Clifford Chance (CC) has boosted its London antitrust capabilities with a senior hire from General Electric’s (GE's) in-house legal team.  

Sue Hinchliffe joins the magic circle firm as a partner after nearly five years as global executive counsel in GE’s competition law and policy department, where she specialised in handling competition and antitrust matters across the company’s aviation, power, healthcare and renewables businesses.   

Hinchliffe’s appointment will help replenish the firm’s London antitrust outfit following the recent departure of senior antitrust partner Jenine Hulsmann, who moved to Weil Gotshal & Manges’ London office last month.

CC's competition team has close links with GE. In March, CC announced it had advised the conglomerate in obtaining US and global merger clearance in connection with the $21.4bn sale of its BioPharma business to Danaher while the firm also advised on the $30bn sale of the GE Capital Aviation Services aircraft leasing business to Ireland's AerCap, subject to regulatory approvals.

The firm's co-chair of of global antitrust, Sharis Pozen, joined in 2019 from GE in Washington DC, having been vice president for global competition law and policy. 

Pozen said: “Sue's significant in-house and private practice experience brings fresh perspective and global expertise to the firm as we undertake more investigatory and merger related matters than ever before.”  

Prior to joining GE in 2016, Hinchliffe spent two decades at US firm Arnold & Porter, including 12 years as a partner in its antitrust practice group in London and Brussels.  

Pozen said that Hinchliffe’s track record handling antitrust matters across multiple key jurisdictions including the UK, Brussels and the US provides a “significant boost” to the firm’s global antitrust roster.  

In her new role with CC, Hinchliffe will join the firm’s 160-lawyer global antitrust team working on a range of multinational antitrust issues, including those arising in merger control, dominance and cartel proceedings, market investigations and sector inquiries, and state aid and public procurement matters.   

Greg Olsen, head of the firm’s UK antitrust group, commented: 'The antitrust challenges our clients are facing are simultaneously accelerating and becoming ever more complex, making deep market knowledge and investment in the team essential. 

“[Hinchliffe’s] diversity of experience and proven success in this field is immensely valuable and will cement our position as the leading go-to firm for market insight,” he added.  

CC has been investing in its antitrust practices across a number of its offices as of late, most recently with the hire of former DG Competition deputy director general Cecilio Madero as of counsel in Brussels. 

Earlier this year, the firm also promoted antitrust specialists Ashwin van Rooijen and Dimitri Slobodenjuk to partner as part of its 29-strong global round. The pair moved up the ranks in Brussels and Dusseldorf, respectively.