‘Excellent professionals, highly skilled, very responsive, bringing value. We need to explain very few things to trigger their accurate responses, always of the highest quality and with significant added value. It is important that the name is appreciated and opens doors when we have received their opinion, demonstrating the credibility and trust established around the firm.’

‘Highly skilled experts, who deserve our best comments and endorsement for their devotion and significant contribution to our work’

‘Clifford Chance has in Brussels an outstanding team of EU law experts who represent us in high value matters in the field of antitrust law.’

‘Ashwin van Rooijen: extremely knowledgeable, very reliable, strategic minded.’

‘Exceptional legal knowledge and extensive experience advising and dealing with complex competition law matters; keen business mind; clear and concise communication, particularly when communicating to non-lawyers.’

‘Richard Blewett is both an extraordinary lawyer and business partner. His knowledge and experience are outstanding. With an impressive creative mind, focus on problem-solving, and extraordinary capacity to keep calm under pressure, Richard is the support that any in-house team dreams of. His great sense of humour makes it even more pleasant to work with him.’

‘Charlotte Breuvart – smart, dedicated, provides concrete answers and actionable advice to clients. Geoffroy van de Walle – dedicated, detail oriented, efficient.’

‘They have a fantastic presence in Europe and globally with a strong, broad team that can assist on both small and large matters. The global presence is valuable when considering matters that extend beyond Europe. They are extremely responsive and professional, whilst being commercially minded.’

‘Bernard Amory is hugely experienced and knowledgeable and a pleasure to work with. Geoffroy van de Walle has a very analytical mind, is a clear communicator with great knowledge and understanding of EU proceedings.’

‘Unique know-how in competition law.’

‘Great firm with unique knowledge of anti-competition matters.’

‘Mario Todino is an excellent lawyer and he combines in a unique way, knowledge, experience and availability’

‘The best practice in competition in Brussels’

‘Jones Day’s global antitrust practice is a one-stop shop, with them coordinating quick and thorough merger control analysis across the globe. They learn our business inside and out, and use that knowledge to accelerate analysis. They also are willing to do high level analysis to give directional thinking on potential transactions, which is immensely helpful. Serge Clerckx and his team are practical, nimble and a great partner.’

‘The team is growing strong and diverse. They are available and willing to fulfil their clients’ needs. Very capable team with Lars very present and on top of matters, providing high quality and business oriented advice.’

‘They have a large and very competent team that can advance the European Commission thinking on critical matters, with vast experience across competition topics. Latham provides added value and consistent high quality work. Lars is an invaluable asset and we consider him as part of our team.’

‘The LW team is very approachable and commercial.’

‘They are easy to work with, very knowledgeable, friendly and responsive.’

‘They function very well as a team, not just within Brussels but across London and Brussels, which makes it easy to work with them.’

‘They are truly seamless. They deliver high quality work products and at times feel integrated within the client’s legal team.’

‘Broad legal/ practical knowledge, very business minded and results driven.’

‘High attention, strong expertise and easy to work with.’

‘This firm has a long history and tradition in its EU competition law practice. They have provided excellent legal service in such area to Japanese clients. In addition, they have good ability to communicate with relevant EU officials.’

‘J.F. Bellis: He is an encyclopedia in EU competition law. Although he is a very senior lawyer, he is very responsive to our contact. Kris Van Hove: His advice is always half a step forward for our clients. Charlotte Nassogne: She works very hard for each client. She is very responsive to each contact from clients even if it is urgent.’

‘Mr. Kris Van Hove always assists us very effectively and efficiently. He is always very supportive and responsive.’

‘Top quality law firm with excellent business understanding.’

‘We work mainly with Andreas Reidl who we find highly intelligent and competent with a strong business mindset and understanding of our operations. He always gives top quality legal advice, both in the quality of the legal assessment, the presentation and the way it can be directly applied in our operations. He always responds rapidly and keeps us updated on new legislation and relevant topics.’

‘White & Case has recognized expertise in energy related antitrust matters. They have assisted parties from Eastern Europe, including public sector clients, offering an excellent combination of legal and strategic advice on complex matters. The Brussels team is experienced in all sectors of the industry, with particular focus on electricity, natural gas and renewables. It deals with large-scale projects delivering competent, prompt and pragmatic multidisciplinary advice. The team consists of hard-working professionals with excellent qualification and skills.’

