Biography

Anna Halford

Position

Associate

Education

• University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom – (MA) French, 2000
• College of Law, United Kingdom – Post Graduate Diploma in Law, 2001
• College of Law, United Kingdom – Legal Practice Certificate, 2002

Admitted to Practice

Solicitor, England & Wales

Professional Focus

Anna Halford joined Van Bael & Bellis in 2005. Anna Halford is a UK-qualified solicitor specialising in all aspects of EU Regulatory law. Her practice concentrates on product safety concerns, EU environmental and regulatory law.

She advises companies on product safety and liability issues at an EU and Member State level and co-ordinates product withdrawals and recalls, liaising with Member State regulatory authorities and dealing with related crisis management issues.

She provides opinions on product safety-related cross-border issues, such as the import of products into the EU and on the use of specific product warnings and labelling. She also provides in-house training on compliance.

She regularly drafts reports for clients on the implementation of EU environmental directives in the Member States, with a particular emphasis on producer responsibility; this involves being in constant contact with Commission officials and authorities from Member States and coordinating teams of international lawyers.

Anna gives advice to clients on the extent of their obligations under existing and proposed EU legislation, in particular in relation to chemicals (including REACH), product safety, health and consumer matters, environmental matters and labelling requirements. She provides advice on environmental law to the aviation and automotive sectors, including advising on the EU emissions trading scheme and technical regulations.

She monitors and drafts articles for the firm’s newsletters about the latest developments in EU environmental, competition and trade policy and legislation.

Anna advises on questions of data protection law and represents clients before the national data protection authority in the United Kingdom. She also works on competition issues concerning cartels and restrictive business practices.

She speaks English and French.

Publications

Anna Halford has written a number of articles on both EU and UK law and environmental policy. She regularly contributes to and edits articles for competition law newsletters including VBB on Competition Law. Anna also contributed to Van Bael & Bellis’ 5th edition “Competition law of the European Community” 2009.