Firm news | November 7, 2022

Mikko Alkio strengthens and broadens Roschier’s competition and regulatory capabilities

Competition and regulatory expert Mikko Alkio joins our EU & Competition practice.

Competition law enforcement, foreign direct investment screening, public procurement, and sector specific regulation in several key industries are expected to significantly increase in complexity and volume. By combining our existing leading capabilities with those of competition and regulatory expert Mikko Alkio, we will be even better placed to serve our clients in new and complex competition law and regulatory assignments.

Having developed a leading competition practice and authored several books and publications on EU and competition law, state aid regulation and sector-specific topics, Mikko has a particularly robust understanding of the inner workings of these specialty areas.

He joins us from Avance Attorneys, where he has been a Partner for the past 10 years, heading their EU, Competition and Regulatory team. During his career, he has also held advisory positions in the Ministry of Economy, the Prime Minister’s Office, and Finland’s EU Commissioner’s cabinet. He was an Associate at Roschier in 2000-2003, and a Senior Associate in 2009-2010.

“Mikko’s unique understanding of competition policy, economics, state aid and sector-specific regulation, in addition to his longstanding work on an EU level, adds immense value to our team and the entire Roschier cross-border platform,” says Partner Ami Paanajärvi, Head of Roschier’s EU & Competition practice in Helsinki. “With Mikko on board, our team will be able to serve our clients on a broader scale, not only in stand-alone competition matters, but also in terms of providing an improved M&A and advisory offering in regulated industries and sectors in the Nordics. Above all this, Mikko is a great person, who truly cares for his team. I am delighted to continue to build our practice together with him.”

Senior Advisor Christian Wik adds: “We are privileged to have our old friend Mikko rejoin Roschier, and personally I could not wish for a better future for the leadership of our practice in Finland than the combination of Ami and Mikko.”

“Our aim is to increase the firm’s ability to provide high-end strategic advice in all key areas by offering our clients a premium Nordic one-stop-shop for their legal and business needs,” says Managing Partner Mikko Manner. “Mikko joining the firm underlines our plans to maintain a leading Competition and Regulatory practice with broader capabilities for cross-practice and cross-border support.”

“I am simultaneously incredibly grateful for the past decade at Avance and couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity at Roschier,” comments Mikko Alkio. “Roschier’s Nordic and European platform matches perfectly my desire to focus on matters of a more international nature in the next phase of my career. The world in which our clients operate grows more complex every day. You need to understand this continuously changing business environment in order to deliver valuable strategic legal advice and manage complicated processes.”

Roschier’s cross-border EU & Competition practice advises leading companies in complex competition, procurement, FDI and sector specific regulatory matters – not only on a national level but also before the EU Commission and the EU courts. The team works closely with our tier 1 M&A, Dispute Resolution and IP & Technology practices in providing clients an unrivaled Nordic full-service platform. The team and its experts are consistently top ranked by all leading international legal directories such as Chambers Europe and Global, The Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal.