Shepherd and Wedderburn hits speed-dial to ICT regulatory niche player to consolidate position as competition and markets leader
Leading law firm Shepherd and Wedderburn today announced its lateral hire of telecommunications luminary, Gordon Moir from niche international practice Webb Henderson. Moir joins the Commercial Disputes, Regulation and Markets team, working out of the firm’s London and Edinburgh offices, and at the offices of overseas clients. He brings with him a team of three.
Qualified as a solicitor in Scotland, England and Wales, Moir adds to the breadth of Shepherd and Wedderburn’s already considerable and award-winning regulatory and transactional expertise.
In 2011, Moir set up the London operation of Australasian firm Webb Henderson, which he now leaves. There, clients included BT, Sky, Nominet and AT&T.
Highly regarded in the telecoms sector, Moir has previously worked in private practice at McGrigors and Ashurst; and in-house as general counsel at BT Retail, and also as BT group head of anti-trust and regulatory law. There he drove a successful legal and regulatory crusade against competitors. In that heavily regulated and incredibly complex environment he secured access for BT to global markets and wholesale facilities across 171 jurisdictions; and was heavily involved in the moves of BT into television and online content.
His appointment caps a very good 2013/14 performance for Shepherd and Wedderburn, and it will play a pivotal role in the firm’s plans for expansion. Moir’s appointment is recognised across the firm as being a shrewd move as it presents a great opportunity to realise the synergies between its highly successful and growing multi-disciplinary Energy and Natural Resources practice and the telecoms sector. Both are characterised by fierce international competition and layers of complex economic regulation, governance and converging technologies.
Stephen Gibb, Chief Executive, welcomed Moir’s addition to the team.
"Gordon is one of the UK’s leading lawyers in this space. He has an unrivalled cross-sectoral legal and regulatory experience at a global executive level as well as a deep awareness of regulatory and anti-trust issues in the UK, EC and globally. He brings added strength to our already thriving regulatory and competition team, recently recognised as Competition Team of the year at the 2014 Lawyer Awards.
“The recent legal and regulatory changes in the UK offer scope for using competition law to protect businesses as well as to open up new market opportunities. This combined with the increased investigatory powers of the CMA has pushed competition law up the risk management agenda for businesses. The outcome is a surge in demand for regulatory and competition advice. Gordon joins our London office at a time of growth and investment in our UK and International practice."
Moir commented:
“Having spent the last few years in a niche international telecoms regulatory firm, the attraction of joining Shepherd and Wedderburn is its full service offering, strong UK and international client base and the opportunity of working with an exceptional team of competition and regulation specialists.
“I am truly delighted to be joining such a gifted group of individuals with a common goal of delivering cross-sectoral cutting-edge advice. The combination of deep regulatory and competition law expertise with a focus on regulated sectors and the recognition afforded by the 2014 Competition Team of the Year, makes Shepherd and Wedderburn an ever growing force in this space"