Image of Rachel Hetherington

Rachel Hetherington

Antitrust & Foreign Investment Partner, London

“With twenty years’ experience advising on all areas of competition law, I regularly counsel companies on their global merger control and foreign investment strategy, antitrust compliance and investigations and utilities regulation. I combine broad technical experience with deep sector expertise and work closely with clients to understand their business, help them navigate complex issues and devise practical, commercial solutions."

Overview

Professional experience

Education and qualifications

Overview

Rachel is a partner in our Global Antitrust & Foreign Investment Group based in London.
 
In addition to her merger control practice, Rachel regularly advises on antitrust investigations and compliance, as well as subsidies and utilities regulation. She has particular expertise in energy, utilities and natural resources as well as in financial services and healthcare.
 
Currently based in London, Rachel has also worked in our Brussels team as well as in-house.
 
She has been recognised as a leading lawyer by MergerLinks and a rising star by GCR.

 
Work highlights

Recent highlights include advising:

  • Anglian Water on its PR24 price control and Scotia Gas Networks on its GD3 price control, having previously advised both on successful CMA appeals in PR19 and GD2
  • A global bank on an ongoing CMA investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct
  • A vehicle manufacturer in parallel EC and CMA investigations into suspected anti-competitive conduct
  • Emirates technology and investment group, e& on its $400m majority acquisition in Careem’s ride-hailer Super App and $420m majority acquisition, with ADQ in StarzPlay Arabia
  • WSP on its $1.9bn acquisition of John Wood Group plc’s Environment and Infrastructure business and £591m takeover bid for RPS plc;
  • A Towerbrook and Warburg Pincus consortium on its takeover of the AA plc
  • ION on its £1.9bn public takeover of Fidessa and acquisitions of Dealogic, OpenLink and Acuris
  • UBM on its £4bn public takeover by Informa
  • Rail Deliver Group on competition and regulatory compliance
  • Glencore on a wide variety of transactions and competition law compliance matters since 2011, including its $29bn acquisition of Xstrata
  • Centrica and RBS in complex retail market investigations by the CMA

 

Professional experience

Rachel regularly speaks to corporate audiences on global, EU and UK competition law issues including manging global merger control strategy, competition law compliance and handling regulatory investigations. 

Education and qualifications

Rachel completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge in Spanish and French and completed her legal studies (PGDL and LPC) at the College of Law, Nottingham.   

 

She speaks English, Spanish and French.