Niall Collins of MHC named in ‘40 under 40’ by Global Competition Review

Niall Collins of Mason Hayes & Curran (MHC) has been named as one of the world’s top antitrust lawyers under the age of 40 by Global Competition Review.

Mr Collins, a partner and the 36-year-old head of MHC’s competition and antitrust team, is the only Irish lawyer included in the leading antitrust and competition law journal’s “40 under 40” feature.

The full list includes lawyers from the US, UK and EU as well as Ukraine, Japan, Turkey and China.

Mr Collins represents clients from a broad range of sectors including energy, pharmaceuticals, food, telecommunications, transport and infrastructure, technology, sport and gaming and betting before the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, the UK Competition & Markets Authority and the European Commission.

In a short interview with the magazine, Mr Collins comments on recent changes to the Irish merger control landscape and describes why he chose to practice antitrust law.

He told GCR: “Changes made to the Irish merger control thresholds towards the back end of 2014 mean that many more transactions are now falling within the local net.

“Small companies that never considered merger control are now having to grapple with the new regime, and that has brought its own challenges for clients, their legal advisers and, I’m assuming, the Irish Competition Commission.

“Notwithstanding the uptick in the volume of notifications, the mergers team at the Irish Commission has continued to be pragmatic and proactive in fulfilling its statutory duty.”