She championed consumers, but can Lucy Rigby MP steer the City?
Lawyers, journalists, and Westminster insiders have long dominated the British political system, and this Labour government is no exception, with a former barrister at the helm. Now, the minister responsible for the City has joined the list.
But who is Lucy Rigby MP? That was the question on everyone’s lips in the Square Mile.
She was appointed economic secretary to the Treasury, replacing Emma Reynolds, who had been shifted to take on the role of environment secretary, in the cabinet reshuffle last Friday.
Just a few months into Labour taking power, Rigby was tasked with the role of Solicitor General, a position she held until the reshuffle.
She was new to the frontline of politics in 2024, standing as a candidate in Northampton North and winning the seat with nearly 44 per cent of the vote. However, in her short time as an MP, she has secured her second promotion from Keir Starmer.
The speed at which she secured her Ministerial role had Politico quoting a lobbyist calling it a “faster rise than most”.
Now, one of the criticism levelled against her is also a common one against Labour; that she, like other ministers, lacks real business experience. However, as a former partner at a City-based law firm, she is well-adapted, like all legal partners, to understanding the intricacies of running a business.
But that is the thing; there hasn’t been much discussion about her life before politics. There have been occasional mentions of the firms she worked at, with a lot of emphasis on her time at the magic circle firm Slaughter and May.
She began her career at Slaughter and remained with the firm for over four years. However, Rigby was a competition lawyer; she worked at the Office of Fair Trading (now the Competition and Markets Authority) and served as a competition and consumer law advisor at consumer champion Which?.
After serving in a role at the regulator, she joined the claimant-focused law firm Hausfeld, started by US lawyer Michael Hausfeld, as an associate in 2017 and was promoted to partnership in 2021.
At Hausfeld, she was a collective claims specialist, focusing on the significant legal trend that emerged in the UK: opt-out collective actions before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), also known as class actions.
Rise of class actions
Class actions, a popular legal tool in the US, have also gained traction in the UK, as competition-based class actions have become increasingly prevalent over the last few years.
This resulted from legislation introduced in 2015 to establish an opt-out regime for infringements of competition law in the UK, and as a consequence, the CAT became one of the busiest Tribunals.
For some time, it seemed that was all that was happening, as press releases of new class actions were hitting journalists’ inboxes, but firms were getting sharper at marketing.
There are no signs of it slowing down, as a report last month revealed that the UK remains one of Europe’s most active jurisdictions for these types of legal actions, with the total value of cases in the UK surpassing €155bn (£135bn) in 2024.
The primary target of these actions at the CAT are the Big Tech firms, such as Apple and Google, which have been named in £30bn worth of claims alone.
Rigby, while at Hausfeld, was a partner in many of these cases, including acting on behalf of Which? on a £480m collective consumer claim against Qualcomm.
This trend has kept lawyers and barristers happy, on both sides (though defendant firms won’t say this out loud), and trying to even get a seat at the CAT showcased how busy it was.
However, the group that isn’t enjoying these class actions is businesses, as they face hefty legal fees and drawn-out legal procedures, which put pressure on boards.
The Adam Smith Institute, a think tank, issued a report last year warning that the expansion of class action lawsuits in the UK was undermining trust in businesses as well as the legal environment.
The class action has found itself in the spotlight after recent judgments from the CAT have not sparked any significant developments for the sector.
Even the Department for Business and Trade appears concerned, having opened a call for evidence on the opt-out collective actions regime last month.
“Since 2015, the opt-out caseload has grown significantly, with tens of billions of pounds in damages claimed and hundreds of millions of pounds spent on legal fees. This is far higher than estimated in the original impact assessment, which estimated the total cost to businesses to be £30.8m per annum,” the government said.
With Rigby, an industry insider told Morning Wire, she provides claimant firms with an “influential” ally at a time when “Labour’s New Deal for Working People promises expanded collective bargaining rights reforms, which could pave the way for US-style class actions in the UK”.
But now is the time when the City needs investment more than ever; it will be on Rigby to make that happen for businesses within the capital.
She states that her priorities include doubling down on the UK’s status as a financial services powerhouse.
Her in-tray includes delivering the financial services growth and competitiveness strategy, to improve financial resilience, and create more good, skilled jobs across the country.
In her first few days, she has prioritised a meeting with the chairman of the US SEC, Paul Atkins, and on Thursday, she met with the country’s largest lenders with a view to encouraging innovation in the mortgage market, enabling more first-time buyers to get on the housing ladder.
Whether Rigby will tip the balance between business and consumer interests, or simply become another name in the City brief’s revolving door, remains to be seen, but for now all eyes in the Square Mile are firmly fixed on her next move.
Eyes on the Law is a weekly column by Maria Ward-Brennan focused on the legal sector.