Cooley has strengthened its antitrust platform with a pair of senior hires in London and Washington DC from CMS and Quinn Emmanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

Caroline Hobson joins the Silicon Valley firm’s antitrust and competition practice from CMS in London, where she co-led the firm’s competition and trade practice, while Ethan Glass joins the global litigation team from Quinn Emmanuel in Washington DC, where he served as chair of the litigation specialist’s antitrust investigations and government enforcement practice. 

The hires come amid a flurry of antitrust and competition enforcement activity around the world, particularly within the tech and life sciences sectors, according to Jacqueline Grise, partner and chair of Cooley’s antitrust and competition practice group. 

Hobson’s experience covers high-profile mergers, competition law risk management and compliance strategies, sector inquiries and market investigations, among other areas related to broader regulatory issues including public procurement. She focuses her practice on the life sciences, consumer products and financial services industries and has defended a number of mergers before the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission. Prior to joining CMS back in 2000 she practised for a little more than three years at Dechert.   

Grise said that Hobson’s skillset would “broaden our ability to achieve successful outcomes for our clients as they navigate large and complex cross-border M&A transactions” given the firm’s focus on the life sciences sector. 

Glass, meanwhile, is a veteran first-chair trial lawyer with more than a decade of experience handling government investigations and antitrust litigation during his time as a partner at Quinn Emanuel and as a trial attorney and assistant chief in the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division. He spent eight years at the DOJ before jumping to Quinn Emanuel in 2016, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

During his tenure at the DOJ, Glass led matters in a number of major industries, including tech and life sciences as well as in the credit cards, financial exchanges and real estate sectors. 

Michael Attansio, chair of Cooley’s global litigation department, said: “Ethan brings a proven track record as a first-chair advocate in high-stakes matters, and his arrival at Cooley reflects our strategic investment in building our antitrust litigation and enforcement capability for our clients facing the emerging threat of competition‐related investigations and litigation, as well as merger challenges opposite the FTC and DOJ.”

Cooley also expanded its litigation platform in the US last May when it recruited nine partners from Winston & Strawn, Latham & Watkins and DLA Piper to open an office in Chicago. It went on to add a trio of litigation partners – including Latham’s former Chicago litigation group chair and ex-DOJ lawyer Matthew Kutcher – to the office in July. 

Cooley grew revenue by 28% to $1.9bn last year against a 28% spike in profit per equity partner to hit $4m, largely fuelled by the boom in M&A deals in the US tech sector that was driven by SPAC deals. Growth at the firm's London office was even more impressive, with revenue increasing by 50% to hit $105m from the $70m recorded in 2020.

Glass’ defection from Quinn Emanuel also follows the firm losing the co-head of its UK competition litigation practice, Boris Bronfentrinker, to Willkie Farr & Gallagher in London last October along with partners Elaine Whiteford and Nicola Chesaites and 'at least eight' associates.