Offices: Brussels, Belgium

Avenue Louise 250, bte 64 
1050 Brussels, Belgium

T: + 32 (0)2 629 42 11
F: + 32 (0)2 629 42 22

brussels.office@mcguirewoods.com  

Opened: 1990

News & Events

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Recent publications:

Introduction

  
McGuireWoods' Brussels office provides services to Belgian and international clients. As in the firm's other offices, the main focus here is efficiency-driven service associated with competitive legal fees. We have an established network of relationships with counsel in other countries that enables us to offer clients coordinated, reliable and effective representation throughout Europe and elsewhere.

  
Le bureau de Bruxelles de McGuireWoods rend des services à des clients belges et internationaux. Comme dans les autres bureaux de McGuireWoods, une attention particulière est ici portée à l'efficacité des services prestés et à des honoraires concurrentiels. Grâce à notre réseau de contacts avec des avocats d'autres pays, nous pouvons représenter nos clients dans toute l'Europe et ailleurs de manière coordonnée, fiable et efficace.

  
McGuireWoods Brussel levert diensten aan zowel Belgische als internationale cliënten. Zoals in de overige McGuireWoods kantoren, wordt bijzondere aandacht besteed aan efficiënt optreden en aan concurrentiële honoraria. Dankzij ons netwerk met advocatenkantoren uit andere landen, kunnen we de cliënten gecoördineerd, betrouwbaar en efficiënt vertegenwoordigen in gans Europa en elders.


マグワイヤウッズ法律事務所のブリュッセル事務所はベルギー国内に限らず海外の依頼者の皆様にも法律サービスを提供しています。また、ブリュッセル事務所は、マグワイヤウッズ法律事務所の全ての事務所と同様、法曹界における他の法律事務所にも負けない魅力的な弁護士費用と効率性を重視したサービスを中心にしています。さらに、海外所在の弁護士との確立した連携ネットワークを持ち、ヨーロッパ中、また他の地域においても、依頼者の皆様に、組織的で、信頼できる、効率的な法律業務を遂行することが可能です。マグワイヤウッズではジャパン・プラクティスを専門とする法律部門を有しており、ブリュッセル事務所においても、15年以上にわたり日本企業に関する案件を取り扱っております。

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McGuireWoods Brussels

McGuireWoods LLP currently has 900 attorneys in 17 offices in the U.S., one office in Brussels, Belgium (opened in 1990) and one office in Almaty, Kazakhstan (opened in 1994). In Brussels, the legal staff currently consists of fifteen Belgian, one U.K. and two U.S. attorneys (of which seven are Belgian partners and two U.S. partners). All attorneys are fluent in two or more languages including English, French, Dutch and German. 

The Brussels’ office mainly focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate services (including commercial contracts, corporate finance, labor and corporate social responsibility), and dispute resolution (including in administrative courts). In addition, the office has developed special expertise in real estate and real estate finance, mining (with a focus on francophone Africa), aviation (including ground handling), competition and intellectual property and information & communications technology (including copyright, trademarks, domain names, patents, design protection, biotechnology, media and entertainment), software and technology law. The office also serves as a hub for the firm's work in other Western and Eastern European countries, as well as in Africa.

McGuireWoods' Brussels office has also developed, in addition to a traditional business law office in Brussels, a special expertise to serve clients in francophone Central and Western Africa, particularly with respect to mining law and corporate and financing legal matters for mining companies.

The office and its partners have been regularly mentioned as "recommended" by the yearbooks Which Lawyer (formerly Global Counsel 3000) and The European Legal 500 for their corporate/commercial, and mergers and acquisition practices.

 

MAIN AREAS OF PRACTICE

Mergers & Acquisitions
Xavier Van der Mersch, Hubert André-Dumont, Christiane Zuñiga

Corporate Services (including commercial contracts, corporate finance, competition, labor and CSR)
Xavier Van der Mersch, Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale, Steven Ongena, Christiane Zuñiga, Bénédicte Raevens, Eva De Walsche

Dispute Resolution
John Barnum, Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale, Eva De Walsche, Bénédicte Raevens, Paul Van den Bulck

SPECIAL FOCUS

Real Estate and Real Estate Finance
 Hubert André-Dumont, Steven Ongena,
Xavier Van der Mersch

Aviation
 Steven Ongena

Mining
Hubert André-Dumont, Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale

Intellectual Property, Information &
Communications Technology
 Eva De Walsche, Paul Van den Bulck

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Building a Local Presence

Over the past several years, the office has increased its visibility and activities on the Belgian and E.U. markets, serving Belgian-owned companies, foreign-owned Belgian companies, and foreign companies active mainly in Belgium, Western Europe and Africa. The foreign client base comes largely from Western Europe (mainly France, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the U.K.), North America (Canada and the United States), Eastern Europe (mainly Bulgaria, Poland and Romania), and Asia (Japan and Kazakhstan).

Placing great importance on integrating in the local market, the office and its members are active in local professional legal and non-legal associations such as the following bodies (in addition to membership of international bodies such as the International Bar Association, the London Court of International Arbitration, Lex Mundi, etc.):

  • Institut des Juristes d'Entreprises - Instituut voor Bedrijfsjuristen (Belgium). The office regularly sponsors or organizes workshops for the IJE-IBJ
  • British Chamber of Commerce in Belgium
  • American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium
  • Belgian-African Chamber of Commerce (Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture Belgium-Luxembourg-Africa-Caribbean-Pacific, "CBL-ACP")
  • Belgium-Japan Association and Chamber of Commerce

The Brussels office has also developed a special expertise in francophone Central and Western Africa, where its Belgian partners Hubert André-Dumont and Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale have been assisting clients, mainly metal mining companies, for more than 20 years, in particular in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mauritania, Burundi, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mali. The services primarily involve legal matters related to mining, corporate, real estate, project financing and related security, construction, environment and labor, generally in conjunction with local counsel and foreign specialized counsel.

