José is Head of Bird & Bird’s international EU & Competition Group.

José Rivas joined Bird & Bird in 2008. His practice covers all aspects of EU and competition law including in particular Articles 101 and 102, State aid and merger control and public procurement. He has extensive experience in representing leading U.S., Japanese and European clients across a broad range of industries, including aviation, media, telecommunications, energy and biotechnology. He has extensive litigation experience before the European Courts in Luxembourg having represented clients in some 50 cases in the field of competition, trade and institutional EU law, including two of them in the “Grand Chamber” of the European Court of Justice. He has represented clients under investigation and obtained phase I and phase II merger control clearance by the European Commission and other national competition authorities, and has filed complaints with such authorities. He also regularly organises anti-trust audits to help clients to identify any current or potential infringements of competition law and devised compliance programme to help prevent future infringements.

Prior to joining Bird & Bird, José was Head of a leading US firm’s Brussels office and Co-Head of the Firm’s European Competition group.

Chambers Europe 2008 ranked José for competition/ antitrust and for State aids. According to Chambers Europe 2007, “sources hail José for his versatile approach, great judgment and sparkling creativity”.

José is editor of the World Competition, Law and Economics Journal (Kluwer) and has written extensively on competition law in both English and Spanish. He is a visiting Professor of Competition and State Aids Law at the College of Europe, Natolin Campus, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. He is also a member of the Working Groups on Competition and State Aids Law of the European Confederation of Business Associations (Business Europe).

A member of the Madrid Bar since 1986, José studied law at the Universities of Exeter and Zaragoza. He also holds a Master degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges.

He speaks Spanish, English and French.