Christopher Lock

Christopher Lock advises clients on international trade regulations, particularly UK sanctions, export controls, foreign investment screening (NSIA), trade remedies, tariffs, and supply chain regulations. He helps navigate UK regulatory investigations and enforcement matters, including voluntary disclosures, licensing, government investigations, penalty settlements, and regulatory filings involving UK authorities such as OFSI, OTSI, HMRC, ISU and the Export Control Joint Unit.

Before joining Sidley, Chris served at the UK Department for Business and Trade, including as Deputy Director (Legal), advising on UK and international trade law and policy. He also worked in Brussels on EU trade law in private practice and within the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Trade.

Chris is a part of Sidley’s global team of international trade lawyers covering law, economics, and policy across Brussels, Geneva, London, and Washington, D.C. Sidley’s international trade team is consistently recognized as a top tier practice across all regions. Sidley has been ranked as a Band 1 firm for “International Trade” in every major jurisdiction, including global-wide, Europe-wide, Asia-Pacific, and Chambers Global/USA (2017–2024).

Chris draws on his background as a litigator and solicitor advocate, both in his investigations work and in assisting clients on trade-related elements of matters before the English Court and other fora. Examples of reported trade-related litigation include:

• Ongoing actions in relation to UK-Russia sanctions.
• Fortenova Grupa DD v. LLC Shushary Holding, [2023] EWHC 1165 (Ch).
• World Uyghur Congress, R (On the Application Of) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department & Ors, [2023] EWHC 88 (Admin).
• Western Sahara Campaign UK v. Secretary of State for International Trade & Anor, [2022] EWHC 3108 (Admin).
• British Sugar Plc, R (On the Application Of) v. Secretary of State for International Trade, [2022] EWHC 393 (Admin).

Some of the above matters were handled prior to joining Sidley.

Examples of Chris’ transactional work include:

Life Sciences

• Great Hill Partners on its pending strategic majority investment in a newly formed organization comprising Vivup, a leading provider of health and well-being benefits, and Perkbox, an award-winning global benefits and reward platform, which will offer a market-leading solution for the UK’s public and private employee benefits sectors.
• ShoreView Industries in its sale of portfolio company Avidity Science.
• Savillex Corporation, a portfolio company of private equity fund Thompson Street Capital Partners, in its strategic acquisition of ONFAB from Foresight Capital Partners.

Insurance

• Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in its agreement to acquire AssuredPartners for US$13.45 billion.
• Westfield in its acquisition of the Lloyd’s operations of Argo Group (Argo), including Argo’s Lloyd’s managing agency and Argo’s members supporting Syndicate 1200.
• Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. in its acquisition of the treaty reinsurance brokerage operations of Willis Towers Watson plc for US$3.25 billion.
• Stonepeak on its agreement with the AA, the leading provider of roadside assistance services in the UK and a successful insurance business, and the AA’s majority shareholders, TowerBrook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus. Per the agreement, Stonepeak will invest £450 million in AA through a combination of common and preferred equity at an enterprise value of approximately £4 billion.

Restructuring

• Sunac China Holdings Limited in its US$10.2 billion offshore debt restructuring.
• China Fortune Land Development Co., Ltd. in US$4.96 billion offshore debt restructuring.
• Coupang, Inc. in the completion of its acquisition of the business and assets of Farfetch Holdings plc via a pre-pack administration.

Retail 

• STORY3 Capital Partners, the Los Angeles based private equity firm, on its significant minority investment in Adanola, a leading UK-based athleisure and activewear brand.

Sports

• Bilkul Football in its acquisition of West Bromwich Albion Football Club.
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. in its acquisition of Chelsea Football Club and related affiliates in a consortium co-led with Todd Boehly, Chairman and CEO of Eldridge (pending). The acquisition was named “Private Equity Deal of the Year” at The Deal Awards 2022.

Technology

• EQT Private Equity and Verdane Capital in their sale of Forsta to Press Ganey (pending).
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. in its acquisition of Discovery Education, Inc., a worldwide edtech leader (pending).
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. portfolio company Discovery Education, Inc. in its acquisition of UK-based DoodleLearning (pending).
• Thompson Street Capital Partners portfolio company BCM One in its acquisition of Pure IP, a UK-based global provider of cloud-based voice services with offices in London, Auckland, and San Francisco.