The Legal 500

Work Department

EU and competition group.

Position

David is a partner in the firm’s EU and competition law team based in BLP’s Brussels office. He is a US national and is qualified in both the US and UK and is on the EU list of the Brussels Bar. His practice focuses on EU and international antitrust, and regulatory aspects of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, cartels and abuses of dominant positions. In the areas of mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures, David regularly represents major US, European and Asian companies on international transactions before the European Commission, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading, and other national antitrust and sectoral regulators around the world. He specialises in handling complex multijurisdictional merger reviews and has led and co-ordinated filings and reviews in most major jurisdictions with merger control regimes around the world. In the area of cartels, David has extensive experience representing companies involved in cartel proceedings before the European Commission and other antitrust agencies. He has advised clients in relation to a number of the largest international cartel cases in the chemical, energy, mining and hi-tech sectors. David also advises on other areas of EU and international private law, including, in particular, aviation law. David is very active on the policy side of international antitrust. He is a non-governmental adviser to the European Commission on the work of the International Competition Network (ICN), a body comprising all of the world’s major antitrust agencies. David serves on the ICN’s merger and unilateral conduct (abuse of dominance) working groups. He has also spoken at major competition law conferences organised by the ICN, the World Bank and by national competition authorities. He is also recognised by ‘Chambers’, ‘The Legal 500’ and ‘Legal Business’ as a leading international antitrust lawyer in EU and competition law.

Career

Clinic student lawyer, American University International Law Clinic 1992-93; admitted to Bars of Pennsylvania 1994, District of Columbia 1995 and Minnesota 1996; trained Allen & Overy, London, qualified 1996, associate 1996-98, senior associate, Brussels 1998-2006; qualified as avocat, Barreau de Bruxelles (Brussels Bar, E List) 2001; partner Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, Brussels 2006 to date. Publications and papers include: ‘EU Merger Control (co-author) in ‘PLC Cross-border M&A Handbook 2011/2012’; ‘The European Commission’ (co-author) in ‘Global Competition Review’s 2011 Handbook of Competition Enforcement Agencies’; Author, ‘Reflections on the ICN and its NGAs: Advocacy and Implementation’, The 10th Anniversary of the International Competition Network (P. Lugard, ed 2011) (Intersentia). Co-author, ‘Cartels in the EU: Procedural Fairness for Defendants and Claimants’ in Fordham International Law Journal (April 2011) and Fordham Competition Law Institute (B. Hawk ed 2011) (Juris Publ); ‘From Across the Pond – the EU Investigates Retail Banking and Business Insurance’ in ‘The ABA Antitrust Committee: Financial Services Electronic Magazine’ (2007); ‘Sector Inquiries: business insurance interim report and retail banking final report’ in ‘The In-House Lawyer’ (2007); ‘Reforming the EU’s Immunity and Leniency System – Moving Ahead and Standing Still’ in ‘The International Antitrust Bulletin’ (ABA section of antitrust law, 2006); ‘EU Merger Control’ in ‘PLC Cross-border M&A Handbook 2006/2007’ (2006); ‘Immunity and Leniency in EU Cartel Cases: Current Issues’ in ‘European Competition Law Review’; the European Union chapter in ‘International Mergers, The Antitrust Process’ (ed Bill Rowley and Donald Baker, Sweet & Maxwell, 1999-2005 editions); ‘Acquisitions of Minority Interests in Competitors: The EU Perspective’ at the American Bar Association section of the Antitrust Law Spring Meeting in Washington (2005); ‘Lessons Learned From Each Others: EU and US Cartel and Merger Enforcement’ in ‘Antitrust Report’ (Matthew Bender/Lexis-Nexis 2004); ‘Global Antitrust Convergence and the International Competition Network’, in ‘International Business Lawyers’ (International Bar Association, 2004); ‘Boeing/McDonnell Douglas: The Wider Issues’ in ‘University of Durham Law Journal’ (1998); ‘Privatising Britain’s Railways’ in ‘Privatisation Journal’ (1996); and ‘The International Arms Trade: The Regulation of Conventional Arms Transfers in the Aftermath of the Gulf War’, in ‘The American University Journal of International Law and Policy’.

Member

Solicitors European Group; American Bar Association (member Antitrust Section); International Bar Association; Pennsylvania Bar Association; Minnesota Bar Association; District of Columbia Bar Association.

Education

Manchester College, Oxford (1988 third year of US BA degree, history and politics); St Olaf College, Minnesota (1989 double major, history and political science, Phi Beta Kappa); University College, London (1990 MA modern British and European history, first class honours for dissertation); American University, Washington College of Law (1993 JD Magna Cum Laude; recent developments editor, ‘The American University Journal of International Law and Policy’ – awarded prize for Outstanding Published Article in International Law); College of Law, London (1994 postgraduate diploma in legal practice, awarded distinction).

Leisure

Coaching and playing ice hockey.

Practice Areas

Aviation; EU and competition