The Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) new chairman Philip Collins has well and truly earned his place in the Hot 100 by blazing a trail for competition lawyers. He has practised in the UK and EU competition field for more than 30 years in both London and Brussels.

Formerly a partner at Lovells, he became the first partner at the firm appointed to specialise in competition law in 1978. With the subsequent development of the practice, he became head of Lovells’ competition and EU law practice.

Collins was one of the founders of the Competition Law Forum established at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and a member of its advisory board from its foundation in 2002 until 2005. He was also senior counsel in the Brussels office of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr until he joined the OFT on 1 October 2005.