Rob Walker

Robert's practice encompasses all facets of Australian competition law – merger control, antitrust investigations and competition litigation.

He has a particular focus on assisting international counsel and clients to secure ACCC merger clearance for cross-border deals.

In 2019, Robert was one of the Allens partners who led Vodafone Hutchison Australia's successful challenge of the ACCC's decision to oppose its $15bn merger with TPG. This was the biggest merger litigation in Australia for 10 years.

Robert acts as trusted advisor to major corporations in sectors including financial services and payments, telecommunications, healthcare, energy, oil & gas, mining, automotive, forestry and retail.

Robert has particular expertise in the financial services sector having advised on competition investigations involving syndicated loans, credit default swaps and commodities trading as well as acquisitions and divestments of retail branches, credit card portfolios and payments technologies. Lenders, issuers and lead managers regularly turn to Robert to advise on managing competition law risks in corporate lending as well as capital markets transactions involving equity, debt and hybrid securities.

Before joining Allens, Robert spent seven years with Linklaters LLP in both their London and Brussels offices where he focussed on cross border merger control and antitrust investigations.