Geradin Partners has hired competition law specialist Ilkka Aalto-Setälä as a partner-elect from local rival Borenius, where he was head of competition law.
The arrival of Aalto-Setälä marks a significant expansion of the office’s capabilities following its launch with the hire of two partners in October last year.
Aalto-Setälä spent 20 years at Borenius, which he joined after a short spell at White & Case. He has extensive experience in complex competition issues, including merger control, abuse of dominance, cartel investigations and state aid proceedings before both national and EU authorities.
Previous experience includes spending three years at Finland’s competition regulator and also working at the European Commission, where he contributed to a major merger control investigation.
Founding partner Damien Geradin said his hire “marks a significant step in our broader strategy to strengthen [our] regional offices across Europe with leading experts in their respective fields”.
He added: “Ilkka’s reputation, experience and judgement will greatly contribute to our mission of delivering top-tier competition and regulatory advice to clients throughout the continent.”
Aalto-Setälä, who praised his new firm’s international platform and leading position in European competition law, has litigated before the national courts, the European Commission and the European Court of Justice on a regular basis, representing clients in almost 100 cases before the Finnish Market Court alone.
He is the incumbent chairman of the Finnish Bar Association’s Competition Law Expert Group and a co-founder of the Finnish Competition Law Association.
In the early part of his career, he spent six years as an associate at Roschier, working alongside Mikko Alkio, who joined Geradin Partners from Roschier last year to set up the office as lead partner alongside former Roschier partner Christian Wik and a team of associates.
In a LinkedIn post, Alkio reflected on the fact that the trio had been reunited. “Some 25 years ago, as a young competition lawyer, I sat just a few doors down from Ilkka Aalto-Setälä, working in the same corridor under Christian’s leadership,” he wrote. “Competition law in Finland looked very different back then. Finland had only recently joined the EU, and merger control was taking shape.”
He added: “A lot has happened in those 25 years. The field has evolved enormously and so have we. Today, technology is transforming how we work, think and deliver legal services.”
He concluded that “it feels both nostalgic and exciting to be working with Ilkka again after all this time. And yes, it also feels pretty great to have one of [our] toughest competitors now on our side”.
Geradin Partners also has international offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Cologne.
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