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John specialises in European Union and Competition Law. In the early 1980’s John lectured in European Community Law at Queen’s University, Belfast and practised at the Bar of Northern Ireland. He then practised for a number of years in the Brussels office of Clifford Chance, specialising in EU competition law and EU anti-dumping law. John joined Arthur Cox in 1990 and established the EU and Competition Group. He has been Head of the Group since then and has been a partner since 1993. John was a Member of the Management Group in Arthur Cox from 2002 to 2006.

John advises clients primarily on EU and Irish competition law and merger control and EU State aid rules. John has extensive experience in representing clients before regulators, particularly in Brussels and Dublin. He has developed a reputation for effectively negotiating with regulators and achieving practical and commercial results for clients, in particular, in competition law, State aid and merger control cases before the European Commission, and in competition law and merger control cases before the Irish Competition Authority. John also represents clients in proceedings before the Courts of the European Union and in competition litigation in the Irish Courts.

John has been involved in most of the leading competition law, State aid and merger control cases in Ireland over the last 20 years.

John has advised the Irish Department of Finance and the National Treasury Management Agency since September, 2008 on the issues arising under EU State aid rules and EU and Irish competition law and merger control rules as a result of the measures which the Irish State has adopted in the financial sector in the wake of the international and domestic financial crisis. Many of these cases have raised unprecedented issues under State aid rules in particular, for example, the adoption of a State Guarantee for the banking sector in 2008 and the establishment of the National Asset Management Agency in 2009.

John has also been involved in over 60% of the Phase II merger control cases which the Competition Authority has undertaken since it obtained merger control jurisdiction in January, 2003, acting for the purchaser in most of these cases (including, Grafton/Heiton (2005), Glen Dimplex/Applied Energy 2007), and Greenstar/Veolia (2010)). John also acted in the leading merger control case from Ireland which has been reviewed by the European Commission under the EU Merger Control Regulation, namely, Aer Lingus/Ryanair (2006-2009), in which he advised Aer Lingus in its successful defence of Ryanair’s hostile bid. He also acted in the one case which has been referred to the Competition Authority by the European Commission under the EU Merger Control Regulations, namely Heineken/Beamish and Crawford (2008).

John has been involved in many of the leading competition investigations undertaken by the European Commission in Ireland over the years (for example, Esat Telecom/Telecom Eireann (1998 to 2003) in which he advised Telecom Eireann in its successful defence to Esat Telecom’s Complaint). He has also acted in leading competition cases before the Competition Authority (currently advising in the first application for cartel immunity made by a trade association) and significant competition litigation in the Irish Courts (for example, High Court proceedings taken by Heatons against O’Neill Irish International Sports (2010)).

John is regarded as one of the leading practitioners in EU and Competition in Ireland. He is consistently recommended in legal reviews for his “refreshing and helpful can-do attitude” (Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2007). He is considered to be “naturally bright and good with clients”, “absolutely excellent, well connected and hugely professional”, and “a consistently great lawyer” (Chambers Global: The World’s Leading Lawyers for Business, 2006, 2007 and 2008, respectively).