Weil has recruited a pair of antitrust lawyers in Munich from Latham & Watkins and White & Case, as it continues to build out its German bench.
Veteran partner Ingo Brinker has joined from White & Case, while Niklas Brueggemann has joined as a partner from Latham & Watkins, where he was counsel.
The duo’s arrival swells Weil’s German partner bench to 13 and follows a raid on Latham last October for a six-strong team as part of a strategy to build a market-leading private equity practice in Germany that also saw partner Kamyar Abrar rejoin in February from Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Also in February, Weil added partner Benjamin Rapp from Gibson Dunn as head of its German tax practice, while earlier this month, it announced Latham counsel Florian Dehmel was set to join as its first employment partner in Germany.
“We’re seeing significant momentum in Germany, and the continued growth of our practice reflects both strong client demand and the success of our strategy in this market,” said Weil’s executive partner, Barry Wolf.
Britta Grauke, co-managing partner of Weil’s German offices, added Brinker and Brueggemann “bring heavyweight credentials in merger control and European antitrust litigation, at a time when Germany remains one of the most active jurisdictions in Europe for cartel damages claims and follow-on actions”.
Brinker is a leading antitrust practitioner in the German market and focuses on merger control proceedings, cartel and criminal investigations, follow-on damages actions and litigation, as well as dominance and unilateral conduct matters.
He joined White & Case in 2024 after 30 years at top German independent Gleiss Lutz and has led numerous cases before the German Federal Cartel Office, the European Commission and other international competition authorities, including in the UK, US, France, Portugal and Spain. He has represented clients before the European General Court, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the German antitrust courts.
A White & Case spokesperson commented: "We can confirm that Ingo Brinker is leaving White & Case. We wish him well in the future."
Meanwhile, Brueggemann counsels clients on EU and German antitrust law and tech regulation, merger control, foreign direct investment screening and civil antitrust litigation, and his practice centres on transactional and multi-stakeholder aspects of competition enforcement. He has joined Weil after his second stint at Latham, in between which he worked on policy and enforcement matters at the European Commission.
The duo’s hire also continues the buildout of Weil’s European antitrust bench under the leadership of London-based partner Jenine Hulsmann, who joined in 2021 from Clifford Chance with a brief to grow the practice in order to complement its top-tier US capability.
According to Weil, the practice has expanded eightfold since her arrival from Clifford Chance in 2021 and now boasts around 40 lawyers across London, Brussels, Munich and Paris, where partner Ning-Ly Seng joined as head of the antitrust practice last June with a five-lawyer team from French firm Peltier Juvigny Marpeau & Associés.
Hulsmann, who in 2024 co-led the Weil team that secured approval for Microsoft’s $68.7bn acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, noted that demand for integrated antitrust advice was among the most pressing needs for its clients in the AI, tech, industrials and defence sectors.
“Our clients rely on us to manage the ever-changing regulatory environment and provide them with strategic antitrust advice and insights across multiple regimes,” she said. “With their close connections to the European Commission and German agencies, Ingo and Niklas provide further depth to our global antitrust practice.”
The firm’s European antitrust bench has also seen exits recently, however, with London partner Nafees Saeed and counsel Chris Thomas defecting to Kirkland & Ellis at the end of last year.
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