Morrison Foerster (MoFo) has hired a second competition specialist from Cooley in Brussels hard on the heels of last month’s appointment of Alexander Israel to lead its European competition practice.

Jan Lang, formerly a senior associate at Cooley, is joining MoFo as a partner, reuniting him with Israel, who he also worked with at German independent Noerr before Israel founded Cooley’s Brussels office in 2019.

The dual-qualified German and Brussels lawyer focuses on merger control, international cartel probes, and dominance abuse cases. 

He advises global companies on competition law, from compliance measures to representing them before the European Commission, the German Federal Cartel Office, and the German and European courts.

“It is fantastic to see another Brussels-based arrival in our global competition and antitrust practice this year,” said the group’s co-chair Alexander Okuliar.
“The strength and depth of our competition capabilities in Brussels are a critical component of our global antitrust practice.”

For his part, Lang noted the pace of increased enforcement activity by international regulators, particularly against technology companies, which his new firm specialises in advising on merger control mandates and contentious competition law.

At MoFo Lang will work alongside Israel and senior counsel Rony Gerrits. 
In January, the firm boosted its competition partner ranks when it promoted two antitrust specialists to the partnership: Washington DC-based Kerry Jones and Tokyo-based Yoshiya Usami.

As well as chairing MoFo’s EU competition practice, Israel is also serving as co-office managing partner of the Brussels office, alongside Alex van der Wolk, whose management responsibilities grew in January when he was charged with also leading the firm’s new Amsterdam arm.

For its part, Cooley promoted Brussels-based counsel Stella Sarma, who joined the firm in 2019 from Latham & Watkins, to the partnership last month.