Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer has hired a former top EU government official who was previously head of the European Commission's antitrust department – a move that comes at a time when antitrust, trade, data privacy and foreign investment issues are dominating headlines.

Alexander Italianer, a former secretary-general of the European Commission and director-general of the competition department, is joining Arnold & Porter as senior international policy adviser in the firm's global law and public policy practice. He will be based in the firm's Brussel's office.

Italianer, an economist from the Netherlands, spent 30 years at the European Commission. He was secretary-general, the most senior official in the Commission's administration, from September 2015 to February 2018. Before that, he was head of the competition department from 2010 to 2015.

"During a critical time in Europe, where Brexit, trade, foreign investment and competition are front and centre, Alexander brings extraordinary insight into the key issues facing today's global economy and an unparalleled knowledge of the workings of the European Commission," Arnold & Porter partner Bill Baer, who himself is a former U.S. assistant attorney general for antitrust, said in a statement. "I have worked closely with him over the years and I know our clients facing business challenges in Europe will greatly benefit from his experience.  We proudly welcome him to our team."

Italianer also worked in the private office of José Manuel Barroso, a former president of the European Commission, the commissioner for EU enlargement, and in the private office of former European Commission President and former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer. 

During his career, he has worked on many important issues, including preparations for the launch of the euro, negotiations on the Maastricht treaty, also known as the Treaty on European Union, and relations with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Italianer said he chose Arnold and Porter because he had previously had contact with the firm's lawyers when he was head of the European Commission's antitrust department. "I'd come across Luc Gyselen [partner in the Brussels office] and Bill Baer, who had been my counterpart at the DOJ and who went back to Arnold & Porter," he said.

The fact that the firm had a lot of lawyers who had worked in public service, and that the Brussels office focuses on competition policy, also attracted him, he said. 

Under European Commission rules on officials leaving to work in the private sector, Italianer will not be allowed to lobby the commission directly on issues that he worked on when he was a civil servant. He will also be expected to recuse himself from antitrust cases his department handled when he was in charge of the competition department.

Italianer said that he would not be working as a lobbyist but would be providing strategic advice to clients, especially on the EU institutions and how they worked. Asked about the restrictions the European Commission imposes on former officials working in the private sector, Italianer said that he was not allowed to deal with cases he had handled during the last three years he worked at the Commission. In addition, he is not allowed to share confidential information obtained while he was an official.

"[The firm] will put a screen around me," he said.

Antitrust and competition have become important issues for E.U. member states. On Wednesday, the European Commission fined Google $1.7 billion for violating antitrust laws – the third billion-dollar penalty it has imposed on the tech giant for hindering competition.

Italianer is not Arnold & Porter's only prominent hire in recent months. The firm has added two additional senior international policy advisers to its roster: Ambassador Thomas A Shannon, Jr, former undersecretary of state for political affairs at the U.S. State Department; and Ambassador Miomir Žužul, former Croatian ambassador to the United Nations, the U.S., Organization of American States, and the United Mexican States.  

Both Shannon and Žužul are also members of Arnold & Porter's global law and public policy practice.