Cleary is consistently named as a clear leader in EU competition, with a handful of its partners regularly mentioned by the market, above all Antoine Winckler. "Winckler is an outstanding EU competition lawyer, spot on," says a peer....
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Cleary is consistently named as a clear leader in EU competition, with a handful of its partners regularly mentioned by the market, above all Antoine Winckler. "Winckler is an outstanding EU competition lawyer, spot on," says a peer.
Nick Levy and Robbert Snelders also get regular nods of approval. "Snelders certainly has a very good reputation," says a peer, while Levy comes top for merger work. Maurits Dolmans, who recently moved to London, Romano Subiotto and Francisco Enrique González-Díaz also have strong reputations.
"It is a very, very good firm, they have some excellent individuals - it is a clear market leader; a very strong practice overall," says a peer. But for quality you have to pay a premium: "I would say that Cleary is the best in Europe in this practice area but they are extremely expensive, so we use them on a need to basis... it can be the difference between using a bus and a sports car," says one client.
In recent matters, the firm advised Abbott on its €4.5 billion acquisition of Solvay's pharmaceuticals business, BNP Paribas on the merger control and state aid aspects of its 74.9% acquisition of the failed bank Fortis and ExxonMobil on its $41 billion acquisition of XTO Energy. At the time of writing, one topical competition mandate was González-Díaz's role advising News Corp on its acquisition bid for BskyB. Elsewhere the firm was advising Nyse Euronext on its merger with Deutsche Börse.
Cleary also got a string of mandates in cartel investigations in the pharmaceutical, LCD panels, refrigerator, power cable and polyurethane foam markets. In one, Mario Sirgusa helped Dow Chemical contest a €65 million fine by the Commission while Winckler defended Lafarge against a €250 million fine.
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