Leigh Hancher

Leigh Hancher is Partner at Allen & Overy (Amsterdam). She specialises in European and Dutch law relating to network sectors including gas, electricity, telecoms, transport, post and water and is internationally recognised as a leading expert and commentator in this field. Her expertise is primarily in the field of interconnection between competition law and sector-specific regulation with a particular emphasis on access pricing and conditions, State aid and cross-subsidisation. Her work has included representing private sector clients in litigation before national regulatory bodies and the European courts, in international arbitration proceedings, in competition notifications to the European Commission and national regulatory authorities, and advising on State aid complaints to the European Commission. In addition, she has regularly assisted major clients in preparing and managing lobby strategies and documents on relevant competition and regulatory issues at national and European level. She has advised clients on the regulatory and competition law aspects of cross-border interconnectors and has notified a number of applications for regulatory and/or competition clearance for such projects at European and most recently national level. She has regularly acted as an adviser to the European Commission and the European Parliament on energy law issues. Leigh is a professor of European law at the University of Tilburg and was a member of the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR). Prior to 1997, she was a professor of European law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She was visiting professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Calgary, Canada. Furthermore, she was Head of Legal Services at the Energy Charter Secretariat until 1999. Leigh has lectured on European and national electricity law issues throughout Europe, North America and Japan at both academic and commercial conferences and has published widely on electricity law in many leading journals. She contributes regularly to Financial Times specialist newsletters on legal and policy issues, particularly in the European energy sector.