International law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP has announced the appointment of Paul Gilbert, Deputy Director of Competition Policy at the Office of Fair Trading, to its London office. Nicholas Levy, an antitrust partner in the London and Brussels offices, commented: “We are delighted Paul is joining us. He is a terrific lawyer with tremendous knowledge and experience of UK antitrust law, policy, and practice. His appointment adds senior UK agency experience to our leading European antitrust team.
“Our London competition practice is an important and growing part of our global network. With Maurits Dolmans’ move to London earlier this year to join Romano Subiotto QC and myself, we now have three antitrust partners practicing UK competition law in London.
“Maurits is one of the best-known competition law practitioners in Europe with extraordinary experience of a wide array of antitrust cases, in particular in the high tech sector. Maurits’ move to London and Paul’s decision to join us considerably strengthen and deepen our London group and will greatly assist in growing the practice.
“We have for many years had leading antitrust practices in Brussels, Paris, Italy, and Germany, and we are well on our way to having a leading practice in London.”
“I am tremendously excited to be joining Cleary Gottlieb,” says Paul Gilbert. “It has an outstanding antitrust practice and I am very much looking forward to the challenge of helping to grow the London group.”
Maurits Dolmans says: “Over the last 25 years, I have greatly enjoyed being part of a fantastic antitrust team in Brussels, working for great clients on fascinating projects. I will continue to be part of that EU team, especially in the high-tech area, and look forward to helping to develop the antitrust group in London. Paul’s joining us is an important step in strengthening our UK group and growing our London capability.”
Cleary Gottlieb has three partners who practice competition law in London (Maurits Dolmans, Romano Subiotto QC, one of only a few solicitor advocates to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, and Nicholas Levy), together with a dozen associates working on UK competition matters for a large number of clients.
Mr. Gilbert started his career at Slaughter and May before joining the Office of Fair Trading in 2009 as Deputy Director of Competition Policy, where he has played a leading role in developing UK antitrust policy. Among other things, he has represented the UK before the European Commission and European Competition Network, including on the Vertical Agreements Block Exemption and Guidelines review, the Insurance Block Exemption review, and the ECN cartel enforcement working group. He will join Cleary Gottlieb in January.