Bio

Joanna Christoforou focuses her practice on EU and UK competition law and antitrust, including competition law litigation in the European and English Courts. Joanna defends clients in cartel or abuse of dominance investigations, competition disputes, dawn raids, damages actions, merger control, restructuring, and joint ventures, and advises clients on a range of competition law matters. She represents clients before the European Commission, the European Courts, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the Financial Conduct Authority, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court, as well as antitrust authorities in other jurisdictions. Joanna represents clients in complex, high value cartel and abuse of dominance investigations, as well as in civil proceedings for damages for breach of EU and UK competition law and antitrust. She also represents clients in obtaining clearance for mergers and acquisitions, restructurings, joint ventures, and other strategic alliances. Joanna works across a broad range of industries, including life sciences, technology, retail, grocery, ecommerce, financial services, commodities, and healthcare. Joanna has had a leading role in significant competition litigation matters in the High Court, the CAT, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court, including representing Sainsbury’s in the leading case against Visa in the interchange fee litigation in the English Courts (appealed to the Supreme Court), and representing Concordia in its challenge to the CMA’s search warrants, in a first of its kind litigation, as well as representing clients in a number of cartel and abuse of dominance investigations by the CMA. Joanna is a member of the Morgan Lewis team which was awarded Behavioural Matter of the Year—Europe, Challenges to CMA Search Warrants by Global Competition Review (2018). She was seconded to the Competition and Cooperation Panel (now Monitor), advising on the introduction of a competition law regime to the UK’s National Health Service. Joanna leads Morgan Lewis’s initiatives in assisting Amicus, a not for profit organization helping provide representation to individuals facing the death penalty in the US. She is also a member of the firm’s Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Committee.