Vassilena is a senior associate in the Competition, Regulation and Trade group based in London.
Vassilena specialises in EU and UK competition law. She regularly advises clients in relation to merger control filings and antitrust investigations (anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominance) on an EU and national level. She also advises on regulatory matters and compliance programmes.
Vassilena has represented clients before the European Commission and the UK competition authorities, as well as working alongside local counsel before authorities in other jurisdictions. She has experience across a broad range of sectors including financial services, media and telecoms, consumer goods, and oil and gas. In 2016, she was seconded to the Competition Division of the UK Financial Conduct Authority.
Vassilena's experience includes advising:
- The Walt Disney Company on its acquisition of certain Twenty-First Century Fox assets, including its film and television studios and cable and international TV business*
- Essilor on its combination with Luxottica*
- Samsung Electronics on the sale of its printer business to Hewlett Packard*
- Royal Dutch Shell on its acquisition of BG Group*
- Deutsche Bank in the context of multiple investigations into the setting of interbank offered benchmark rates*
* Experience prior to joining Herbert Smith Freehills
Background
Vassilena holds a First Class MA in Law from the University of Cambridge and a Masters degree (BCL) from the University of Oxford. She was admitted to practise in England and Wales in 2012.
