Professor Jonathan Rickford

Jonathan Rickford is a Visiting Professor in corporate law at the London School of Economics.


He holds Master’s and Bachelor of Civil Laws Degrees from Oxford University and was a Barrister from 1971 to 1985 and is now a Solicitor. He was the Project Director of the UK Government's independent Review of Company Law from 1998 to 2001 (the “Company Law Review”) and a member of the Review Steering Group. He was also a member of the European Commission's High Level Group (the "Winter" Group) on company law (2001-2002).


He was in the Government legal service from 1972 to 1987, serving in Trade and Industry Departments and in the Attorney General’s Office. His main concerns were in company law, European commercial law and its harmonisation, economic regulation, counter- inflation, competition, and industrial policy and privatization. He was the Solicitor to the Department of Trade and Industry from 1984 to 1987. At BT plc, he was Solicitor and Chief legal adviser from 1987-1989, Director of Government Relations from 1989-1993 and Director of Corporate Strategy from 1993-1996. He was a Competition Commissioner (member of the senior competition policy tribunal) from 1997 to 2005. He was also the Director of the Company Law Centre at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law from 2002 to 2005 and is now a Professorial Fellow attached to that Centre.


In 2001 he was made a Commander of the British Empire.