Latham & Watkins LLP > Brussels, Belgium > Firm Profile

Latham & Watkins LLP Offices

Latham & Watkins LLP
BOULEVARD DU RÉGENT 43-44
1000 BRUSSELS
Belgium
Visit website 32 2 788 60 00 32 2 788 60 60

Latham & Watkins LLP > The Legal 500 Rankings

Belgium > Competition: EU and global Tier 2

Latham & Watkins LLP's 'simply excellent' team has recently been particularly focused on expanding its merger clearance offering to position itself as an advisor of choice for foreign direct investments and foreign subsidies regulation issues. On the behavioral side, the group continues to act in the gamut of investigations run by the European Commission. Managing partner Lars Kjølbye and vice chair of the global competition practice Héctor Armengod oversee the department. Other key names include Carles Esteva Mosso and Sven Völcker. In October 2022, 'bright and fast' Christos Malamataris re-joined the firm from the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission.

Practice head(s):

Lars Kjølbye; Héctor Armengod

Other key lawyers:

Carles Esteva Mosso; Sven Völcker; Luca Crocco; John Wileur; Christos Malamataris

Testimonials

‘The Latham team handles several high profile and complex matters for us. They are special at understanding our complex business in a fast and comprehensive fashion. They are commercially sound, reliable and have a great sense of urgency. They delivery high quality and practical advice.’

‘Christos Malamataris is a rising star in the EU competition community. He is bright and fast at grasping the essential technical aspects requiring legal advice. Surely his period at the EU Commmision makes a difference and helps massively with risk assessment and mitigation. He is original and thinks out of the box. He’s incredibly competent, yet not only on the legal aspects.’

‘Responsive, practical guidance.’

‘Héctor Armengod is well-qualified, responsive and quick to identify key issues.’

‘The team at Latham & Watkins is simply excellent, and their efficacy benefits from a rare team spirit.’

‘Sven Völcker is an experienced and pragmatic partner, who is capable of identifying the most salient issues in complex situations, and providing a clear description of what is at stake.’

‘Excellent team, very profound antitrust expertise, very pragmatic advice.’

‘Lars Kjølbye – outstanding antitrust partner. Responsiveness, industry know-how, excellent and pragmatic advice.’

Key clients

American Airlines

CVC

Farfetch

Grail

Hyundai Heavy Industries

Lufthansa

Microsoft

Orange

Singapore Airlines

The Carlyle Group

Viasat

Vodafone

Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company

Work highlights

  • Advising Grail on its $8bn acquisition by Illumina.
  • Advised Viasat on obtaining global antitrust and foreign investment approvals for its $7.3bn acquisition of Inmarsat.
  • Represented the Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company in an investigation launched by the European Commission into possible abuse of dominance.

Latham & Watkins LLP > Firm Profile

The firm: Latham & Watkins is a leading international law firm serving multinational companies, start-ups, investment banks, private equity funds, venture capital firms, sovereign wealth funds, governments and other organisations. The firm’s global platform spans Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the US, and consists of internationally recognised practices across a wide spectrum of transactional, litigation, corporate and regulatory areas. Latham’s lawyers offer unrivalled legal resources and strategic commercial thinking to provide clients with innovative solutions to complex business and legal matters.

Latham & Watkins’ Brussels office is the hub for the firm’s European competition practice, a practice consisting of more than 50 lawyers in the major jurisdictions in Europe. This team is part of Latham’s global antitrust practice group, which includes more than 100 US antitrust lawyers in three offices and a team in Asia. This global footprint, top-notch team of Brussels professionals and a premier practice in the US combine to provide clients with unsurpassed service and deep insight into the workings of the regulatory authorities and courts. Latham & Watkins’ Brussels office is a market leader among the truly international law firms.

Areas of practice: Lawyers in Latham’s Brussels office handle the most pressing competition law needs for top companies around the world, including global cartel defence and litigation, complex merger clearances, and a range of cutting-edge alleged abuse of dominance and state aid matters that will set the legal standard for cases to come. It is also handling an ever increasing amount of litigation before the European and national courts, including civil damages actions.

