About us – A Practice in Constant Evolution

From Internet Law to Networks’ Regulation &  Public Affairs: Information & Liberalisation

N² prides itself on being a boutique consultancy. Created by Caroline De Cock, its services are clearly defined by her background, skills and competencies. Caroline is a lawyer by training but her fascination with technical issues has led her to spend a lot of time understandinghow telecoms networks work, how Internet websites and cookies are put in place, what the mechanics of road logistics entail, etc.

The services provided are also influenced by Caroline’s international upbringing, as she lived in Africa (Zaire, Algeria, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, South Africa), Europe (Belgium and Switzerland), the Middle East (Sultanate of Oman) and South America (French Guiana, French overseas department). This international upbringing means Caroline speaks fluently English, French and Dutch and is able to address dossiers in German and Italian.

Experience as a Consultant…

Caroline De Cock discovered the challenges created by Internet to legal frameworks across all borders in 1995, when she collaborated to “Business and Law on the Internet”, the first European one-stop guide to doing business on the Internet within the context of North American and European laws, published in 1996.

She then joined Deloitte & Touche’s Brussels office, providing legal and strategic advice in Internet Law and Telecoms Regulation in Europe and Africa (the latter part-time based in Deloitte’s Johannesburg offices).

She became Deloitte’s youngest Manager worldwide at the age of 24, and worked on dossiers in the fields of Ecommerce (notably on the Ecommerce Directive and in the field of Data Protection), Telecoms (from licensing to negotiating interconnection agreements and obtaining licences in the early years of liberalisation, when everything was still in the making) and contributed to studies and reports in the Utilities sector.

After a short stint as a Legal Adviser at Stanbrook & Hooper (now McDermott Will & Emery/Stanbrook LLP), a Competition law firm based in Brussels, Caroline decided it was time to use the expertise she gained as a consultant in an in-house capacity.

…and as an in-house Head of Legal & Regulatory

Caroline joined a start-up company called Ipergy in 2000 as their Head of Legal & Regulatory, shortly before it became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cable & Wireless. She was in charge of all corporate law, contractual law, and telecom-specific law issues related to the deployment of the pan-European backbone of Cable & Wireless Europe, as well as for the day-to-day legal matters related to the normal functioning of the company.

She then took on the position of Director of EU Affairs for Cable & Wireless, representing the Group before the different EU institutions, in both telecoms and Internet related dossiers. In this capacity, she co-founded the EuroISPA Industry Forum and was an Executive on the ISP Constituency of ICANN.

Before launching N², Caroline was Director of Regulatory Operations and Policy for the COLT Telecom Group, a position in which she both handled COLT’s relations with the EU institutions and co-ordinated a pan-European team of 12 regulatory managers spread over 9 countries. She was also Chairperson of the Public Policy Working Group of ECTA , the European Competitive Telecommunications Association.

For background information on N², click here and for Caroline’s full CV, click here .