K&L Gates appoints Nikolaos Peristerakis from Linklaters

K&L Gates appoints Nikolaos Peristerakis from Linklaters

Linklaters has lost the third Brussels-based lawyer, Nikolaos Peristerakis to a US firm in 2022

In order to boost K&L Gates' competition and trade regulation platform in Brussels, the firm has hired a competitor from Linklaters.

As a partner at K&L Gates, Nikolaos Peristerakis joins the 80-member antitrust, competition and trade regulation practice after seven years at Linklaters. Previously, he worked for Skadden for 15 years after studying at Weil Gotshal and Manges in 1997.

K&L Gates' Brussels antitrust team will benefit from Peristerakis' more than two decades of experience as it continually responds to the high levels of transfer of business and regulatory scrutiny across the globe.

As managing partner for the Middle East and Europe at K&L Gates, Tony Griffiths said: "We recognized the need to bring in senior behavioural competition experts to strengthen our regulatory and competition capability." Nick is the perfect candidate for that strategic requirement."

In the past year, Peristerakis has become the third lawyer to switch to a US firm from Linklaters' Brussels office. Jonas Koponen, director of the antitrust and foreign investment group at Cooley, left the firm in March two months ago.

In March, Freshy Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton found a lateral candidate for the firm in Brussels, Isabel Rooms, who joined the firm 15 years after his departure.

Peristerakis at Linklaters advised clients on merger control and antitrust investigation matters before the European Commission. Aside from internal investigations and leniency applications, he specializes in the applications for compliance with cartels and abuses of dominance.

Yi Ying followed Jens Steger, who left White & Case and Simmons & Simmons in Washington DC and Frankfurt, both of whom have joined K&L Gates within the past year.

The Norton Rose Fulbright regulatory group in Brussels has been strengthened by the hiring of competitor Miranda Cole from Covington & Burling in April. As part of its recent expansion in the wake of Brexit, Shoosmiths hired EY Law's EU competition leader Kiran Desai to open an office in Brussels. The firm was expected to take on more competition work in Brussels.