Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, the premier provider of legal services to technology, life sciences, and growth enterprises worldwide, announced today that Beau Buffier has joined the firm as a partner in the New York office. He will be a member of the antitrust practice. Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Buffier served as the Antitrust Bureau Chief of the New York State Office of the Attorney General (NYOAG) from October 2016 to March 2020, where he led several groundbreaking antitrust enforcement initiatives, making the NYOAG the leading state antitrust enforcement unit in the country.
“Beau is nationally recognized as an antitrust attorney who, like many of our antitrust partners, has an impressive combination of public agency and private law firm experience,” said Doug Clark, managing partner at Wilson Sonsini. “He also can leverage his experience with U.S. antitrust and EU competition issues to provide expert advice to clients with sophisticated needs on different fronts. Beau is an excellent addition to our renowned and ever-expanding antitrust team, and we are very pleased to welcome him to the firm.”
Wilson Sonsini’s antitrust practice has steadily grown in recent years, with the firm hiring a series of experienced antitrust partners since 2018. On November 5, the firm announced that Justina “Tina” Sessions had joined the practice in San Francisco. In late 2019, the firm added Kenneth O’Rourke to the antitrust team in Washington, D.C., following the 2018 hires of Gorka Navea in Brussels and Joshua Soven in Washington, D.C.
Previously, he worked in the New York office of Shearman & Sterling, where he became a partner in 2006, at age 30, after joining the firm in 2001. From 2011 to 2016, Buffier co-led Shearman’s global antitrust practice, where he oversaw the expansion of its European competition law practice and raised the firm’s antitrust profile in Asia. He also helped lead Shearman’s diversity and pro bono efforts, with a focus on matters assisting LGBTQ clients. Earlier in his career, Buffier worked as a trainee, and then as an associate, in the Sydney office of Mallesons Stephen Jacques (now King & Wood Mallesons) from 1997 to 1999.
“I am thrilled to join Wilson Sonsini’s antitrust practice, with its stellar track record of success and strong growth trajectory,” said Buffier. “In addition to continuing my U.S. antitrust practice, I am excited to lead the team’s UK expansion as the CMA continues to increase enforcement post-Brexit. With my UK qualifications and European Commission experience, I look forward to helping our clients manage their most complex antitrust matters before the U.S., UK, and European agencies.”
Buffier received his LL.M. in antitrust and trade regulation from New York University School of Law in 2000. He earned an LL.B. in 1998 and a B.A. degree in economics in 1996, both from the University of Sydney in Australia. He is admitted to practice in New York, England, and Wales. Buffier speaks and publishes on significant antitrust matters, and he is regularly sought out to provide commentary for the news media.
Based in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and Brussels, the highly regarded antitrust practice at Wilson Sonsini advises clients with respect to mergers and acquisitions, criminal and civil investigations by government agencies, antitrust litigation, and issues involving intellectual property, consumer protection, and privacy. The firm’s European competition practice offers clients at every stage of their life cycle the full range of competition law services both at the EU level and in the major Member States. The internationally recognized practice has been involved in several of the most important antitrust matters of the past decade and has obtained favorable antitrust outcomes for clients as diverse as Mylan, Google, Twitter, Live Nation, Netflix, Trulia, Seagate, Nuance, Coca-Cola, Glencore, The McClatchy Company, Brocade, Pixar, Micron, and Autodesk.
Source: www.wsgr.com
