The Law Society Gazette features Luke Streatfeild as ‘Lawyer in the news’

Following the launch of the collective action against Google in the CAT, the Law Society Gazette featured on 15 September peer, one of our competition litigation partners Luke Streatfeild as Lawyer of the Week.

He is in the news because: “The firm, representing proposed class representative and consumer campaigner Nikki Stopford, filed a collective claim against Google this month claiming that Google has used its search engine dominance to shut out competition. This is about defaults in digital markets, specifically the default status Google search has across almost all UK mobile devices. This case says that default status blocks competition and leads to higher costs and lower quality – you can see this in the search page, which is increasingly crowded with ads. The European Commission imposed its biggest ever fine on Google for part of this conduct, and similar complaints are being made in the US by the Department of Justice. This is about correcting the UK position and obtaining compensation for UK consumers.”

They also asked him why he became a lawyer? Luke replied: “I wanted to be an environmental litigator but gravitated to competition litigation as this sector offers a unique set of procedures for enforcement under the Consumer Rights Act 2015.”

About his career low he recounts: “It was my birthday. It was the end of the second day of a bitterly contested arbitration hearing. We had worked on the case for three years. We had a great settlement proposal almost agreed and the next day was fraught with risk for our client, as he was going on the stand. The client decided to walk away from the negotiation, because he was hungry.”

And about his career high: “The client changed his mind! More seriously, the best thing about the job is getting the right result for any client. A good judgment is a good judgment, but you never know what you are going to get, and so a good settlement is even better.“

For more info on the case.

For the full article.