Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance to expand Brussels practice with internal move

Antitrust partner, Richard Blewett to return to Brussels after six years in Asia

Leading international law firm, Clifford Chance, has today announced that the head of its Greater China practice, Richard Blewett, will be relocating from Hong Kong to Brussels over the summer. In Brussels, Richard will combine his extensive experience of the increasingly important Asian antitrust regimes with his EU antitrust expertise and insight into the evolving competition landscape in Europe and beyond.

During his time in Beijing and Hong Kong Richard has acted for major multinationals, such as Coca-Cola on its recent acquisition of Costa Coffee, Pfizer on its $12.7 billion consumer healthcare joint venture with GSK and Carrefour on the disposal of an 80% interest in its China business to Suning. He has also represented private equity clients, such as Permira on its acquisition of Cisco's SPVSS business and Global Infrastructure Partners on its $5 billion acquisition of Equis Energy.

With this move, Richard joins a team of 19 partners practising EU competition law within the firm's global antitrust network, of which seven are operating on a full or part-time basis from our Brussels location.

Following Richard's relocation, Beijing partner Bai Yong will spearhead the firm's Greater China practice, along with Hong Kong based Helen Wang. Bai Yong will also work closely with leading Australian antitrust partner, Dave Poddar, in Sydney and Masafumi Shikakura in Tokyo, as part of the seamless Clifford Chance antitrust network in APAC.

Richard Blewett, said: "After six fantastic years of working in Asia, my move back to Brussels creates some very exciting opportunities for me to combine my Asian, EU and UK experience to help our international clients in understanding the different and complex regulatory regimes to which they are subject and assisting them in navigating the opportunities and challenges that they present. The Brussels team is well-known for its established cross-border expertise and broad portfolio of work: a hallmark also of our wider global antitrust practice."

Thomas Vinje, Partner and Co-Chair of the Global Antitrust Group, added: "We have had an award-winning practice in Europe for many years, with a well-recognised track record in advising on some of the most important market-shaping antitrust matters. In today's shifting economic and geopolitical landscape, being able to provide clients with up-to-the-minute insight and advice across all the key antitrust hubs across Europe, the US and Asia Pacific is essential. Richard's deep client relationships and strong international and cross-sectoral experience is a great demonstration of that. We are delighted to welcome him back to our Brussels team."

Clifford Chance has a global, market-leading antitrust practice and supports clients on their most complex and important matters across key hubs of Europe, Asia Pacific and the US. The team works together to solve multinational antitrust issues, including those arising in merger control, dominance and cartel proceedings, market investigations and sector inquiries, and state aid and public procurement matters.