Joost Haans joins DLA Piper as a competition partner in Brussels

Joost Haans joins DLA Piper as a competition partner in Brussels

He was previously working as a partner at Baker McKenzie since 2018

DLA Piper has announced the appointment of Joost Haans as a competition partner to its Brussels office.

Haans works in all areas of EU, Belgian and Dutch competition law, with a particular focus on merger control, investigations, distribution agreements, horizontal cooperation agreements, and abuse of dominance. He primarily focuses on clients in the financial services, healthcare, and consumer goods sectors. He has a loyal client base comprising major European corporates.

He will help the Brussels office to create a focal point for the provision of competition advice across Europe. It will support an already strong European platform, with a presence in major offices in Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands. and the UK, with further plans for expansion.

Haans' appointment, in line with the team's wider growth strategy, follows last year's lateral hires of Justus Herrlinger in Germany, Marc Lager in Austria, Gábor Fejes and Zoltán Marosi in Hungary and Matt Evans in London.

Paul Hopman, the International Head of Litigation and Regulatory at DLA Piper, commented, "Haans has extensive and broad experience of competition law, especially in the areas of merger control, cartels and abuse of dominance. He will be a fantastic addition to our international competition offering and will be of great value to our clients across Europe and globally. We look forward to him joining us."

Kristof De Vulder, the Country Managing Partner in Belgium, added, "Expanding our competition group in Brussels is one of DLA Piper's top priorities and Haans' arrival is a critical strategic part of that effort. This is just the start. We are building a global competition group that will be unrivalled and the Brussels office of DLA Piper plays a key role in that strategy."