Morris is a Partner in the Competition, Regulation and Trade group.
Contact details when in Brussels: +32 2 518 1832 and London: +44 20 7466 3833
Morris is a highly-experienced competition, regulatory and trade lawyer, with a particular focus in relation to EU regulation and behavioural matters, State aid / subsidy control and international trade law.
In the EU regulatory sphere, Morris has significant expertise across a variety of areas, including in particular, the EU's new suite of tech regulation and the emerging AI regulatory framework as well as consumer goods and energy / environmental regulation, and has represented clients in major litigation before the EU Courts in relation to regulatory instruments and decisions in recent years.
In the competition law area, Morris focuses on behavioural issues and State aid / subsidy control and has represented clients in the European Commission's investigations in relation to tax practices and in the first-ever English court proceedings under the UK's post-Brexit subsidy control framework. He has also been spearheading the firm's cross-office work in relation to the EU's new foreign subsidies regulation, a major new EU fair-competition initiative.
Finally, in the international trade law field, Morris has extensive experience advising across the full range of international trade matters, including international sanctions law, trade-defence investigations, customs and in State-to-State dispute settlement before the WTO and under bilateral free trade agreements.
Morris is recognised as a 'Rising Star' for 'Trade, WTO, Anti-dumping and Customs' by Legal 500 UK 2024 and by Legal 500 EMEA 2024– Belgium, as well as for 'International Trade' by IFLR 2022.
Background
Morris holds a PhD in EU competition law and international trade law from the London School of Economics and Political Science, focusing on EU State aid and international subsidy control. He has undergraduate and masters' degrees in law from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford.
Morris is dual-qualified as a solicitor-advocate in England and Wales and as an advocaat in Belgium.
Morris is co-editor of the State Aid Division of the Butterworths Competition Law Service, a leading practitioners' publication and a contributing author to the practitioners’ text “EU State Aids" (edited by Hancher, Ottervanger and Slot).
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
- British Sugar on its challenge in the English Courts of the UK’s autonomous tariff rate quota for raw cane sugar under the UK's new subsidy control regime, the first such English court proceedings under this new framework
- A number of multinational companies in relation to the European Commission's State aid investigations into the tax ruling practices of EU Member States
- Various clients in the context of notifications and investigations under the EU's Foreign Subsidies Regulation
- A number of clients in relation to the new suite of EU tech regulation, including the Digital Markets Act, the Digital Services Act, the eIDAS Regulation on digital identity and the emerging AI regulatory framework
- Sovereign clients in State-to-State dispute settlement proceedings before the WTO and under bilateral trade agreements
- Various companies in EU and UK antitrust investigations concerning the televisual sector, power cables, logistics, financial benchmarks and groceries
Sectors
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