Latham’s global platform and its considerable strength in both the US and Europe, as well as its cross-disciplinary approach combining antitrust/competition law experts with best-in-class white-collar criminal defence experts and class action expertise make it one of the very few firms able to give clients the integrated defence needed in global cartel enforcement. The firm’s experience across jurisdictions and disciplines has provided Latham with leading global expertise to handle these matters as they have spread beyond the EU, US, Canada and Japan to cover countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and South Africa. The resources the firm is able to bring to bear allow it to handle cases involving a complex and simultaneous array of criminal prosecutions, civil investigations and private damages actions in multiple countries.

Latham’s lawyers regularly handle proposed mergers that present challenging competition issues and receive the closest scrutiny by the European Commission, EU member states and jurisdictions around the world. Its clients benefit from Latham’s lawyers’ deep knowledge of the complex legal and economic principles, along with their unsurpassed experience with the evolving regulatory approaches in Europe, the US and around the world. Latham is one of only a handful of firms with the experience, capability and global footprint to secure merger clearances worldwide, with competition lawyers based in the major financial markets in Europe, the US and Asia. Contributing to their success is the firm’s leading corporate practice, which routinely garners top-ten rankings in the American Lawyer corporate score card year over year.

Latham’s Brussels lawyers also assist clients with regulatory issues such as data protection, environmental law, energy regulation, financial services, pharmaceutical and product safety.

Main Contacts

Department Name Email Telephone
Antitrust and competition (including merger clearance; cartel investigations and litigation; abuse of dominance; civil antitrust damages claims; IP and antitrust interface; antitrust compliance; distribution and licensing; state aid; sector inquiries)
EU regulatory law (pharmaceuticals, medical devices, energy markets, financial services, data protection, environmental and product safety)
EU law (including freedom of establishment and services and free circulation of goods; trade law)

Lawyer Profiles

Photo Name Position Profile
Héctor Armengod photo Héctor Armengod Héctor Armengod is a partner in the Brussels office of Latham &… View Profile
Luca Crocco photo Luca Crocco Luca Crocco is a partner in the Brussels office of Latham &… View Profile
Michael Esser photo Michael Esser Widely recognized as one of Germany’s leading antitrust lawyers, Dr. Michael Esser… View Profile
Carles Esteva Mosso photo Carles Esteva Mosso Carles Esteva Mosso is a partner in the Antitrust & Competition Practice… View Profile
Lars Kjølbye photo Lars Kjølbye Lars Kjølbye is the Managing Partner of Latham & Watkins’  Brussels office. His… View Profile
Jean Paul Poitras photo Jean Paul Poitras Jean Paul Poitras is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Brussels office. His practice… View Profile
Javier Ruiz Calzado photo Javier Ruiz Calzado Javier Ruiz Calzado is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Brussels office.… View Profile
Sven Völcker photo Sven Völcker Mr. Sven B. Völcker is a partner in Latham & Watkins’ Brussels… View Profile

Staff Figures

Number of lawyers : 2,600+
at this office : 30

Languages

Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Greek
Italian
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish

Other

Other offices : Barcelona
Other offices : Beijing
Other offices : Boston
Other offices : Century City
Other offices : Chicago
Other offices : Dubai
Other offices : Düsseldorf
Other offices : Frankfurt
Other offices : Hamburg
Other offices : Hong Kong
Other offices : Houston
Other offices : London
Other offices : Los Angeles
Other offices : Madrid
Other offices : Milan
Other offices : Moscow
Other offices : Munich
Other offices : New Jersey
Other offices : New York
Other offices : Orange County
Other offices : Paris
Other offices : Riyadh
Other offices : Rome
Other offices : San Diego
Other offices : San Francisco
Other offices : Seoul
Other offices : Shanghai
Other offices : Silicon Valley
Other offices : Singapore
Other offices : Tokyo
Other offices : Washington DC