Deloitte Legal again more widely acknowledged in the latest Legal 500 rankings

Banking, finance and capital markets

Very active on borrower-side debt finance work, advising corporate clients primarily in the real estate and automotive sectors on a wide variety of facilities and financing arrangements, the team is very active on sustainable finance matters as well as on project finance, and its capital markets expertise also enables it to handle a high volume of private placements. Financial regulatory issues represent a further area of focus, particularly for Rising Star Laurent Godts, who co-leads the practice with transactional finance expert David Roelens.

Client feedback highlights ‘Open and proactive communication. Understand the customer’s needs and situation. Accessible.’ ‘Hands-on, flexible and eager to work with.’ Clients appreciate our ‘intense commitment in achieving the best result for the client. ’‘Laurent Godts is a sympathetic personality with thorough knowledge of complex financial structures. He is honest in his advice and strives for the best possible result for his client.’

Commercial, Corporate and M&A

The team advises on due diligence, assists with transactional negotiations and structuring, and collaborates with Deloitte's tax and financial advisory team to provide auxiliary advice in connection with a wide range of M&A. Focusing particularly on transactions in the energy, TMT, and industrials sector, the team is well-versed in both domestic and cross-border M&A and maintains a client base that encompasses Belgian as well as international corporate clients and private equity funds. Practice head David Roelens chiefly advises energy companies on sell-and buy-side transactions, while Marc Van tieghem assists with a broad range of corporate matters.

Testimonials highlight the fact that we provide ‘Legally solid hands-on advice’ and that we ‘think together with the client and come up with pragmatic solutions.’ Other feedback includes: ‘Hands-on team, providing excellent advice.’ ‘Collaboration with diverse departments is excellent knowledge of the business is outstanding’, and last but not least ‘Marc Van tieghem and Hans Vansweevelt always go the extra mile to ensure the work is done and the deal gets closed. ’

Dispute Resolution

Deloitte Legal fields a ‘approachable team with expertise and drive‘ that offers a range of services for its clients across litigation and arbitration proceedings. Jürgen Egger leads the team, with experience representing leading Belgian and international companies in civil and criminal disputes, with a focus on distribution law, insolvency issues, tort law, and white-collar crime matters. Other key practice heads include ‘superb leader’ Annick Visschers, who has expertise in tax litigation; Mathieu Ex, who leads the private client team; and Glenn Hansen, who focuses on commercial litigation. Egger and Hansen are also key names in the firm’s arbitration practice.

Client feedback includes: ‘Deloitte has a broad team with diverse knowledge. They also easily collaborate with other teams for cross border related things.’
‘Excellent Litigation Team with superb leader, Annick Visschers!’
‘Very personalized approach and swift follow-up.’
‘I personally work a lot with Stefanie Denorme. She is easily accessible and makes herself available. She really knows her stuff and is always searching for solutions. She knows how to stay calm and collected in every situation and will try to de-escalate when necessary. She will always weigh the risks of every operation against the beneficial effects. This makes sure you have a clear view of everything and do not go blindly into an operation.’

Employment

Our integrated tax, HR and financial law expertise enables the team to maintain a wide-ranging portfolio of employment and pensions work that encompasses drafting new corporate and regulatory frameworks, advising on corporate restructuring, and downsizing initiatives, and representing its roster of corporate clients in dismissals and discrimination-related disputes before employment tribunals. Practice head Stijn Demeestere is well versed in dismissals work and regularly handles the employment aspects of M&A and collective dismissals procedures, while Stefanie Van de Perre, who joined in January 2023, focuses on social security and criminal law.

Clients state: ‘The Deloitte employment team has relevant experience with complex cross-border employment issues and focuses on delivering pragmatic solutions.’
‘Very good knowledge of social law in the public sector. Very approachable. Thinking about good solutions that correspond with the interests of the organisation. Especially Thomas De Donder.’
‘Thomas De Donder is an excellent lawyer. He thinks along with the organisation very constructively. Knows the legal branch very well and advises very professionally.’
‘Stefanie Van de Perre puts genuine effort into trying to understand the issue and to define together the expected outcome. In projects involving the coordination of teams at various international locations, she works in a time-efficient manner.’

