About Michele Davis

Michele co-heads our Global Tech, Media and Telecoms sector group and assists clients before EU and UK regulators and courts across all aspects of EU and UK competition law, including merger control and foreign investment, Articles 101/102 and equivalent UK legislation, market/sector investigations and sector specific economic regulation.

Michele has particular experience of advising clients on complex M&A and investigations in the digital, telecoms, media, defence and energy sectors. She also has extensive experience in advising clients on navigating the UK’s public interest and national security regimes, in managing multiple competition and FDI reviews on multi-jurisdictional transactions, and in advising regulated companies on regulatory investigations and price control appeals.

Based in London, she is also a member of the Brussels bar and has spent time on secondment in our Beijing, Brussels and Washington DC offices.

Michele is recommended for EU and Competition law in the 2021 edition of the UK Legal 500, where she is named as a “Next Generation Partner.” She is also recognised as a Future Leader in Competition Law in Who's Who Legal: Competition 2022; as a leading Foreign Investment Lawyer in Who’s Who Legal: M&A and Governance 2022; and as one of the 40 Notable Women Competition Professionals in Europe in Private Practice by Women AT’s 40 in their 40s publication. 

Recent work

• Advising AVEVA Group plc on the antitrust and foreign investment aspects of its recommended takeover by Schneider Electric.
• Advising Parker-Hannifin on the antitrust and foreign investment aspects of its £6.3bn public bid for Meggitt plc.
• Advising Gridserve on the CMA's Competition Act 1998 investigation relating to long-term exclusivity in the supply of electric vehicle chargepoints on or near motorways.
• Advising Honeywell on the combination of Honeywell Quantum Solutions and Cambridge Quantum Computing and acquisition of a majority stake in the combined company.
• Advising Verizon on the global antitrust and foreign investment aspects of the $5bn sale of Verizon Media to funds managed by Apollo Global Management, Inc.
• Advising Allied Universal on the UK foreign investment aspects of its £3.8bn public bid for G4S plc.
• Advising SSE plc on the disposal of its energy-from-waste joint ventures to First Sentier Investments and on various competition and regulatory matters in the electricity sector;
• Advising Nets A/S on the European Commission’s conditional clearance of Mastercard’s acquisition of Nets’ account to account payment business.
• Advising CK Hutchison on the European Commission’s investigation into its proposed acquisition of Telefonica UK and its subsequent successful appeal of the European Commission’s decision to the General Court of the European Union.
• Advising Berry Global on the global merger control and competition aspects of its £5.1bn public bid for RPC Group.
• Advising Comcast Corporation on the global merger control and public interest aspects of its £30bn public bid for Sky plc, including achieving unconditional Phase 1 clearance from the European Commission for the transaction, and the global merger control and public interest aspects of its $66bn bid for the global assets of 21^st Century Fox. Read more about the deal in our case study.
• Advising Experian plc on the CMA's Phase 2 investigation into its proposed acquisition of ClearScore.
• Advising the UK Government on the State aid, competition and regulatory aspects of Royal Mail’s privatisation including obtaining European Commission approval for the UK Government’s assumption of certain liabilities of Royal Mail’s pension scheme and its refinancing of the Royal Mail balance sheet.
• Advising a number of utility clients in relation to appeals of price control determinations to the CMA and regulatory/competition investigations.
• Advising a number of global financial institutions and private equity clients on the merger control, competition and regulatory aspects of various acquisitions in the UK regulated sectors.