Marie Leppard
Biography
Marie Leppard is a senior partner in the Antirust & Competition Practice of Baker McKenzie's London office. Marie has over a decade of experience working across the spectrum of competition law issues at both the EU and UK levels and also has experience in global coordination strategies.
Marie advises clients on merger control, foreign direct investment, foreign subsidies, cartel investigations, abuse of dominant position, as well as antitrust compliance. Marie regularly appears before the CMA and European Commission, and lead on global cross-border matters.
What clients and legal directories have to say:
"Marie Leppard is brilliant, approachable, very supportive and incredibly smart!" (Legal 500)
“Marie is one of the most impressive competition lawyers of her generation.” “Marie Leppard is widely recommended by clients, who applaud her “humane, reassuring approach in combination with a brilliant understanding of competition law.” (WWL)
Practice Focus
Marie has been a key adviser to leading PE houses, financial sponsors, global financial institutions and corporate clients in large complex matters before the European Commission, UK Competition and Markets Authority and other global antitrust and foreign direct investment agencies.
Recently, Marie succeeded in overturning the CMA’s Phase 2 provisional findings to block Copart’s completed acquisition of Hills Motors and obtained a full clearance.
Over the years, Marie also developed an extensive expertise in advising leniency applicants in cartels, bid-rigging and resale price maintenance investigations carried out by competition and financial regulatory authorities in the EU and the UK.
Lately, Marie successfully defended Sunset + Vine in the CMA’s investigation into suspected anti-competitive behaviour relating to freelance labour in production and broadcasting as well as a generic pharmaceutical client in relation to the CMA’s excessive pricing and anti-competitive conduct investigations of Prochlorperazine, Nortriptyline and other generic drugs.
Marie’s practice focuses primarily on: consumer goods, defence, energy, oil and gas, pharma, banking, fintech, healthcare and media.
Representative Legal Matters
- Advising FedEx on its EUR 7.8 billion acquisition of InPost with a consortium before the European Commission, the CMA and other regulators.
- Advising Sappi on its European Paper Joint Venture with UPM before the CMA.
Matters handled prior to joining Baker McKenzie:
- Advising Copart, Inc. on securing Phase 2 clearance before the CMA for its acquisition of Hills Motors, including successfully overturning provisional findings.
- Representing Sunset + Vine in a CMA investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct in the broadcasting sector.
- Advising Mastercard on UK regulatory investigations and market reviews relating to interchange and processing fees.
- Acting for Barclays in European Commission LIBOR and foreign exchange investigations.
- Advising a generic pharmaceutical company in CMA investigations into excessive pricing and anticompetitive conduct.
- Advising numerous luxury brands on their distribution systems and compliance programme.
- Representing clients in cartel investigations, including applications for leniency before EU and UK authorities.
- Advising private equity sponsors and corporate clients on merger control, joint ventures and foreign investment screening matters across Europe.
Professional Honors
- Recognised as a Competition Future Leader and Competition Expert by Who's Who Legal 2024
- Competition Law Lawyer of the Year in the Women in Law Awards 2023
Admissions
- England & Wales (Solicitor)~United Kingdom (2010)
- England & Wales (Barrister) (2005)
- Brussels (B-list)~Belgium
Education
- College of Law at London (B.V.C.) (2005)
- University College, London (LLM, International Law) (2004)
- University of Surrey (Bsc, Law and French) (2003)