Global Competition Review recognises Tom Bolster in the GCR 2024 40 under 40

Competition Partner, Tom Bolster was selected by the Global Competition Review in their 2024 40 under 40, a special feature celebrating the next generation of leading antitrust practitioners.

Tom is a leader in the field of contentious competition work. He is a driving force behind Hausfeld’s initiatives in the automotive sector and damages claims more generally for businesses impacted by cartels and leads the team working with our French clients, both corporates and SMEs. He has worked on some of the largest cartel cases to date - many distinguished as the top litigation to watch in that year.

In an interview as part of the feature, Tom reflects on one of the most important competition cases he handled and what it told him at the early stage of his career:

Without a doubt the Air Cargo cartel, which is also the case where it all began for me and also one of the first major cases of the firm on both sides of the Atlantic. We sought to shape the private enforcement landscape, first via a representative action under the CPR before the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s collective regime was born, to then frame the cartel as an unlawful means conspiracy to seek global redress in London for our 100 corporate clients. This taught me the importance of testing the limits of the law to engender change – you could say that our competition collectives practice is in some ways the fruit of those early labours. Our oldest clients were SME flower importers who had lost everything and for whom the case meant everything – speaking to them gave me the strength and inspiration to overcome the many hurdles we faced in the case and help our disparate claimant group obtain justice following a gruelling 6-month mediation process, 10 years after the claim was issued.

To the question of what advice he would give to someone at the start of their career as a competition lawyer or economist, he replied:

“Push the boundaries, step outside your comfort zone and take as much responsibility as you can handle” is the consistent advice I have given to the many lawyers I interviewed at Hausfeld over the years.

I have always been passionate about righting wrongs and seeking justice for my clients when they have become victims of competition abuses, so unquestionably, the claimant side has always been where I wanted to develop my practice. I would encourage budding lawyers and economists to consider working at a claimant firm at any stage in their career to give the greatest possible outlet to their entrepreneurial spirit and sense of justice.”

The full GCR feature and interview (subscription only)