Jacques Bourgeois Becomes Legal Consultant to WilmerHale

• 3.28.2007

WilmerHale is pleased to announce that Jacques Bourgeois, a leading authority on European Competition, Trade and EU Administrative law, will serve as legal consultant to the firm and its clients in the Brussels office.

Mr. Bourgeois' experience complements and reinforces the expertise of WilmerHale's distinguished team of Antitrust and Trade lawyers in Brussels and will further strengthen the firm’s international practices, working closely with lawyers in the US, UK, Germany and China to support the firm’s multinational client base.

Prior to his entry into private practice in 1991, Mr. Bourgeois was a senior official in the European Commission. From 1987 to 1991, he was principal legal adviser of the Commission, where he was in charge of foreign trade policy and, later, antitrust policy. He has extensive experience within the Legal Service of the Commission and was responsible successively for questions pertaining to a broad range of areas including institutional issues, external relations, and agriculture and fisheries policy. From 1983 to 1987, Mr. Bourgeois was head of the Trade Policy Instruments Division in the Directorate General for External Relations and was responsible for the implementation of the EU's regulations on antidumping and subsidies, as well as for safeguard measures and protection against illicit commercial practices.

WilmerHale has a long history of attracting prominent government officials who bring unique insight into the regulatory process. Mr. Bourgeois joins a list of respected former public officials who have affiliated themselves with the firm including, in Brussels, Claus-Dieter Ehlermann (formerly Chairman of the Appellate Body of the WTO and Director-General of the Directorate-General for Competition) and, in Berlin, Matthias Wissmann (former Minister of Transport in Germany).

Antitrust and Competition Department Chair, William J. Kolasky, said: "We are delighted to have the benefit of Jacques' experience. He has had a distinguished career of both public service and private practice, and our clients will benefit enormously from his insight, judgment, and keen advocacy skills."

Mr. Bourgeois obtained his doctorate of law in 1959 from the University of Ghent. He studied economics at the University of Louvain in Belgium and participated in the MCL program of the University of Michigan Law School from 1959 to 1960. He is a professor of the College of Europe (Bruges) and was a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School in 1976. He was nominated to the Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Bonn during the 1992-1993 academic year.

Mr. Bourgeois speaks Dutch, French, English, German, Spanish and Italian.