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Office launches and lateral moves, from Kirkland & Ellis to Latham & Watkins, are expanding Big Law's Brussels competition teams as firms compete for complex, cross-border mandates, Law.com International reports. The hiring focuses on the city's established competition practices and the regulatory work they handle.
Kirkland hires four Cleary partners while Latham takes Schubert from Freshfields
Kirkland hired a four-partner antitrust team from Cleary Gottlieb across Brussels and London in May, per Kirkland & Ellis: Robbert Snelders, Thomas Graf, Henry Mostyn and Conor Opdebeeck-Wilson. Snelders is a Band 1 Chambers EU competition lawyer who spent more than three decades at Cleary. The hire followed Kirkland's December recruitment of Nafees Saeed and counsel Chris Thomas from Weil in London, per Nonbillable; Saeed worked on Microsoft's $69bn Activision deal.
Latham added Sascha Schubert from Freshfields in July. He focuses on EU merger clearance and digital regulation, per Latham & Watkins. Skadden then hired Freshfields antitrust partner Merit Olthoff in October, reuniting her with former Freshfields co-global managing partner Rafique Bachour, who joined in January, per Legal Business; Olthoff advised Apple on the Commission's Digital Markets Act investigation.
Vinson & Elkins and Paul Hastings open Brussels offices near the Commission
Vinson & Elkins launched its first continental European office in Brussels, hiring Hogan Lovells antitrust partner May Lyn Yuen to lead it from the European Quarter near the Commission, per Nonbillable. Paul Hastings relaunched an expanded Brussels platform under Salomé Cisnal de Ugarte, former head of King & Spalding's EU antitrust practice, as office chair, per Nonbillable; that followed its recruitment of Sally Evans from Kirkland in London the previous September, per PYMNTS.
The arrivals follow a longer wave. Reed Smith opened in Brussels in 2020, and Simpson Thacher, Kirkland and Curtis Mallet-Prevost followed in 2021, per Bloomberg Law; Paul Weiss has signalled a Brussels launch with an antitrust focus as its own first continental European base.
EU-UK cooperation agreement and Foreign Subsidies probes drive the work
The demand covers EU and UK merger control, cartel investigations, unilateral conduct, foreign subsidies and digital regulation, per Kirkland & Ellis. The EU and UK signed a Competition Cooperation Agreement on 25 February, establishing enforcement coordination, notification obligations and information sharing with the CMA. That increases the complexity of parallel reviews, per Legal 500. The UK's Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has made deal reviews more active, raising demand for combined EU/UK capability, per Nonbillable.
Digital Markets Act enforcement is a major driver. Olthoff advised Apple on its DMA investigation, and Schubert handles digital regulation for technology and telecoms clients, per Legal Business. Foreign Subsidies Regulation work is growing, with the Commission opening an in-depth ex officio investigation into a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer on 3 February, its second against Chinese manufacturers, per Legal 500; Yuen specialises in global merger control, cartels and foreign subsidies investigations, per PYMNTS.
The partners moving are leaving a small group of firms. Cleary Gottlieb, Freshfields and Hogan Lovells have each seen senior competition partners join Kirkland, Latham, Skadden and Vinson & Elkins during 2026, per PYMNTS; Freshfields alone saw Schubert leave for Latham in July and Olthoff for Skadden in October. The incoming firms are US-headquartered practices assembling EU and UK competition capability in one city, near the regulators whose reach over mergers and digital conduct has widened this year.
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