Hugh advises on the full range of competition and foreign direct investment matters. He has significant experience in obtaining regulatory clearances for transactions across the globe and managing conduct-related matters, litigating civil antitrust cases, and developing internal compliance programs. Legal 500 noted that Hugh is “distinguished for his work on global merger reviews.”
Hugh’s government experience includes serving as the Attorney Advisor to William Kovacic, a former Chair and Commissioner at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Commissioner Kovacic told Global Competition Review that Hugh was “brilliant in all phases of his work” at the FTC. “He has a broad and deeply informed perspective of the wider global environment, which will serve him well. I cannot think of a better young attorney in the world than Hugh.”
Prior to joining the firm, Hugh led the antitrust practice group for one of the world’s largest companies with responsibility for multinational transactions, antitrust litigation matters, and global compliance.
Hugh is a frequent speaker at international conferences and regularly publishes in peer-reviewed antitrust journals. He is an advisor to the Business at OECD Competition Committee, a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network, a member of the International Bar Association’s Antitrust Section’s Merger Working Group, and serves on the editorial boards of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law’s Antitrust Magazine, and Oxford University Press’s Journal of Antitrust Enforcement. He is a member of the Brussels Bar, a member of bars in the United States (New York and Washington D.C.), England and Wales, and is qualified as an Advocate in South Africa.
Hugh has more than 20 years of experience as a private practitioner, inhouse counsel and regulator in the U.S., EU, Middle East, and Africa that gives him a deep understanding of regulatory regimes in each of those regions to effectively and efficiently meet the business objectives of his clients and achieve successful outcomes in transactional, investigatory, and litigation matters.
Expertise
Industries
Experience
Representative matters
A public petroleum and natural gas company on its investment in Poland’s refining, wholesale, and jet fuel marketing segments through a number of acquisitions from Polish oil refiner and fuel retailer PKN Orlen following its planned merger with Grupa Lotos, and on numerous other strategic transactions.
SABIC in its joint venture with Fujian Petrochemical Industrial Group to build a petrochemical complex in Fujian Province, China.
PepsiCo on its majority acquisition of a holding company for foodstuffs.
An enterprise information management services company in InfoFort’s acquisition of sole control over CBK.
Pro bono
Provided legal and social services at Bread for the City, a charity dedicated to providing residents of Washington D.C. with comprehensive services, including food, clothing, medical care, and legal and social services, in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
Filed a series of amicus curiae briefs in the domestic brig detainee cases on behalf of Human Rights Watch.
Obtained a grant of asylum for a young woman from Guinea who had been the subject of forced genital mutilation, rape and a forced marriage. She fled Guinea on her wedding day and eventually fled to the United States.
Published Work
- Hugh Hollman, Charles Pommiès and Nicholas Putz, The EC’s New Merger Referral Policy and the Transatlantic Reverberations of Illumina/GRAIL on the FTC’s Administrative Process (Fall 2023).
- Hugh Hollman, Elaine Johnston, Nicholas Putz, Parties are More Willing Than Ever to ‘Litigate the Fix’ in the United States, GCR (October 2023).
- Hugh Hollman and Nicholas Putz, The consumer welfare standard and avoiding the dangers of polarized debate in the USA, Oxford University Press (May 2023).
- Hugh Hollman and Benjamin Geisel, Six Easy Steps to Better Merger Control, The Antitrust Source (Dec. 2019).
Speaking Engagements
- Speaker, The Intersection between Competition and Data Privacy, OECD Global Forum, 13/06/2024
- Speaker, Serial Acquisitions and Industry Roll-ups, OECD Global Forum, 06/12/2023
- Speaker, Advantages and Disadvantages of Consumer Welfare Standards, OECD Global Forum, 15/06/2023
- Speaker, Competition in Energy Markets, OECD Global Forum, 28/11/2022
Leadership Positions And Professional Affiliations
- Committee Member, Business at OECD
- U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Non-Governmental Advisor, International Competition Network
- Editor, Antitrust Magazine, American Bar Association
- Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Antitrust Enforcement, Oxford University Press
Awards
- Nominated, co-author with Elaine Johnston and Nicholas Putz, Parties are More Willing Than Ever to ‘Litigate the Fix’ in the United States (Fall 2023)
- Nominated, co-author with Charles Pommies and Nicholas Putz, The EC’s New Merger Referral Policy and the Transatlantic Reverberations of Illumina/GRAIL on the FTC’s Administrative Process (Fall 2023)
- Concurrence, Antitrust Writing Awards 2016, 2020
- Nominated, co-author with Benjamin Geisel, Six Steps to Better Merger Control Reviews: Recommendations for Competition Agencies Across the Globe, THE ANTITRUST SOURCE (Dec. 2019).
- Nominated, co-author with James F. Rill, James G. Kress, and Dina Kallay, Antitrust and FRAND Bargaining, Rejecting the Invitation for Antitrust Overreach into Royalty Disputes, ANTITRUST (Fall 2015).
- Co-Recipient, Frederick Douglass Human Rights Award 2007
- Received award for Supreme Court Amicus Curiae brief submitted in Padilla v. Hanft.
Qualifications
Admissions
Admitted as Associated Member of the Brussels Bar (b-list), 2022
Admitted as an Attorney (New York and District of Columbia), 2002
Admitted as a Solicitor (England and Wales), 2010
Admitted an Advocate (South Africa), 1999
Academic
JD, Duke University School of Law, 2005
LL.M., Duke University School of Law, 2000
|LL.B., University of Cape Town School of Law, 1998
B.Bus.Sc., University of Cape Town, 1995