EU Regulatory: Privacy and Data Protection

For Deloitte Legal, data protection and privacy work form a core component of the IP and IT team’s regular workload. The group assists with practical questions regarding the applicability of data protection legislation, as well as advising on data ownership, localisation, retention, and transferability issues. Jürgen Egger and Matthias Vierstraete oversee and co-ordinate the wider practice, regularly leading on key regulatory mandates.

Fraud and white-collar crime

Deloitte Legal capitalises on its proficiency in handling tax disputes, where the firm represents clients in various high-stakes tax fraud cases encompassing both criminal proceedings and tax audits. The practice is led by a trio of practitioners: Jürgen Egger leverages his experience in commercial and contract law in cases such as fraud, embezzlement, and anti-money laundering, while Annick Visschers and Johan Speecke are particularly active in tax litigation.

Industry focus: Energy

Deloitte Legal has a multi-disciplinary team of ‘excellent strategic thinkers‘ that is led by managing partner Kathleen De hornois, a public procurement and PPP specialist who also advises on regulatory questions in connection with wind and solar power projects. Having played a key role in the development of regulations for hydrogen transportation, the team is now increasingly active in advising on the drafting of legal frameworks in the hydrogen space. Dominique Vanherck, a key adviser on climate and energy matters, is another highly recommended member of the team.

Clients recognize the team as ‘Very good professionals, excellent strategic thinkers, perfect documents prepared with the greatest care and spot-on.’ ‘Excellent lawyers, with a complete set of the relevant skills.’

Industry focus: Healthcare and Life Science

Primarily based in Brussels, the healthcare and life science team exhibits ‘clear, in-depth‘ expertise across a broad range of areas, with particular emphasis on medtech regulatory matters. Practice head Christoph Michiels has ample expertise in venture capital and private equity transactions, regularly assisting investor syndicates and management teams with early stage spin off projects. Matthias Vierstraete maintains an IP and IT focused practice in Ghent.

Client feedback states that the team ‘is very diverse, so we have easy access to a lot of different profiles when addressing different challenges’, has ‘Up-to-date knowledge of applicable legislation, fluid communication, and timely service.’ and ‘goes to great lengths, digging into regulations as well as recent and longer-standing caselaw to prepare a case to perfection.’
The feedback then adds that we have ‘Clear, in-depth individual expertise in each field.’ ‘(…) Their professionalism and expertise are good and they deliver their services with thoroughness and sufficient quality. What really sets them apart is their expertise in the complex world of CE marking for medical applications; they have a thorough understanding of the regulations and their guidance was helpful when navigating the complicated requirements.’ ‘The staff assumes their own knowledge but tests it against our knowledge and experience to arrive at a match. There is true cooperation with mutual respect.’ ‘(…) Matthias Vierstraete is experienced and provides valuable advice.’

Industry focus: IT and Telecoms

Deloitte Legal leverages the unit’s strong technological expertise to advise on issues encompassing data life-cycle management, the integration and launch of IT platforms, and blockchain mandates. Practice co-chair Matthias Vierstraete‘s far-reaching practice straddles IP and IT issues; he frequently assists clients with the review and negotiation of key agreements such as technology license agreements and SaaS agreements. Commercial law specialist Jürgen Egger completes the leadership team, and Willem-Jan Cosemans is a key contact for both IT litigation and IT due diligence relating to M&A work.

Industry focus: Media and Entertainment

The core features of the media and entertainment offering are the group's IP and IT expertise, which is leveraged by clients within the sports and audiovisual industries, and corporate and M&A work, including venture capital issues and cross-border restructurings. Willem-Jan Cosemans, Yannick Van den broeke and Matthias Vierstraete stand at the helm of the practice, with Cosemans equipped to advise on issues extending to intellectual property rights in digital assets such as the image rights of players in NFTs.

Industry focus: Transport

A key name for clients from the transport and logistics sector as well as the ports and shipping sector, the team assists public bodies and private corporations with issues encompassing PPPs, public transport mandates and passenger transport law. Public law expert Kathleen De hornois, who is equipped to assist with the drafting of legislation pertaining to water and seaborne transport, co-heads with Corporate law specialist Marc Van tieghem. Wim Naudts and Jasmine Coppens further extend the public law expertise at the firm.

