Regulatory and compliance advisory

Helping clients manage their regulatory environment is the mainstay of our business. We have exactly what you need: advisers who focus on the interface between law, politics and business.

Our Brussels-based practice works closely with legal teams across our network to give you unrivalled access to legal and sector-specific industry knowledge. Being able to develop a quick understanding of your business and markets means we can add value right from the start.

We cover a broad range of sectors, including financial services, technology, energy, environment, telecoms, tax, trade, transport and retail.

Legislation

Much of our work on EU level relates to shaping draft legislative measures.

We analyse the potential effect of draft legislation on our clients’ business activities anddefine threats, opportunities and strategic goals. We then devise and implement detailed campaigns, encompassing both legal and public affairs advice.

The firm’s legal acumen, combined with our teams’ extensive experience with both the EU and national legislative procedures and in-depth understanding of how their respective institutions operate, enable us to influence the legislative process to ensure that our clients’ interests are represented.

Policy and politics

The Brussels practice advises clients on strategic policy issues arising from legislative developments and also in the framework of competition and trade proceedings, with a focus on sensitive legal transactions and in-depth state aid investigations.

We assess the political environment surrounding proceedings and the attitudes of key decision makers to help our clients define their position and approach. We also develop and implement detailed strategies to inform decision makers about key legal transactions to secure  positive outcomes for our clients.

We regularly develop and implement EU outreach programmes and profile-raising strategies for clients seeking to build or improve relationships with officials in the EU institutions.

Our deep understanding of the EU political and regulatory landscape and our network of contacts allows us to build relationships and raise clients’ profiles with the EU institutions and other key stakeholders.

Public affairs

Mapping the risks and opportunities for your business

The effective identification and management of regulatory risk and opportunities are important elements in maximising business potential.

A majority of regulation applicable to businesses is drafted at EU level. To understand what is happening now and what will happen to the regulatory environment in the future, businesses need insight from both public and informal sources.

We couple systematic tracking of regulatory developments with direct intelligence from decision makers. We also anticipate any changes relevant to a specific sector or industry, thereby mitigating the potential impact on how business is conducted.

Raising your profile with legislators

Initial profiling is essential to guarantee a client's interests are recognised when influencing the regulatory environment.

This would, for example, include designing a convincing narrative that can be easily understood by decision makers and other stakeholders, setting out the clients' aims and the implications of the EU legislative agenda on their business.

Influencing the substance of upcoming rules

The legislative process, from a proposal’s inception to its adoption, is difficult to navigate and our team is uniquely placed to guide clients through it. Typically, the scope of actors involved is not limited to the European institutions – and a thorough understanding of the role of stakeholder groups is also necessary, whether they be from industry or civil society, as they play a vital role in the process.

We couple real-time monitoring and intelligence with the identification of opportunities for influencing EU decision making. We also guide clients to key officials, ensuring they meet the right people at the right time, in the right way, and with the right message.

Due diligence

We provide a forward-looking and tailored analysis of the regulatory environment affecting the value of assets in the context of a business transaction.

We can also assist clients in making highly informed choices by understanding the political and regulatory decisions that are likely to affect a client in the context of a business decision.

With more and more regulation being produced at the EU level, our team is ideally positioned to advise on upcoming changes to the regulatory environment, across many sectors, in an integrated way with a traditional due diligence offering.

State aid

State aid cases typically involve significant business interests in a particular industry that are dependent on an often complex nexus of decision-making reaching even beyond DG Competition.

We can assist clients in understanding the broader policy context of a case, combining the legal argumentation with a political narrative and messaging for deployment with stakeholders and policy makers that have an impact on DG Competition’s decision making.

Mergers

We supplement the legal work with DG Competition and other merger control authorities by providing tailored public affairs advice and communications management.

We complete the picture and communicate all aspects of a clients’ merger to the right people.

Our team offers a tailored product during and around an EU and/or international merger control filing procedure. EU merger procedures are becoming increasingly complex and in cases of particular political, regional or sectoral interest, the right outreach strategy alongside the review process is key to achieving clearance.

Public Affairs in Germany

In addition to our broad range of services offered by our EU team, our Berlin-based Public Affairs team monitors relevant legislative proceedings in Germany for all practice groups of the firm and analyses political initiatives.