‘Mark Powell possesses strong leadership qualities and has an impressive sense of direction allowing him to think quickly and clearly in a complicated environment, as well as under pressure. A seasoned practitioner, he is able to immediately grasp the legal essence of the problems, their business rationale and provide critical legal support and strategic advice. His communication skills allow him to effectively direct and manage the efforts of internal and external resources, to translate legal concerns in practical terms and get his message across to clients and partners.’

‘Irina Trichkovska is an outstanding lawyer who has shown a talent for making difficult legal issues understandable and solvable while coordinating the work internally and interacting effectively with local counsel and business leads on all organization levels. She is hard-working, with exceptional analytical ability and focus to detail. Irina has considerable experience with clients and cases from the CEE region, allowing her to understand better clients’ needs and provide legal advice with high added value. She is very responsive and, overall, a great person to work with.’

‘The team has very good understanding of the specifics of the client and suggests appropriate solutions for overcoming complicated legal challenges. The team reacts timely, adequately and with responsibility.’

‘There are partners with different background from different jurisdictions, with their ideas and support, available for the project. Proven, updated know-how about the EU DG-COMP structure, who-is-who and what’s on.’

‘Broad based and highly commercial EU law practice with extremely professional and expert advisors.’

‘I work closely both with Mark Powell and Kasia Czapracka. Two first-rate and highly knowledgeable, highly professional and approachable lawyers. Good understanding of the steps needed to get merger transactions cleared. I feel comfortable putting them in front of the most senior decision-makers both inside and outside of my company.’

‘Jacquelyn MacLennan – probably one of the top antitrust practitioners in the world – with global knowledge and plenty of practical experience with a commercial attitude.’

‘We highly recommend the Competition Law practice at Arnold Porter in Brussels. They have a highly collaborative, approach being flexible to adapt to each specific assignments, besides providing exceptional quality, experience and integrity both on EU competition law but also in other relevant jurisdictions such as US, UK, Germany, etc.’

‘Niels Ersbøll is our contact partner and stands out for his exceptional knowledge and deep understanding of competition law issues applied to the pharma industry. Niels is also highly appreciated for his speed, availability, frequent follow up and ability to adapt the ways of collaboration to the different types of assignment.’

‘Unique feature of the team is that they are very responsive and quite low key and hands on.’

‘I worked with Adam Kidane and Clemens Graf York von Wartenburg. Both have outstanding knowledge in competition law, especially merger control. Both are THE go to address especially for tailor made advice. Very responsive and always a pleasure to work with.’

‘Communication has been easy and all individuals we worked with at Dechert have been always available and flexible. Their knowledge and availability has been of great help and brought a lot of added value to our work.’

‘They have assembled a team of dynamic, smart lawyers with deep subject matter knowledge of antitrust and industry intersection, particularly in the tech sector.’

‘Alec Burnside is both smart and self deprecating; he has decades of experience but is always open to discussion. His colleagues Marjolein DeBacker and Delphine Strohl are so responsive and on top of the subject. This is an excellent team to work with.’

‘The team was very efficient in coordinating a multi-jurisdictional merger notification analysis. This is an area with lots of moving parts where thresholds may often change so it is helpful to have a team that closely monitors these developments and offers a one-stop shop approach.’

‘We received timely and concrete commercial advice from Michael Okkonen.’

‘Linklaters has provided general competition advice in the EU and UK (including on merger control and antitrust issues). Their advice has been timely, insightful and well thought through. We would recommend them for competition advice in the EU and UK. One strength of the team includes their knowledge of financial regulation and collaboration with the firm’s Financial Regulation Group.’

‘Linklaters is among our best outside counsel for appropriate resourcing and efficiently delivering services.’

‘The team members are a pleasure to work with, very responsive, and substantively very knowledgeable and practical.’

‘Working with Ken Daly is a real pleasure. He is practical in his advice and substantively capable in handling large global transactions.’

‘Baker Botts is a very solid competition practice all around. They have some very senior partners whose advice is always spot on.’

‘Paul Lugard’s advice is practical and to the point and grounded in his experience as inhouse counsel.’

‘The team is small but staffed with really good lawyers. It’s strength lies in the fact they are smaller than some of the other major firms, but with just as high standards, meaning they can produce quality advice tailored for our business very quickly with no over-staffing of matters.’

‘Our main point of contact is Brian Byrne in Brussels, who is a fantastic lawyer. He is thoughtful, hard-working, and has taken the time to know our business meaning his advice is always on point. He is also very pleasant to work with.’

‘A go to team in Brussels navigating clients through competition and trade cases in a pragmatic, business-focused and efficient way.’

