Ex-EU Competition Regulator Joins Clifford Chance

One of the EU’s most senior competition officials of recent years is joining Clifford Chance as an adviser, the latest in a series of moves that have seen top former regulators jumping to elite law firms. 

Cecilio Madero, who in a more than three-decade long career at the EU rose to be deputy head of the European Commission’s antitrust division, and briefly its acting head, will join the firm in Brussels in September. 

He worked on some of the EU’s largest antitrust cases of recent decades, including a probe into Microsoft in the 1990s and London Stock Exchange Group’s US$27 billion acquisition of data and trading business Refinitiv. 

His role will be part-time at Clifford Chance, where he will offer advice on different areas of competition law, including merger control, litigation, cartels, and State aid. “Cecilio has been at the heart of many of the world’s most significant and high profile antitrust matters over the past two decades, helping the European Commission lead the globe in antitrust policy and enforcement,” said Thomas Vinje, co-chair of Clifford Chance’s global antitrust practice, in a statement seen by the Financial Times.

Madero stirred controversy in June 2020 when he used a letter published in the Spanish media to call for the resignation of the country’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez for mismanaging the economy. Officials in Brussels investigated the episode and said Madero’s views did not represent those of the EU. Madero retired from the EU in September.