KEN DALY, the managing partner of Sidley’s Brussels office, focuses his practice on EU competition and EU regulatory matters across a wide variety of industries and business sectors, including film, music, media, broadcasting, professional and financial services, pharmaceuticals, sports, consumer goods, automotive parts, and transport.
Ken has over 20 years’ experience in competition law, including advising on European Commission investigations in mergers, cartel and abuse of dominance cases, advisory work in relation to selling practices and market behavior, and all aspects of competition litigation. He is an experienced advocate and has advised clients in a variety of high-profile cases before the European Commission and national competition authorities and has represented clients in litigation before the EU Courts and national courts of EU Member States.
In addition to his case work, a significant part of Ken’s practice relates to advising companies on how to interpret and navigate the EU’s law-making processes and regulatory regimes, including how to participate in the development of EU policy.
Ken’s practice includes advising on EU legal issues related to media, entertainment and sports, and he regularly counsels clients in contentious and non-contentious matters involving the protection and exploitation of intellectual property, the sale of media rights, single supply arrangements, governance issues, disputes, EU free movement rules, and disciplinary and regulatory investigations, as well as in relation to drafting and litigating commercial agreements.
Ken served a four-year term as Secretary General to the International Court of Appeal of the world motorsports regulator, the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).
He has written extensively on EU law and policy topics, including distribution, competition law criminalization, cartel enforcement, and sports law. Ken is a regular speaker and contributor to conferences, including those organized by the American Bar Association, the Antitrust and Trade Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA), the IBA’s Global Forum for Competition Policy, and the IBA’s Eastern European Forum.
The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) awarded Ken the “Research and Policy Award” for his work on third-party litigation financing and class actions, as well as helping guide ILR’s efforts in the EU and the UK at its 17th Annual Legal Reform Summit.
Notable practitioner Ken Daly is best known for his handling of EU merger filings. “He always manages to put his advice in simple terms and to find pragmatic solutions, and the way he addresses the issues is clear and succinct,” report clients.
Strong leadership in advising clients has earned Ken acknowledgement in industry publications. He features prominently in the competition rankings of the leading bar publications, such as Chambers, Best Lawyers, and Who’s Who Legal. Most recently, he has been listed in the 2022 edition of Best Lawyers in Belgium for Competition /
Antitrust Law, European Union Law, and Regulatory Practice and has been recognized in the 2021 editions of Chambers Europe and Chambers Global, with sources describing him as “truly excellent.” He has also been listed in the 2020 edition of Chambers Europe where clients note “he ‘always manages to put his advice in simple terms and to find pragmatic solutions, and the way he addresses the issues is clear and succinct.’” In the previous edition of Chambers Europe 2019, clients described Ken as “extremely knowledgeable, thorough, responsive, reliable and client-focused.” Clients also underlined the fact that Ken “understands the business and is responsive” (Chambers Europe 2018), and said that he is “really top-notch — just phenomenal to work with” (Chambers Europe 2017). He is recommended in Who’s Who Legal 2020 and was described by clients in the 2016 edition in the following terms: “He is doing great work,” “I would hire him in a heartbeat.”