McDermott Picks Up Deloitte Legal Partner in Brussels

U.S. law firm McDermott Will & Emery has snagged an antitrust partner from Deloitte Legal for its Brussels base.

Hendrik Viaene led Deloitte Legal’s Centre of Expertise in Competition and Regulatory Law and had been at Deloitte Legal – formerly Laga – for two years, according to his LinkedIn profile. Viaene spent the bulk of his career at Stibbe, where he practiced for 18 years prior, nine of them as a partner.

Viaene specializes in EU competition and regulatory law, including state aid, cartels, licensing agreements, merger control, abuse of dominance and distribution agreements, according to a press statement released by McDermott.

His profile will boost the Brussels office’s state aid and litigation capabilities as well as its general EU law capabilities, Viaene told Law.com International. “And then obviously, [it means] adding another partner in the bread-and-butter cartel, abuse of dominance, merger work.” Viaene is bringing one associate with him, Karolien van der Putten.

Managing partner Jacques Buhart told Law.com International that Viaene’s appointment was part of the firm’s global expansion strategy and that more new lawyers would be added in Brussels, Paris and Washington D.C. in the next two months. “It is part of the overall efforts of McDermott to invest in international antitrust,” he said. 

Viaene’s appointment goes some way toward filling the gap left by Wilko van Weert’s departure from the firm last November, who joined Norton Rose Fulbright after a decade at McDermott.

Viaene’s appointment brings McDermott’s Brussels office to seven lawyers.

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