François-Charles Laprévote is a partner with Cleary Gottlieb, based in the firm’s Brussels office. Mr. Laprévote’s practice focuses on European competition and international trade law, including merger control, State aid, cartel investigations, market dominance and trade defense instruments. Mr. Laprévote has advised financial institutions in several major State aid cases related to the current economic and financial crisis, including Dexia in all aspects of its restructuring and orderly resolution and BNP Paribas in its acquisition of Fortis Bank. Mr. Laprévote has also advised and represented corporate clients and financial institutions before the European Commission or national authorities in numerous antitrust or merger control cases, including an investigation by the European Commission in the LCD sector; NYSE Euronext in its contemplated merger with Deutsche Börse and Google in the French Competition Authority’s investigation of online advertising. Mr. Laprévote also represented clients before European Courts in several litigation cases, including Veolia in connection with its acquisition of SNCM and the European Central Bank in connection with its localization policy regarding CCPs. Mr. Laprévote has represented clients before the European Commission in a number of trade defense investigations, including in the monosodium glutamate, aluminium foil and WWAN modems sectors. He is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)’s Committee on Trade and Investment. Mr. Laprévote joined the firm in 2007 and became a partner in 2013. From 2005 to 2007, he served as the economic adviser of the French Minister for European Affairs. From 2002 to 2005, he was a detached national expert in the Directorate General for External Trade of the European Commission, where he was in charge of negotiations on services and investment. From 1998 to 2002, he served at the Inspection Générale des Finances, the internal auditing and consulting body of the French Ministry for Finance. Mr. Laprévote graduated from the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA) in 1998 and from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Paris) in 1993. Mr. Laprévote received a maîtrise in European and International Law from the University of Paris (Assas) in 1994. Mr. Laprévote is a member of the Bars of Paris and Brussels. Mr. Laprévote’s native language is French. He is fluent in English, proficient in German and has a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish and Dutch.