Brian Sher

Partner at CMS

Speaker

Brian leads the Antitrust, Competition and Trade Team. He is an experienced and trusted competition law adviser, having practised exclusively in the field of EU, UK and international competition law and merger control for over 25 years.

Brian’s leadership and expertise were acknowledged most recently by receiving the commended award in the Competition & Regulatory category at The Lawyer Awards 2022; winning “Competition Team of the Year” at the Legal Business Awards 2020; and being shortlisted once again for the same award for one of his matters in 2022. He has been described as “indefatigable in serving his clients” (Legal 500 UK: London, Dispute Resolution, Competition Litigation 2022) and “quite exceptional. He is an extremely good lawyer: clever, thoughtful, and he has good business and economic judgement." (Chambers and Partners UK: Competition Law - London 2022). He has long been ranked as a leading individual for competition law in Chambers and Partners and is ranked as a leading individual in Legal 500 and a Global Leader in Who’s Who Legal.

Brian has a strong focus on life sciences and healthcare. He has acted for principal parties in many of the leading UK and EU pharmaceutical sector cases in recent years including for GlaxoSmithKline, the originator, in paroxetine (first and only ever reference from the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) to the CJEU which set the standard for competition law treatment of patent settlements in Europe); for a party in Lundbeck and for Alliance Pharma in the ongoing CAT prochlorperazine case. He counsels several global pharma companies on their pricing, distribution and technology licensing arrangements, their competitor collaborations, patent settlements, joint ventures and mergers.

Brian has deep experience of investigations and inquiries, competition litigation and appeals, and is widely known for his abuse of dominance expertise. He has substantial UK and EU merger control experience, having obtained numerous clearances in Phase 1 and 2 proceedings, both unconditionally and with remedies. He also advises in related areas including foreign direct investment (both the UK National Security & Investment Act and international coordination).

Brian is co-chair of the Joint Working Party of Bars and Law Societies of the UK on Competition Law and a member of the steering committee of the CMS Global Antitrust, Competition and Trade practice. Brian initiated and chairs Informa’s leading annual one day EU pharma and competition law conference, now in its 11th year. He gained two years‘ management consultancy experience and training prior to becoming a lawyer. As well as being a Solicitor, England and Wales he is a member of the Dutch Brussels bar (EU list).