Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has strengthened its commercial litigation practice with the arrival of partner Trudy Feaster-Gee, who joins the firm in London.

Trudy is a competition lawyer who has 30 years' experience advising clients in this space. She has spent time on secondment at the UK's Competition Commission (now Competition and Markets Authority) supporting the Chairman and Director of Policy, and as a stagiaire in DG Competition in Brussels.  She was also head of external competition engagement at Lloyds Banking Group and spent time on secondment as head of legal at Volkswagen UK. A barrister by training, Trudy has a particular focus and interest in contentious matters, alongside her advisory practice. She joins the firm from Walker Morris where she was a partner and head of competition law.

Trudy's arrival will bolster the contentious competition team at a time when it deals with several large cases, such as a class action of more than 1,900 companies against Visa and Mastercard in relation to card transaction fees which were found to infringe competition law by the European Commission in 2007, and subsequently by the UK's Supreme Court in 2020. This addition to our competition disputes team furthers our strategy of maintaining an offering for clients which is 50% contentious.

"Competition disputes are on the rise and more clients need specialist assistance in this sphere, so we are delighted that Trudy has chosen to join us," said Ros Prince, partner and co-head of Stephenson Harwood's commercial litigation practice group. "Working closely with Genevieve Quierin, Trudy will be a fantastic addition to our team, which is already doing top tier work in this sphere."

Stephenson Harwood's award-winning international dispute resolution team advises on the full range of commercial and similar disputes. The team represents clients in High Court litigation, multi-party stand-alone and follow-on claims in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, international and domestic arbitration, co-ordinates proceedings in multiple jurisdictions and advises on various regulatory and other investigations.