Gerwin is widely respected as a highly skilled European competition lawyer, advising on complex competition issues, including on merger control, anti-cartel enforcement, monopolisation cases and other conduct investigations.
He is regarded as one of the leading competition lawyers of his generation. He has been ranked consistently amongst the top ten competition lawyers in the world since many years, and this based on input from peers, corporates and regulators. Chambers referred to him recently as “widely praised as one of the best lawyers out there” and noted that “clients appreciate his reputation, saying: ‘You can trust he'll be able to speak with everyone at the [European Commission] - his added value is the great respect everyone has for him’.” Other directories have referred to him as “exceptionally talented and widely respected”, “a quick and sharp individual – he sees the issues in any situation and knows how to calibrate the argument”, “an absolute star in Brussels” and “one of the deans of European competition law.”
Gerwin represents clients from around the world in dealings with competition authorities as well as in court litigation. He has in-depth knowledge of regulatory procedures and best practices as well as longstanding relationships with key regulators, in particular at the European Commission. He has also an active advisory practice covering a range of areas of interest to corporates.
Gerwin’s experience spans many industry sectors, with recent experience in telecoms and information technology, healthcare, consumer goods, retail and energy. He has advised on several of the major merger investigations of the last twenty years, including in around twenty so-called Phase II investigations conducted by the European Commission, leading WWL to state recently that “he is one of the best lawyers in town for phase two merger control cases”. In addition, he has represented clients in several conduct investigations. For example, he played a role, acting for the defendant or a complainant, in the main European monopolisation cases of the last twenty years, Microsoft, Intel and Google.
Gerwin led the firm’s global antitrust practice between 2003 and 2011.
Work highlights
Gerwin has led on many high-profile transactions and conduct investigations. Recent highlights include advising:
SABMiller on its combination with ABInBev, the largest transaction in the beer sector and one of the largest M&A transactions ever
Intel on a number of deals, including the acquisitions of Altera and McAfee, and the recent sale of its memory business to SK hynix
Vodafone on a number of acquisitions and joint ventures including its industry transforming acquisition of Mannesmann and its recent tower infrastructure deal with TIM in Italy
Johnson & Johnson on many acquisitions including its acquisition of Pfizer’s consumer healthcare business and its acquisition of the medical devices company Synthes
Microsoft on its acquisition of Yahoo!’s search business
Mobil on its merger with Exxon to form ExxonMobil
A healthcare company in one of the EC’s recent reverse payment investigations
A South Korean consumer electronics company in the Cathode Ray Tubes and Optical Disk Drive investigations
A Japanese automotive parts company as an immunity applicant in a number of investigations by the European Commission
An European brand owner in an investigation into a retail price channel coordination
An interested third party in the recent Broadcom investigation by the European Commission
Clients in European-wide sector investigations into roaming charges, healthcare, energy pricing, e-commerce, airline alliances
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