People

David Cardwell Baker Botts Brussels2
David Cardwell
Partner | Chair - Antitrust Consumer Products

Overview

David Cardwell is the Partner-in-Charge of Baker Botts' Brussels office and a member of the firm's Antitrust and Competition Practice. His practice covers the full gamut of EU and UK competition law matters, and regularly sees him guiding clients on some of the most complex cross-border merger control, FDI and FSR transactional matters in the market. Recent years have seen David bring clients through complicated regulatory reviews to some extraordinary outcomes: an unconditional Phase II merger clearance from the European Commission, following a previous merger block by the Commission of the same proposed combination; a "fix-it-first" Phase I remedy approval secured in record time; successful obtainment of multiple EUMR derogations to allow a clients' urgent acquisition of strategically critical European assets.

Engagement with the European Commission and UK CMA goes alongside David's coordination of work with the likes of SAMR (China), Competition Bureau (Canada), ACCC (Australia), CADE (Brazil), COFECE (Mexico), Competition Commission (South Africa) and many others.

Hand-in-hand with his merger control practice, David leads on foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign subsidies (FSR) engagement for clients, continually securing rapid, clean, pragmatic outcomes for clients determined to execute complex cross-border transactions with as much efficiency as possible.

While David is also co-chair of the firm's Antitrust Consumer Product working group, the experience that David has gained has been from a range of industry areas: media and telecoms, sports and entertainment, energy and oilfield services, heavy industrial, chemicals, etc. His time working on secondment as senior antitrust counsel for a global oil and gas major has given him first-hand insight into the priorities and needs of business leads and in-house legal teams alike.

David covers all nature of behavioural and other antitrust matters, having represented clients on major European Commission cartel investigations and regularly advising clients on abuse of dominance matters as well as regular day-to-day antitrust counseling.

Admissions & Affiliations

  • Licensed in Brussels
  • Law Society of Scotland
  • American Chamber of Commerce EU, Competition Policy Committee

Education

  • Diploma in Legal Practice, University of Edinburgh 2006
  • LL.B., University of Edinburgh 2005
    with honors

Experience

  • McDermott International in securing merger control clearances and related antitrust matters in respect of its $6 billion combination with CB&I
  • Liberty Media Corporation in its acquisition of Formula One, the iconic global motorsports business, securing merger clearances from competition authorities in the EU and the rest of the world
  • Halliburton on numerous matters, including its proposed acquisition of Baker Hughes
  • Four-month secondment acting as senior antitrust counsel with a global oil and gas major in London and The Hague, focused on upstream antitrust but also advising on downstream, midstream and "new energy" matters
  • Global independent power producer in securing EU merger approval of its Fluence joint venture with Siemens AG
  • EN+ Group in Glencore's proposed RUSAL-EN+ share swap
  • Liberty Interactive and Liberty Media in various merger control-related matters
  • Dresser-Rand in EU and other merger control approvals of its $7.8 billion merger with Siemens
  • American Industrial Partners in merger control approvals for numerous transactions
  • SI Group, Inc. in securing antitrust approval for the acquisition from Albemarle of its antioxidants, ibuprofen and related businesses
  • Colfax Corporation in merger filings in respect of its US$1 billion acquisition of Victor Technologies Holdings, Inc., a global manufacturer of cutting, gas control and specialty welding solutions
  • Caterpillar, Inc. on various transactions, including Caterpillar's acquisition of Johan Walter Berg AB, including the core brand Berg Propulsion, which involved antitrust approval in several EU Member States
  • Cameron International Corp. / Schlumberger joint venture. Secured Phase I approval from the European Commission and other antitrust agencies for the establishment of OneSubsea, a 60/40 joint venture between Cameron and Schlumberger intended to develop and manufacture products for the subsea oil & gas market.
  • Contran Corporation in obtaining EU antitrust approval for the $2.9 billion sale of its subsidiary, Titanium Metals Corporation (TIMET), to Precision Castparts Corporation
  • Ford Motor Company/Zheijiang Geely. Represented Ford in the $1.3 billion sale of Volvo Cars to Zheijiang Geely Holding Group Company Limited, including multiple merger reviews before the European Commission and various national authorities.*
  • Northumbrian Water Group plc/UK Water. Represented Northumbrian Water Group in EU and other merger control approvals for one of the largest UK public takeovers of 2011 – the £4.7 billion sale of Northumbrian Water to a Cheung Kong Infrastructure-led consortium.*
  • Ariba in connection with acquisition by SAP AG's $4.3 billion acquisition of Ariba, including advising on UK and international merger control filings and related antitrust counseling.*
  • A major transportation company on defending a price discrimination/abuse of dominance complaint.*
  • One of the world's major liner shipping companies in the preparation and implementation of a global antitrust compliance program across multiple EU and other international offices.*
  • A global client in respect of a cartel investigation begun in 2011 by the European Commission.*

*Prior to joining Baker Botts



Awards and Community

Listed in Lexology: Competition "Future Leaders - Partners and Global Elite Thought Leaders - Under 45 - Partners," 2026

Recommended by The Legal 500 EMEA, 2019 & 2020

Listed in Who's Who Legal: Competition "Future Leaders," 2017 & 2018