US: Sheppard adds competition partner in SF

Antitrust partner Michael Cohen joined Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in San Francisco on Monday. He leaves Paul Hastings, where he co-founded the firm’s antitrust and international competition practice.

Cohen’s hire is part of Sheppard Mullin’s concerted play for antitrust work. The Los Angeles-based firm, which added two partners last month in Brussels, is beefing up its antitrust practice at a time when U.S. technology companies are facing increasing scrutiny from European competition regulators.

Cohen said the firm’s Brussels office, opened in 2011, was “critical” to his decision. “This is a really big move, and isn’t putting your toe in the water. It’s a substantial presence in the antitrust area,” he said of the Brussels operation. The firm’s European antitrust move will be well timed to handle crises for tech company clients, many of which are facing new scrutiny from European antitrust authorities and tax investigations that have come with the abolition of the favored “Double Irish” tax loophole.

Full content: The Recorder

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