Stephen Morris QC practises principally in EC and UK competition law, other aspects of EU law and commercial law.
His practice in these areas has a particular emphasis on litigation before English courts (primarily the Commercial Court, Chancery Division, Administrative Court, the Court of Appeal, and the House of Lords), but he also acts in proceedings before the OFT, the Competition Commission, the Competition Appeal Tribunal and before the EC Commission and the European Courts and in international arbitration tribunals.
He was named Competition/EC Silk of the Year at the Chambers Bar Awards 2006 and nominated for Barrister of the Year at The Lawyer Awards 2005. He has been recommended by Chambers UK in its first band of leading silks for Competition/EC law for each of the last five years. He is also recommended as a leading silk for Competition/EU law in Legal 500 2010.
Other areas of practice include international trade, private international law (in particular jurisdiction and anti-suit injunctions), insurance and re-insurance, arbitration, intellectual property, judicial review/public law and utilities regulation.
He is a member of The Times Law Panel, consisting of the country's most prominent barristers and solicitors, and is the sole QC member reporting on competition law.
Stephen has been a deputy High Court judge since 2004, and sits, particularly, in the Administrative Court.
Current and recent work in the competition and EC field includes acting for Alstom in the "follow on" damages action brought by National Grid in the Chancery Division arising from the EC Commission's decision on the Gas Insulated Switchgear cartel. He is acting for Visa in its appeal to the General Court in Luxembourg from the Commission's decision in the Visa/Morgan Stanley case. The oral hearing is now set for May 2010. He has been acting as leading counsel for the OFT in the Dairy Products Price Initiative investigation and, by contrast, acting for one of the defendants in the OFT's Tobacco investigation. Other recent litigation work has included acting for a mobile phone manufacturer concerning patent licensing under FRAND terms and in an international arbitration of a competition law dispute in the chemicals sector. He was also involved in substantial competition litigation in the Commercial Court between an airline and an airport. He acted for the OFT in the Replica Football Kit appeals both before the CAT and before the Court of Appeal and for Visa in the CAT appeals in Mastercard v. OFT in which Visa successfully applied to set aside the OFT's MasterCard decision. He appeared in the House of Lords in the leading case of Inntrepreneur v. Crehan. Recent advisory work has included advising a leading airline on the consequences of the ECJ's recent decision in Sturgeon v. Condor, and work in the electronic marine navigation market and a number of competition and regulatory matters in the postal services sector.
Stephen represented the UK Government before the ECJ in Turner v. Grovit, a reference from the House of Lords which raised for the first time issues of the compatibility of anti-suit injunctions with the Brussels Convention. In the commercial field, work has included appearing in the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal in insurance litigation, raising, in particular, EC customs law issues and Brussels Regulation jurisdiction matters. He has also acted in an international banking dispute in arbitration before the ICC and in worldwide freezing order proceedings in the Commercial Court relating to oil derivatives contracts.
