that various lithium-ion batteries manufacturers had operated a secret cartel which had deliberately raised the prices of mobile telephone batteries over a 20-year period.

At Hausfeld, Jonothan is part of the legal teams:

Acting on behalf of individual and business clients in relation to the alleged use by Mercedes of so-called ‘defeat devices’ for the purposes of cheating emissions testing. The team have issued claims on behalf of thousands of clients affected by Mercedes’ alleged conduct and are part of the Steering Committee of firms running the litigation.
Representing class representative Nikki Stopford in her opt-out collective claim against Google, seeking approximately £7bn in redress on behalf of tens of millions of UK consumers.

Commercial & Financial Disputes

Prior to joining Hausfeld, Jonothan:

Advised a global espresso and coffee machine company on a trademark and copyright dispute in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court over their branded range of machines in the UK.
Advised on a multi-million-pound farming partnership dispute relating to alleged breaches of the partnership agreement and negotiating the exit of his Partner client.
Advised a record label in relation to their portfolio of intellectual property and related disputes with their recording artists.
Advised various clients on: breach of warranties claims arising from the sale and purchases of companies; breach of director’s duties; breach of contract claims including service-level disputes, non-delivery and non-performance; breach of restrictive covenants in relation to employees moving to competitors; various disputes arising from commercial agency agreements in the greetings cards industry; and defamation in relation to malicious posts made against companies on social media.