‘Hein is a highly reputed long-standing EU competition and trade lawyer in Brussels – if you contact him, you always know you get excellent, business-friendly and pragmatic advice that adds real value to our business.’

‘As in-house counsel in the United States, I appreciate outside counsel who understand the perspective I am likely to have, and can thus explain topics such as EU competition law in a context that is understandable to me. Bird & Bird is excellent in doing this; in my experience, they have a keen sense of the client’s needs and perspective, and thus do not provide me with too much or not enough detail.’

‘I have worked specifically with Hein Hobbelen and Baptist Vleeshouwers. I think that both Hein and Baptist embody the characteristics that I find most valuable in outside counsel: a willingness to understand the perspectives, tolerances, and limitations of the client. Outside counsel from other firms often try and over-engineer solutions, whereas I find that Hein and Baptist have both the knowledge and confidence to come up with pragmatic solutions.’

‘The team is very active, knowledgeable in all areas of EU competition law, especially digital markets. They are innovative in giving bespoke advice to the clients and make sure they understand the specificities of the industry.’

‘The team demonstrates outstanding knowledge in the areas of competition/antitrust and state aid matters within the context of EU law and has extensive experience when it comes to working on multi-jurisdictional and cross-border matters. I really enjoy working with them because they are very responsive, pragmatic, solution-oriented, and able to provide advice in a professional and efficient manner. They are a very focused team, and in some instances, I cannot think of another team that could have done a better job.’

‘I have cooperated with Dr. Salome Cisnal de Ugarte, a partner in the Brussels office, for many years. She has a brilliant legal mind, especially in the most complex competition/antitrust matters, and her intelligence and strategic vision, are truly rare. She provides pragmatic, distinctive, focused, and clear advice to clients, delivering creative solutions that many leading law firms would not be able to match. Her approach is modern, innovative, and highly operative, with an excellent sense of the quality of service and client relations.’

‘The team is exceptional on many fronts. Very capable and responsive, and a pleasure to work with. They have an excellent knowledge of the EU and the EU procedures, but are also very experienced with other jurisdictions. They have a very strong international merger control offering, also with expertise in cartel and other anti-competition investigations, in collaboration with its US and other European and Asian offices. They have particular expertise and experience on matters relating to Europe and the US, but can cover global transactions and investigations, as they have offices around the world.’

‘Salome Cisnal de Ugarte is our lead partner, and she is an excellent lawyer. She is a very knowledgeable lawyer with strategic vision of the matter. She is on top of all the debates on hot topics in the competition space, like the DMA or the new merger referral policy approach of the EU Commission. We really enjoy working with her.’

‘The team has the ability to build a bridge between the complexity of financial operations by the client and the complexity of EU competition law; it has the ability to propose a variety of approaches encompassing pros and cons.’

‘Highly knowledgeable experts that can transfer their insights in a comprehensive and pragmatic manner to the client.’

‘Jacques Buhart: Very straight forward, profound experience, quick understanding of business interests, pleasant to work with’

‘Quick and accurate advice.’

‘The firm has a strong international reach, useful for global or transnational transactions or investigations.’

‘Alexandra Rogers is a true technical expert in EU competition law and a meticulous, rigorous lawyer who deals with issues as thoroughly as possible.’

‘High legal expertise. Long term experience with the EU. Superb availability.‘

‘Brian Hartnett and Will Sparks- Brian is very experienced with the EU, has an excellent professional network and understands entrepreneurial necessities. Will has a deep legal understanding of the EU.‘

‘What has been most helpful is that they have a global organizational structure that allows them to collaborate immediately with team members in other countries. Sometimes our projects require complex global know-how, but they are able to respond quickly by leveraging their internal and external connections.‘

‘I am especially grateful to Oliver Geiss and would recommend him to anyone. He was always prompt in his responses, and despite the time difference between Japan and US, he provided us with information that allowed our manager to make the right decision. He also suggested best practices and offered multiple ways to complete our mission. In fact, thanks to his contributions, we were able to complete a very challenging project on time.’

‘Massimo Merola is the best the market can offer in the state aid sector. He is very available, clear and his legal advice and solutions are always very ingenious.’

‘The Brussels office of BonelliErede has unparalleled expertise in competition law and in particular State Aid matters. The presence of many super-skilled Italian speaker lawyers is certainly a plus for Italian companies which have to deal with national and EU procedures.’

