McDermott Will & Schulte, a global law firm

Frédéric Pradelles focuses his practice on French and European competition law. He regularly advises international clients in abuse of dominance cases, cartel investigations and on distribution matters, notably in the context of litigation before the French and European competition authorities and courts.

Frédéric also advises clients in global, European and national merger control cases, including Phase II cases. He has extensive experience in the notification of strategic alliances and joint ventures as well as negotiating innovative remedies to secure antitrust approval for the deals on which he advises.

On the litigation side, Frédéric represents clients before the French competition authority, the French Government antitrust agency (DGCCRF) and the European Commission. He also regularly appears as a litigator before the courts in France and the European Courts in Luxembourg. Frédéric has extensive experience in summary proceedings in the field of antitrust, and in interim measures and commitments proceedings before the French Competition Authority.

Frédéric advises clients active in various industries, particularly in the retail, services, transportation, media, hospitality, information technology and banking/finance sectors.

Stéphane Dionnet is co-head of McDermott’s Antitrust Mergers Focus Group and has over 20 years of experience practicing international competition law, and has experience liaising with competition authorities in the European Union, United States and Asia. Stéphane has advised global corporations on how to navigate complex multijurisdictional merger control matters. He has represented clients in numerous cartel investigations and has also successfully assisted companies in obtaining conditional immunity from the European Commission and other competition law agencies in and outside the European Union.

Stéphane has experience across a wide range of sectors including consumer products, energy, entertainment, financial services, technology, pharmaceuticals, retail, e-commerce and telecommunications.

Stéphane is recognized by Lexology Index as a Recommended Lawyer in Competition (2025) and is listed in Global Competition Review’s GCR 100 (2025). He is also recommended by The Legal 500 EMEA for Competition for 2023–2024. Clients describe Stéphane as “an excellent competition lawyer with a great strategic sensibility” and praise him as being “great to work with,” noting his “fantastic work product.”

Earlier in his career, Stéphane worked for three years within the “Merger Network” of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition. He was case-handler in high-profile transactions, including phases 1 and 2 with remedies.

With more than a decade of experience Dr. Laura Stammwitz advises and represents companies on competition and regulatory law. She represents companies and individuals in dawn raids and antitrust investigations by competition authorities. As regards transactions she advised companies in complex merger control proceedings before the German Federal Cartel Office and the European Commission and also in foreign direct investment control filings before the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy. She has further extensive experience in providing compliance advice in both transactions and day-to-day business.

Her practice encompasses a wide array of industries, e.g. food manufacturing, packaging and the healthcare sector.  She is providing a commercial mindset and solution-oriented advice for all her clients such as private equity firms, family-run businesses and multinational companies.

She regularly publishes on current regulatory developments.