Laurent is a partner in our antitrust group. A Belgian qualified lawyer and a member of the New York Bar, he is highly regarded for both his EU/International and Belgian practices.
His experience focusses on multifaceted cross-border merger transactions and international investigations of anti-competitive behaviour, including ensuing litigation before both national and European courts.
He regularly co-ordinates large multijurisdictional teams in procedures before antitrust and regulatory authorities around the globe and has significant experience of difficult transactions, including remedy packages, reviewed by the European Commission.
His clients cross a range of industry sectors and he served as Global co-head of the firm's TMT sector group for five years. Laurent is vice-chair of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Section of International Law and a regular commentator on topics of European and Belgian competition law.
Laurent works in English, French, Dutch and Italian.
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- Acting for Aon in relation to the European Commission’s review of its $29.9bn merger with Willis Towers Watson.
- Advising Solvay on the global competition law aspects of all of its most recent important business reshaping transactions, including:
- the €1.6bn sale of its global polyamide business to a company in a transaction that marks a further step in Solvay’s transformation into a multi-specialty chemicals company.
- successful remedy negotiations in order to secure timely phase I clearance from the European Commission for its $5.5bn acquisition of Cytec Industries.
- its €4.3bn 50:50 joint venture with INEOS which prompted a phase II merger investigation by the European Commission and the negotiation of a complex remedies package.
- the unconditional EU clearance of its €3.4bn acquisition of chemical company Rhodia, which also required merger filings in the US, Asia and Russia.
- the $7.1bn sale of its pharmaceuticals group to Abbott Laboratories which involved some 60 jurisdictions worldwide and the negotiation of phase I remedies in the EU.
- Advising Immoweb, the Belgian property portal, in its successful defence of an abuse of dominance complaint before Belgium's competition authority relating to alleged 'most favoured nation' clauses in contracts with software providers.
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Education
- University of Liège Belgium
- University of Cambridge, UK
- Columbia Law School, US
Professional qualifications
- Belgian qualified lawyer
- Member of the New York Bar
Professional memberships
- Vice-chair of the International Antitrust Law Committee of the ABA Section of International Law
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