Davis Polk & Wardwell is opening an office in Brussels for a new European antitrust practice led by two Allen & Overy hires.
The hires are Jürgen Schindler, the co-head of Allen & Overy’s global competition and antitrust group, and partner and economist Frances Dethmers. Schindler joins as a partner, while Dethmers joins as a special adviser in EU antitrust.
Law firms have been building out their regulatory capabilities for increased European Union scrutiny. EU antitrust regulators in late December launched a probe of the proposed $61 billion merger between semiconductor maker Broadcom Inc. and cloud-computing company VMware Inc.
“The European Commission is a critical antitrust authority,” Davis Polk managing partner Neil Barr said in a statement. “We are excited to be able to offer our clients sophisticated antitrust capabilities with respect to matters under EU law.”
Davis Polk was among the top five law firms in global deals announced by volume in 2022, advising on 160 of them worth $315 billion, according to Bloomberg mergers and acquisitions league tables. The firm was also one of the top three on cross border deals announced by volume last year, working on 76 of them worth $140 billion.
Schindler, a longtime Allen & Overy partner, has experience working with clients on international, EU and German merger control, and cartel and abuse of dominance cases across a broad range of sectors, including energy, finance and technology. He also litigates before the European courts in Luxembourg.
Dethmers, who recently became partner at Allen & Overy, focuses on international, European and Dutch competition law and advises clients across a wide array of industries on highly complex merger control procedures, as well as on cartel investigations, intellectual property issues and licensing and distribution agreements.
“We are thrilled to have them on board,” Art Burke, head of Davis Polk’s antitrust & competition practice, said in a statement of Schindler and Dethmers. Their experience “will further solidify our position as a leading global antitrust firm.”
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