Biography: Competition Economics

Margaret Bloom joined Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer as a senior consultant on retirement from the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in 2003. At Freshfields she advises clients on compliance with competition laws and handing complex investigations. She is an economist and a visiting professor in the School of Law, King's College London where she has taught economics to competition lawyers. She is deputy chair of the Money Advice Trust.

As director of competition enforcement at the OFT (1996 to 2003), Margaret led the successful implementation of the Competition and Enterprise Acts, creating an independent regime with considerably increased powers. Under Margaret's leadership, competition enforcement changed dramatically from a system relying on notification to active investigation. Margaret introduced new training requirements, open recruitment and secondments from private practice. Business awareness of competition law more than doubled by 2003.

Prior to the OFT, Margaret worked in the Cabinet Office and the Department of Trade and Industry on privatisation, competition policy and public sector finance. She was an economist in the private sector before that.

Margaret has spoken widely on antitrust. She was a vice chair of the OECD competition committee for six years to 2003. She was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for her work at the OFT. She was also presented with a US Department of Justice plaque for 'Outstanding Contributions to Effective International Antitrust Cooperation and the Fight Against International Cartels'. Margaret was appointed as a non-governmental adviser to the ICN in 2009, advising on agency effectiveness. In 2011, she was awarded an inaugural Global Competition Review Lifetime Achievement Award.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's antitrust, competition and trade (ACT) practice comprises over 50 partners and 250 members in total. Our ACT specialists are based in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, the UK and the USA. Our coverage of Asia, Europe and the US enables us to advise our clients in competition cases involving many jurisdictions around the world.