Javier Ruiz Calzado

Javier Ruiz Calzado retired from the partnership in December 2025. Practicing EU and Spanish competition law, he handled a broad range of competition law matters, including merger control proceedings, global cartel investigations, abuse of dominance investigations, and state aid cases. He represented clients in such matters before the European Commission and the European Courts in Luxembourg, as well as before the Spanish competition authority and the Spanish courts.

While Javier represented clients active in a variety of sectors, he was particularly active in the aerospace and energy sectors. He advised on a regular basis a major international energy group on general competition and EU regulatory issues.

Prior to joining Latham, he served for six years as référendaire (clerk) to Judge García-Valdecasas at the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFI), now renamed as the General Court of the European Union. He played an active role in the CFI’s judgments in leading competition cases, such as Airtours/First Choice (one of the first annulments of a Commission merger decision ever) and Bayer-Adalat (a landmark case interpreting the notion of agreement under Article 101 TFEU and the legality of parallel trade restrictions under EU competition rules).

Javier served in various leadership functions at Latham, most recently as Vice Chair of the Litigation & Trial Department. He frequently spoke and wrote on developments in EU and Spanish competition law.