Jonathan Ford

Jonathan is a partner in our antitrust & foreign investment group and has extensive experience across a broad range of EU & UK competition law. Jonathan has particular specialism in complex UK mergers, having spent six months on secondment to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), gaining valuable knowledge of top-level decision makers and internal processes.

I view promoting diversity and inclusion as a key part of my role as a Partner and colleague within the firm. I am passionate about the benefits of social mobility and actively sponsor our legal assistant and paralegal pool who come from diverse backgrounds to support the firm's commitment to diversity in this area. Additionally, I actively participate in our internal DEI Champion Initiatives which involved leading the Competition Law section for the recent Law Society Roundtable on ethnic diversity.

Work highlights

• Vistry plc: advising on its merger with Countryside plc.
• Quantile: advising on the acquisition by the London Stock Exchange group, to include a rare CMA phase 2 unconditional clearance.
• National Fostering Agency: advising on the CMA approval for their acquisitions of Acorn Care & Outcomes First Group.
• Intu plc: advising on their aborted public merger with Hammerson plc, which would have created the UK’s largest shopping centre owner.
• Anglo American: advising on its UK construction materials joint venture with Lafarge, one of the most in-depth phase 2 investigations conducted by the UK Competition Commission, and its acquisition of sole control over De Beers.
• TMX (owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange): advising on the CMA’s approval of the acquisition of Trayport, following the CMA’s prohibition of Trayport’s acquisition by Intercontinental Exchange.
• A pharmaceutical company : advising on the CMA’s investigation into excessive pricing of Hydrocortisone tablets, and appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal
• A private equity company: advising on the CMA’s investigation into excessive pricing of Liothyronine tablets, and appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal”
• A financial institution: advising on the EC’s investigation into EEA Supra-Sovereign bonds
• An insurance broker: advising on the FCA and EC investigations into aviation insurance
• A pharmaceutical company: advising on the CMA’s investigation into supply of paroxetine
• A multi-lateral trading facility: advising on the FCA's wholesale market study in relation to benchmarks, credit rating agencies and market data vendors
• A cloud provider: on the Ofcom market study and CMA market investigation into cloud services

Jonathan joined Linklaters in 2010 as an Associate in our Competition/Antitrust practice. In 2015 he was made up to Managing Associate, in 2019 he became a Counsel and was then promoted to Partner in 2022.

Jonathan attended Edinburgh University from 2002-2006, where he completed a Bachelor of Law degree. In 2007, he graduated from Aberdeen University with a Diploma in legal practice. Jonathan also holds a postgraduate diploma in competition law from Kings College London.

Jonathan writes and speaks regularly on a range of topics. He has authored and co-authored multiple publications and articles, including:

• Jonathan Ford, Emma Cochrane & Kim rust, New consumer protection regime: a dramatic increase in compliance risk, January 2024
• Jonathan Ford & Verity Egerton-Doyle, “Algorithms, Big Data and Mergers” Algorithmic Antitrust, January 2022
• "Blockchain Collaborations: Analysing the potential antitrust implications", Competition Law Insight, 13 May, 2020
• Jonathan Ford & Nicole Kar, “In defence of rights of defence: The corporate’s right to counsel in UK Competition Act investigations”, Competition Law Journal, November 2014
• Jonathan Ford & Paula Riedel, The Pharmaceutical sector - A route map to merger control in the EU and beyond, mlex · Dec, 2012