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Experience and career history

Frances' practice focuses upon European competition law. Having worked at the Dutch Competition Authority as well as the European Commission before joining Clifford Chance she has first-hand knowledge of how the competition process works and this experience is transferred to her clients. Being the counsel-economist of the Brussels Office means that she also has an enhanced understanding of the economics at the heart of competition law. She has vast experience advising clients on merger clearance procedures, cartel investigations, abuse of dominance investigations as well as intellectual property issues and licensing and distribution agreements. Additionally she has been involved in a wide range of industry sectors from co-ordinating the merger between two large pharmaceutical companies to representing an energy company before the European Commission and Court of First Instance and advising a logistics operator in an EC cartel investigation.

A lecturer at the Free University of Amsterdam, Frances is au fait with the developments of the global anti-trust competition scene being a contributor to one of the leading global textbooks on competition law 'Faull and Nikpay EC Law of Competition'. Moreover she has had work published in the 'European Competition Law Review' and the 'European Competition Journal'.

Free University of Amsterdam, Masters Degree in Economics 1998
Free University of Amsterdam, Masters Degree in Law 2001
Worked at the Dutch Competition Authority
Worked at the European Commission
Joined Clifford Chance 2001
Became Counsel 2006

Speaks Dutch and English.