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Conferences & Legal Authorship

The Brussels office regularly organizes conferences and seminars for clients and contacts. Recently, in the fall of 2006, it organized two seminars on corporate social responsibility, one in cooperation with the Vlerick Leuven-Gent Management School, and one in cooperation with the Belgian Institut des Juristes d'Entreprises - Instituut voor Bedrijfsjuristen.

In the spring of 2007, Emmanuel de Cannart d’Hamale and Steven Ongena spoke in Brussels at a conference organized by Agoria, a leading Belgian trade association, on "General terms & conditions - Contractual clauses" with a focus on legal risk analysis. This seminar was an update of a book edited and co-authored by Steven Ongena on General Terms & Conditions (Kluwer 2006, 320 pp.).

In the fall of 2007, Hubert André-Dumont and Steven Ongena spoke at a seminar organized by Kluwer in Ghent. The seminar was an update of a book edited and co-authored by Steven Ongena on "General Terms & Conditions" (Kluwer 2006, 320 pp.). Steven Ongena spoke on general terms and conditions in general and Hubert André-Dumont focused on general terms and conditions in bank credit and related agreements.

The office’s lawyers regularly publish articles on various business law topics including the following in 2006 and 2007:

  • In the fall of 2006, partners Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale and Eva De Walsche, together with associates Pol Cools and Nicolas Hachez, published a book on La responsabilité sociale des entreprises (corporate social responsibility), Concept, pratiques et droit (Vanden Broele, 2006, 334 pp.).
  • In the spring of 2007, partner Emmanuel de Cannart d'Hamale published in the Journal des Tribunaux, the main Belgian law review published in French, an article entitled "La responsabilité sociale des entreprises, soft law ou hard law?" (J.T. 2007, p. 413 - 421)
  • Partner Hubert André-Dumont contributed to the Belgian chapter of the 2005 to 2008 World Bank and IFC joint publication Doing Business issued in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
  • Partner Bénédicte Raevens regularly publishes European law reports in the "Journal des Tribunaux de Droit Européen"
  • The Brussels office manages the competition section of www.droitbelge.be, where Partner Bénédicte Raevens and Associate Pol Cools regularly publish online articles on competition law issues.

In addition, the Brussels office publishes its quarterly newsletter European Business Law Update (see our international publications).

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European Activities

The office actively supports the Brussels-based monthly European law review "Journal des Tribunaux de Droit Européen," for which partner Bénédicte Raevens is assistant publisher (secrétaire de rédaction). Partner Hubert André-Dumont is correspondent in Brussels (EU) for the London-based quarterly "International Construction Law Review." He is also a member of the "European Association for Banking and Financial Law." The office also sponsors functions of ACC Europe – the European chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel in the United States.

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Key Recent Transactions

Recent key transactions include those for clients active in the areas of real estate and real estate finance, mining, leisure, manufacturing, advertising, insurance, high tech, storage, aviation, and distribution. In 2005 and 2006, the Brussels office represented or assisted:

  • A major Dutch bank for the financing of one of the largest currently undertaken real estate projects in Belgium worth more than EUR 130,000,000 involving offices, hotels, residential apartments, shops, parking and underground direct access to a new TGV-terminal.
  • A Canadian-listed mining company, in the closing, in association with a major U.S. listed mining company, of a partnership agreement with a D.R. Congo state mining company, for the US $350,000,000 (first stage) development of the largest and highest-grade copper and cobalt deposit in the world, with mining rights on more than 1,500 km² in the Katanga; the matter involved complex issues of international contract law.
  • A Belgian producer and reseller of potato seeds and plants for the production of French fries, in a multi-party products liability case due to the contamination of the potatoes by a bacteria, involving potato producers, seed sellers, potato buyers and sellers, an insurance company, the Belgian State and the Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA).
  • An eastern European state for the negotiation of various contracts (joint venture, concession, construction, finance, etc.) related to the construction and operation of a toll highway project worth around EUR 825,000,000.
  • A major U.S. consumer paper products manufacturer for the legal implementation of the repatriation to the United States of approximately US $700,000,000 under the one-year tax break granted by the American Jobs Creation Act, and the restructuring and refinancing of the company's European operations resulting from such repatriation.
  • A French private equity fund managed by a major French investment bank for the sale of a Belgian chain of shops for an amount of EUR 180,000,000.
  • A major U.S. leasing company for the sale of its European trailer business to a major U.S. investment bank for an amount of US $160,000,000.
  • The national bank of a central Asian state and such state in court cases in London where the claimant sought to obtain payment for an ICSID arbitral award, and in Amsterdam where a local bank sought to enforce an illegal guarantee.
  • A Belgian professional federation, in a case before the Belgian Conseil d'Etat having resulted in the cancellation by the Belgian State of a legislation infringing the EU principle of free movement of goods.
  • A French company, in a case before the Belgian Conseil d'Etat and the EU Court of Justice having resulted in the cancellation by the Belgian State of another legislation infringing the EU principle of free movement of goods.
  • The Belgian State for the structured sale, long lease and rent back of the new Antwerp court house, for an amount of EUR 250,000,000.
  • The Belgian State for the projected structured sale, long lease and rent back of the new Ghent court house, for an amount of EUR 140,000,000.
  • The Belgian State for the projected construction of a new seat for the European Council, for an amount of EUR 140,000,000.

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