Valerie Bernard is an international associate with Foley & Lardner LLP. Ms. Bernard supports Foley’s general corporate and business law practice with an emphasis in mergers and acquisitions, and more specifically energy industry transactions. She also has an extensive background in antitrust law. She is a member of the Transactional & Securities, Finance & Financial Institutions and International Practices, and the Energy Industry Team.
Experience
Ms. Bernard has a wide range of experience in transactional, corporate and antitrust matters and has advised clients active in a variety of sectors, including energy, aviation, IT, chemicals, consumer products, sporting goods and pharmaceuticals. Her career began in Europe where she represented clients in European and worldwide transactional procedures and in European and national monopolization and/or cartel investigations and subsequent proceedings. She has advised clients throughout the various steps of transactions, from the drafting of non-disclosure agreements and memoranda of understanding to the preparation of cooperation agreements, service agreements, consulting agreements, purchase and sale agreements, and other related legal documents. In addition, she has provided advice regarding issues specific to the energy sector, including for instance market coupling, infrastructure priorities and funding, and insurance pools or transparency of information.
Recent Representative Matters
- Atlantic wind connection. Advising a European transmission system operator on its acquisition of a strategic minority shareholding in a major transmission backbone project running along the coast of the Mid-Atlantic states.
- Varied corporate counseling in the energy sector. Preparing memoranda of understanding, letters of intent, international consultancy cooperation agreements, service agreements, non-disclosure agreements, and other legal documents for European companies active in the energy industry and other international companies either active or interested in the energy industry, in particular transmission and distribution of electricity and renewables.
- Varied antitrust counseling in the energy sector. Advising companies and associations active in the energy industry regarding antitrust compliance of contemplated agreements, notifying merger transactions for regulatory approval and providing advice as to legality of commitments offered in such proceedings, representing clients in cartel investigations.
- Mergers and acquisitions in sectors other than energy. Representing a major telecoms company in the challenge of both the acquisition of online advertising company DoubleClick by Google and the contemplated agreement between Google and Yahoo! in the same sector; representing Nestlé S.A. in its acquisition of the Gerber baby food business from Novartis AG before the European Commission, enabling the creation of the world's leading infant nutrition company.
- Abuse of dominance/monopolization proceedings in sectors other than energy. Representing a major IT company before the European Commission with regard to the systematic integration of its web browser into its operating system; representing a major international company in the ex officio procedure initiated against it on the grounds of vexatious litigation for having brought patent infringement actions before national courts.
- Cartel investigations in sectors other than energy. Representing a major European airline in its application to the General Court for annulment of the European Commission’s Decision regarding alleged anticompetitive practices in the airfreight sector after having successfully represented a major U.S. airline in the initial phases of the investigation; representing a major multinational in the Belgian Competition Council’s cartel investigation regarding consumer goods; preparing leniency submissions, replies to requests for information and conducting internal audits of clients undergoing cartel investigation by European or national competition authorities.
Prior to joining Foley, Ms. Bernard was associated with firms in Washington, D.C., and practiced in Brussels and Berlin. Certain of these transactions occurred prior to her joining Foley.
Education
Ms. Bernard graduated, with distinction and on the Dean’s List, from Georgetown University Law Center with an LL.M. degree in international business and economic law (2010) and, cum laude, from the Humboldt Universitaet zu Berlin in Germany with an LL.M. degree focusing on intellectual property and antitrust law (2005). She earned her License in Law (J.D. equivalent), magna cum laude, from Universite Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium (2003) and holds an undergraduate Candidate in Law degree from Facultes Universitaires Saint-Louis in Brussels, Belgium (cum laude, 2000).
She is fluent in French and German, has an excellent understanding of Dutch and basic notions in Spanish.
Admissions
Ms. Bernard is admitted to practice only in New York and Brussels, Belgium. She is not engaged in the practice of law in the District of Columbia.