Susan Bright scooped the role to succeed John Pheasant as the global head of Lovells' EU and competition practice at the start of 2006. And over the following 12 months she proved that she was definitely up to the job.

Bright's highest-profile case during 2006 was acting for the MasterCard UK Members Forum on the OFT's investigation into interchange fees (the fees are paid by acquiring banks to issuing banks when a credit card purchase is made) on credit and charge card transactions in the UK. The case included a successful appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal against the OFT's decision.

Bright qualified as a lawyer in 1991 and spent the next three years working in Lovells' Brussels office. She was then seconded to Washington DC-based Steptoe & Johnson. Bright is also on the advisory board of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law.