Leading international law firm Clifford Chance announced today that Johan Ysewyn is to join the Firm’s highly rated Antitrust Practice as a Partner in the Brussels office.

 

Prior to joining Clifford Chance, Mr. Ysewyn was a partner at Linklaters for 11 years.  There, he held a number of senior positions including head of the Antitrust practice in Brussels and co-head of the Global Cartel group.

Mr. Ysewyn specialises in cartel and compliance issues, state aid and Belgian competition law as well as merger control. In recent years, he has advised on a number of high profile cases, including the bitumen and marine hose cartel investigations.  He also has advised Fortis and KBC on their state aid cases and has been involved in a number of complex merger filings, such as the acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle by Heineken and Carlsberg. 

Commenting on the appointment, Thomas Vinje, Chairman of Clifford Chance’s Global Antitrust Practice said, “We are delighted to be welcoming Johan to Clifford Chance’s Antitrust Practice. He is widely considered to be one of the leading Belgian competition experts and his wealth of experience and client contacts will complement perfectly the experience and qualities of our leading practice.” 

Tony Reeves, the Managing Partner of the Brussels office of Clifford Chance, said: ” Johan’s addition is a recognition of the strength of both our Brussels antitrust practice and our domestic Belgian law capabilities. He will fit well into both practices and realise a number of synergies. I am very excited that once again, we are growing our presence in Brussels with this significant hire. It builds on the recent investments the firm has made, with Oliver Bretz, the Managing Partner of the Global Antitrust Practice, and Miguel Odriozola, the Head of the Spanish Antitrust Practice, spending part of their time in the Brussels office.”

Johan Ysewyn said: “Clifford Chance was a natural choice for me – clients have an increasingly global outlook and the Firm’s international network is impressive. I have known many lawyers in the Firm’s Brussels office and antitrust practice for many years and I believe I can bring fresh experience and expertise to the team. I’m thrilled to be joining.”

This hire also follows the hiring of Alastair Mordaunt from the OFT and is the latest in a number of senior appointments by Clifford Chance’s global Corporate practice including Steven Fox in London, Rob Masella in New York, Claudio Cerabolini in Milan and Aline Cardin and Mathieu Remy in Paris.

Clifford Chance’s Brussels office was established in 1968 and is ranked as one of the leading law firms in Belgium. Our team of over 50 lawyers, including 10 partners and 6 counsels, concentrates on the following practices: Banking, finance and capital markets, Corporate/M&A, Competition/antitrust, Real estate, Tax, and Litigation. Clients include leading local organisations – private and governmental – as well as international companies. 

Clifford Chance’s global Antitrust Practice comprises more than 150 lawyers and economists across Europe, the US and Asia, advising on a broad range of local and multi-jurisdictional matters, including merger control, cartels, antitrust investigations and litigation, State aid and public procurement matters. Major recent cases handled from the Brussels office range from advising on the merger clearances for Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Pfizer’s acquisition of Wyeth and the Yahoo/Microsoft joint venture to high profile cartel cases including the elevator and escalators investigation and related damages litigation, as well as abuse of dominance cases such as the Microsoft investigation and appeal. 

Clifford Chance’s Corporate practice is ranked number one in Corporate/M&A both globally and in the UK in Chambers Global 2011 and is top of Mergermarket’s European M&A rankings for Q1 2011.