Laura Verbeken

LAURA VERBEKEN advises companies, governments, and trade associations on a wide range of EU and international trade law issues.

Her recent experience includes:

• Assisting clients before the European Commission in several trade defense investigations, including anti-dumping and anti-subsidy matters.

• Conducting multijurisdictional investment screening reviews and regulatory filings in the context of complex cross-border transactions.

• Advising clients on trade controls and economic sanctions, including Russia-related sanctions.

• Providing guidance on compliance with emerging EU ESG regulations, with a particular focus on emerging supply chain due diligence legislation such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and the Forced Labour Regulation.

Prior to joining the office in Brussels, Laura was a trainee in Sidley’s office in Geneva, where she advised several governments on the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the WTO dispute settlement process.

Laura’s representative experience includes advising on the matters:

Litigation:

• An electric vehicle manufacturer before the EU General Court in anti-subsidy proceedings initiated by the European Commission.
• A steel producer before the EU General Court in anti-dumping proceedings initiated by the European Commission.
• Antigua and Barbuda before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in an advisory proceeding concerning climate change and its impacts.
• A WTO member in a dispute before a WTO panel.

Trade defense:

• An exporting producer in China’s anti-dumping and industrial competitiveness investigations concerning CT (x-ray) tubes.
• An exporting producer in China’s anti-dumping investigation concerning specialty materials.
• An exporting producer in the EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations concerning stainless steel.
• One of the three sampled exporting producers in the biggest ever EU anti-subsidy investigation concerning battery electric vehicles.

Investment screening:

• The Brink’s Company on the FDI and FSR aspects of its US$6.6 Billion Acquisition of NCR Atleos.
• GE HealthCare on the FDI and FSR aspects of its US$2.3 Billion Acquisition of Intelerad.
• Darling Ingredients in the foreign direct investment screening aspects of its potential joint venture with Tessenderlo Group.
• LuminArx Capital Management (“LuminArx”) in its equity financing with AMD of Vultr (“Vultr”), the world’s largest privately held cloud infrastructure company, now valued at US$3.5 billion.
• Clearlake Capital on the FDI aspects of its US$7.7 billion acquisition of Dun & Bradstreet.
• Gallagher on the FDI aspects of its US$13.45 billion acquisition of AssuredPartners.
• Clearlake Capital and Francisco Partners on the FDI aspects of their US$2.1 billion acquisition of Software Integrity Group.