‘Massimo Merola is absolutely one of the most reputable professionals in the State Aid arena. He stands out for his competences, his impressive knowledge of national and EU legislation and procedure, his fantastic reliability. If you are assisted by him, you feel confident that everything will be all right!’

‘Massimo Merola is the genius and engine running Bonelli Erede Brussels Law Firm. It is always a pleasure to discuss legal matters and effective solutions with Massimo.’

‘The EU practice is truly outstanding, both in terms of experience and knowledge. The key partners are with the firm and in Brussels since the turn of the century (and even earlier) and have a unique experience in dealing with the EU Commission.’

‘Massimo Merola is an authority, particularly in the state aid sector, and his opinions are highly respected by the parties and the Commission alike. Very frequently chosen by Italian governmental agencies to opine on state aid issues. He also has a deep understanding of the economic and industrial aspects of the cases.’

‘Very flexible, listening to the practical needs and making sure to provide tailored advice.’

‘Yves Botteman is able to listen to what is needed and to adapt accordingly to provide tailored advice. I go to Yves to discuss complex questions.’

‘Dentons has a strong practice group for antitrust, contractual and mergers and acquisition matters. They are also proactive in providing anticompetitive behavior education to my staff.’

‘Yves Botteman understands my business and is great at understanding the issues facing my business and being proactive to help keep us out of trouble.’

‘Fieldfisher has a highly professional competition team with team members from a variety of backgrounds and therefore expertise not only in European and Belgian law, but also in other EU laws. The team is very responsive and business oriented.’

‘Tom Pick is extremely available and quick to provide well-adapted solutions to any competition law issue. His flexibility and reactivity are very much appreciated.’

‘Stéphane Hautbourg’s great knowledge and experience of the inner workings of the European Commission is a real strength for Gide Brussels’ competition law team. His sharp understanding of the Commission’s expectations and possible anticipation of its requests for information is a real added-value to his advice. Stéphane’s team includes younger practitioners who contribute to the high quality of the team’s advice.’

‘The Competition law team of Gide Brussels stands out thanks to its partner Stéphane Hautbourg. His advices are always pragmatic and his calm attitude is an essential factor contributing to handling matters, even these extremely complex from a legal standpoint and highly technical from a business perspective, with confidence and serenity.’

‘Independent, versatile and great legal advice.’

‘Great listening and understanding, able to deliver.’

‘They were extremely competent, knowledgeable, precise and fast, they asked us to provide the necessary documentation and then used it in the best possible way. They were also extremely helpful in advising on the best way of presenting the data and the arguments, and to push forward the approval procedure to reduce waiting time.’

‘I would like to mention particularly the lawyer that was responsible for the two projects and was my direct contact at Gide, Ms Ségolène Pelsy, who has been truly remarkable in terms of reliability, clarity, quality of advice and in delivering results on time. I have been very impressed by her ability to keep the pace and produce excellent quality documents, and to manage from afar a pretty bureaucratic process.’

‘Close-knit team, strong interaction on a project, hence with an added value of internal synergy. High technical reactivity as soon as a project is discussed before a contract. Confidence and work starts immediately Deep knowledge of the European mechanisms (at least in the Pharma sector) – close follow-up of each step – harmonious interactions.’

‘Fluid interactions with the project manager or similar manager – leadership thereof, without over-management or authoritarian management. Possibility to exchange also with the members of the team in charge. Very friendly. Ready to come along if necessary to reach stakeholders. High level interaction with the authorities.’

‘A worlwide network of competion lawyers with deep knowledge in fashion law.’

‘Francesco Carloni is a high standing professional with a deep knowledge of the fashion sector.’

‘The K&L Gates team is always available and collaborative and focus on the real needs of the clients. The Partners are very well qualified lawyers, proactive and always focused on finding legal solution adapted to the clients’ needs.’

‘Mr. Francesco Carloni is an excellent lawyer, well skilled, diligent, proactive and market oriented. He is an excellent advisor focused on the clients’ needs.’

‘Francesco Carloni manages an excellent team of competition lawyers. He is practical, efficient, attentive and pro-active. I have always greatly enjoyed working with him and his team – they have always proven to be reliable and effective.’

‘A firm that offers a whole range of services needed by companies.’

‘Pierre Goffinet and his staff all have the knowledge and availability to provide exceptional service to their clients.’

‘Solid team with good knowledge of our industry sector and great price/quality ratio.’

‘Carmen Verdonck is a partner with great experience of competition law matters in our sector. Good availability to discuss alongside our business.’