Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, INDUSTRY NEWS: McGuire Woods Expands Brussels International Trade and Competition Group, (Jun 14, 2013)

McGuire Woods LLP has added partner Vassilis Akritidis, partner Yves Melin, senior counsel Alessandro Nucara, and associate Yongqing Bao to its international trade, competition, and regulatory law practice in Brussels, Belgium, the law firm has announced.

The attorneys joined the firm from Squire Sanders LLP, where they focused on representing companies in all aspects of international trade and World Trade Organization practice.

“This is a great day for our international practice” said Hubert André-Dumont, managing partner of the firm’s Brussels office. “This team has a number of combined decades of experience of providing comprehensive solutions in international trade and competition matters, and we are looking forward to putting that experience to use for our clients within our Brussels and London offices and within our U.S. based offices as well.”

“As more companies are now conducting business on a global basis, the complexities involved in international trade have only become more challenging for our clients,” said Howard Feller, chair of the firm’s antitrust practice. “The arrival of this team comes at a perfect time and we are looking forward to them helpHoward Fellering us expand our international trade and competition platform.”

Akritidis has extensive experience in international trade and WTO law, EU competition law including state aid, EU internal market issues, and litigation before national courts, the European Union courts, and the European Court of Human Rights. He has represented and advised clients on anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard investigations, customs matters, export controls, WTO law and practice.

Akritidis has received degrees from the Institute for European Studies in 1991 and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1998. He is currently the president of the Belgian-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce.

Melin focuses his practice on EU trade regulations, with an emphasis on trade remedies (anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures and safeguards), customs laws and procedures, export controls; and WTO dispute settlement. He advises clients on EU, Russian, and WTO international trade laws and practices, and on trade remedies investigations.

Melin received a Master in Law degree from the University of Liège in 1999, and an LLM in International Trade Law from the University of Essex in 2000.

Nucara has extensive experience in the field of state aid, and has advised clients on EU and national competition law, particularly horizontal and vertical agreements, information exchange, competition compliance, merger control, abuse of dominance, IP, and competition law. He served as a visiting professor of Law and Economics (Antitrust and State Aid) at the University of Catanzaro in Italy from 2007 to 2009, and regularly lectures at Italian and European universities on a variety of EU law subjects.

Nucara received a law degree from the University of Rome La Sapienza in 1998, and a Master in European Legal Studies from the College of Europe in 2000.

Bao has considerable experience in EU law, WTO law, and Chinese law. He advises clients on trade and investment issues and trade agreement negotiation strategies. He has defended clients in trade defense investigations and in trade remedy (anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguards) proceedings, and has worked in the field of EU customs rules and procedures regarding product classification and origin, duty suspension, tariff quotas, and export controls.

Bao received a BA from Fudan University in 2001, an LLM from Paul Cézanne University in 2002, and an MA from Paul Cézanne University in 2003.

McGuire Woods LLP is a global law firm with more than 900 attorneys in 19 offices worldwide.

News: IndustryNewsTrends