Insolvency and Restructuring

Dispute resolution and contract law expert Jürgen Egger leads the team at Deloitte Legal, which represents clients in proceedings at the intersection of insolvency and criminal law. The team has extensive experience negotiating restructuring plans as well as bankruptcy filings and is also very active in advising on asset recovery. Glenn Hansen, who advises both debtors and creditors on preventative restructurings and insolvency proceedings, is a further key contact in the team.

Intellectual Property

With ‘Good business sense, pragmatic, to the point’, the team is equipped to assist clients with transactional and advisory IP work including drafting and negotiating IP agreements and handling IP-related due diligence connected to M&A transactions. IP portfolio management, including enforcement work, is another strength of the team. Antwerp-based Jürgen Egger and Matthias Vierstraete, who divides his time between Ghent and Brussels, jointly lead the team. Willem-Jan Cosemans‘ IP experience includes representing clients before domestic and European Courts in copyright, trademark and design litigation.

Private Equity

Deloitte Legal can advise both private equity and venture capital investors as well as a large roster of start-up and scale-up clients on buy- and sell-side M&A, focusing in particular on early-stage investments and mid-market acquisitions. The ‘very involved, hands-on team’ also regularly leverages its internal tax and financial advisory capabilities to provide its clients with comprehensive regulatory advice. David Roelens, Christoph Michiels, and Marc Van tieghem jointly lead the team and handle acquisitions, sales, and investments in a broad range of sectors. Other key lawyers are Henri-Simon Vande Vyver and Hans Vansweevelt.

Further testimonials state: ‘Marc Van tieghem and Hans Vansweevelt deliver extremely good work and go the extra mile to get things done. ’ ‘Hands-on; excellent legal knowledge.’

Real Estate & Construction

The real estate practice is ‘very professional, reactive and commercial, with a high knowledge sector’. The firm majors on property sales and real estate M&A, a recent example being the €78m forward acquisition on behalf of the Dutch government of a long lease on a new Belgian and EU embassy building in Brussels. Practice head and Leading Individual Maximilien Van De Werve, who handles the lion’s share of the work, has ‘very good technical and practical knowledge‘. Tax partner Danny Stas and corporate partner David Roelens are also key to the practice. Reference is also made to Public and administrative law partner Kathleen De hornois.

Maximilien van de Werve and his team garner high praise ‘Very good team! Maximillien van de Werve is the key man.’ ‘Combination of strong partner (Max Van de Werve), senior associate and junior associate.’ ‘Very good competencies.’ ‘Very good technical and practical knowledge, hands-on, respect of timings.’ ‘The advice is tailor made and taking the business of its client into high consideration (no academical lawyers). ’ ‘Some people in the team are very well introduced in the local real estate market which makes that they are very well aware of the market dynamic.’ ‘Very professional, reactive, commercial (thinking as and with the business), multilingual, accessible/available and complementary team with a high knowledge of the real estate sector/market.’

Tax

With three dedicated groups for advisory, controversy, and private clients, Deloitte Legal‘s tax offering covers the breadth of clients’ needs, from corporations to UHNWI and their families. Leading Individual Annick Visschers is the face of the tax dispute resolution team, and specialises in tax risk management, litigation, and criminal law. VAT expert Danny Stas and global business tax authority Tim Wustenberghs head the tax advisory arm, while international estate and tax planning is the focus of Mathieu Ex, who is the point of contact for private clients. Astrid Peeters and Next Generation Partner Filip Smet were promoted to partner in June 2023, and advise on real estate tax and tax litigation, respectively.

Client feedback is full of praise: ‘One of the largest tax practices in Belgium, with an outstanding reputation for tax litigation. The tax litigation team, headed by Annick Visschers, has unique experience, allowing them to effectively assess the client’s position prior to starting litigation, or when deciding to litigate or settle a case.’
‘Annick Visschers is the go-to lawyer for tax litigation in Belgium. She has vast experience, a rapid understanding of complex situations and a clear insight in possible solutions. She’s easily available and fun to work with.’
‘Excellent tax team, well managed.’
‘Excellent follow-up by team members.’
‘The team is always available and eager to help. They have great knowledge about their domains and have adapted their way of working to our needs (not general information anymore but to-the-point advice). Also their transparency regarding billing and the way they match our requests are worth mentioning.’
‘Alexander Baert is for me since years the person to go to in case of difficulties. He thinks with us, is practical and is eager to find solutions rather than throw us into the deep end with unnecessary court cases.’