Biography: Competition

Götz Drauz is a partner in Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati's competition group. His practice is focused on European Union and German merger control and antitrust law, and he has represented companies in some of the most significant merger, conduct and cartel investigations in Europe in the past seven years. His client base spans a wide range of industries, including aviation, consumer products, chemicals, defence, energy, food products, pharmaceuticals, rail transport, software and telecommunications. He has recently assisted Alcatel-Lucent, Caterpillar, EDF, Medco Health Solutions, NasdaqOMX, Nestlé, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics and Schering-Plough on cutting-edge issues, including complex merger remedies, cartel settlements and monopolisation charges. A particular focus of Götz's counselling has been to guide companies through the myriad of decision-making processes of major antitrust authorities. He also pays close interest to the interaction between intellectual property law and antitrust law, including the competition issues related to standardisation.

Götz served at the European Commission for 25 years, most recently as the deputy director-general for Competition and previously as the head of the Merger Task Force. In these roles, he managed and coordinated all of the EC's merger control activity for nearly a decade. Before joining Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Götz was an antitrust and competition partner in the Brussels offices of Howrey and Shearman & Sterling.

A frequent lecturer on competition law and policy related subjects, Götz is also co-editor of EU Competition Law, Volume II Mergers and Acquisitions (Claeys-Casteels, Second Edition 2012). Götz is a member of the Cologne Bar, as well as an associate member of the Brussels Bar.