Gómez-Acebo & Pombo appoints Joaquim Caimoto Duarte and strengthens its EU and Competition Law practice area.

Gómez-Acebo & Pombo (“GA_P”) has just announced the appointment of Joaquim Caimoto Duarte to the Firm. The lawyer moves from Telles, where he has been working for 2 years, after more than 15 years leading the European and Competition Law practice area at Uría Menéndez – Proença de Carvalho, in Portugal. Joaquim Caimoto Duarte joins GA_P as Of Counsel.

“With great enthusiasm, and looking forward to the future, I join GA_P’s Competition and EU Law practice area, a highly skilled team, with colleagues from the Brussels, Madrid, Lisbon and Barcelona offices,” says Joaquim Caimoto Duarte. “Being already one of the leading teams at Iberian level, we will undoubtedly be very well positioned for the upcoming challenges and growth opportunities, arising from the constant evolution of competition law and its increasing importance at European and national level. I am grateful to Telles, where I have worked with exceptional colleagues and made great friends”, concludes the lawyer.

According to Mário Marques Mendes, Head of the EU and Competition Law practice area in the Lisbon office of Gómez-Acebo & Pombo: “The appointment of Joaquim Caimoto Duarte to GA_P fully meets our desire to continue growing in this practice area with highly qualified lawyers. Joaquim has more than 20 years of professional experience in EU and Competition Law at the highest level, having appeared before the Portuguese Competition Authority (ACC), the European Commission, the Spanish CNMC, the Court of Justice of the European Union and the national Court of Competition, Regulation and Supervision. His experience and knowledge, together with his human qualities, are the guarantee that this integration will contribute, in the best way, to the expansion of our practice area, which has been acquiring an increasing relevance within GA_P in the last years. We are particularly pleased with the addition of Joaquim Caimoto Duarte to our team and we welcome him warmly”.

Joaquim Caimoto Duarte is a founding member of the Portuguese Circle of Competition Lawyers, having served on several occasions as Non-Governmental Advisor with the International Competition Network. In the last 16 years he has been ranked by the main international legal directories (Chambers Europe, Global Competition Review, Who’s Who Legal – thought leader – and The Legal 500) as a leading lawyer in his area of practice. He has been involved in almost all major merger control proceedings in Portugal in the last decade, as well as in several international cartel cases and other relevant antitrust proceedings, such as, for example, the first PCA abuse of dominance case, in the emblematic Nintendo case (limitation of parallel trade in the EU), defending also several financial institutions in the two PCA investigations on the Portuguese banking sector, having also acted in the first Popular Competition Case in Portugal.

Joaquim Caimoto Duarte holds a law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon. He holds a postgraduate degree in European Studies (Community Litigation) from the European Institute of the University of Lisbon Law School.