Bowman Gilfillan Africa Group's Lucinda Verster, a partner specialising in all aspects of competition law and regulation, has been included in the Global Competition Review (GCR) Top 40 Under 40 list, released today. Verster is the only South African lawyer to be included in this elite group of 40 lawyers under 40 years old.

The Top 40 Under 40 features 40 of the world’s top antitrust and competition specialists under 40 years old, who represent the next generation of the global antitrust bar. GCR explains that the Top 40 under 40 survey, last published in 2012, has profiled antitrust specialists who have gone on to become some of the most prominent and respected in the competition law community.

The publication noted that past 40 Under 40 entrants included Eric Stock, the current head of the antitrust bureau at the New York Attorney General’s Office; the deputy head of the US Department of Justice’s (DoJ) Antitrust Division, Leslie Overton; fellow DoJ official Linda Marshall; and scores of others who now hold prominent positions in firms and governments around the world.

Verster holds LLB and LLM degrees from the University of Pretoria. She specialises in prohibited practices, merger control, cartel investigations, corporate leniency applications and competition compliance and training programmes.

She has been involved in a number of high-profile litigious competition matters. For example, she represented Nationwide Airlines in the first damages action before the High Court against South African Airways arising from a prohibited practice finding before the Competition Tribunal. She subsequently successfully represented Nationwide (as co-complainant with Comair Ltd) against SAA in relation to ongoing abuse of dominance conduct, which resulted in a second damages claim against SAA, which is currently set down for trial from 1-26 February 2016. The nature of Nationwide’s pending claim is accordingly the second of its kind to be brought in South African law.

She was involved in the Harmony Gold/ArcelorMittal case, the first excessive pricing matter to be fully litigated in South Africa. She was also part of the team that represented Du Pont / Pioneer Hi-Bred and Pannar in the merger proceedings before the Competition Commission, the Competition Tribunal, the Competition Appeal Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court of South Africa.

Verster's behavioural matters include advising PPC with respect to the corporate leniency process in the cement industry and advising Cape Gate with respect to the Commission’s investigations into the steel, wire and scrap industries. The Cape Gate Steel Referral was announced as winner of the GCR Behavioural Matter of the Year – Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa Award, at a ceremony in Washington DC on 25 March 2014 and was also announced as winner at the African Legal Awards ceremony on 31 October 2014.

Verster explains that she chose to practice Competition law because it combines business and the law.

"Competition law practitioners not only need to know the law, we also need to understand economic theory and develop an in depth understanding of our clients’ businesses and goals," she noted.

Commenting on the future of competition law in her jurisdiction Verster explained that many African countries have recognised the value of competition and as a result have already introduced, or are in the process of introducing, competition regimes.

"Competition law is therefore expected to play a critical role on the African continent. I anticipate that the cases in Africa will become more complex as time goes on," she noted.

She says that in South Africa, there had been an increased focus on public interest considerations in merger analysis.

"Although the regulator cannot divorce public interest from competition analysis, it also cannot over-reach in its application of public interest if it will result in unintended consequences”.

Verster also expressed the view that the litigation side of the practice in South Africa and the rest of Africa will continue to grow in importance.

Submitted by Bowman Gilfillan