The Legal 500

Claeys & Engels, member of Ius Laboris saw the retirement in February 2010 of Thierry Claeys, perhaps Belgium’s most respected employment lawyer. The practice, which specialises in labour law, easily stays at the top, given its ‘very good knowledge and professionalism’. Chris Engels is a highly prominent figure in labour law circles; many say ‘the firm has a long history with our company’. It is particularly recommended for collective dismissals and corporate reorganisations. The firm acts largely for employers, particularly multinationals, and senior managers. An Van Damme and Olivier Wouters are also recommended.

Allen & Overy LLP’s team delivers ‘professional and responsive advice’; chiefly due to ‘good analytical skills, and being very cooperative’; the team’s ability to co-ordinate employment law issues is ‘on an international scale due to an extended network’. Work in 2010 included restructuring for KPN, including associated redundancies, and outsourcing work for Accenture, KBC and Pfizer. It also acted for Bank of America and the Centre for Equal Opportunities in unfair dismissal and discrimination cases. The team’s strength in employee benefits, for clients including Huntsman, RBS and SPE, was consistently praised for its ‘broad experience’. Team leader Pieter De Koster is recommended, and Christian Bayart ‘has great academic and practical knowledge about labour law’.

Baker & McKenzie’s François Gabriel and Jef Slootmans remain leading figures. Clients include General Motors, Monsanto and Eli Lilly. The team assisted both on EU works council negotiations, and site harmonisation of terms & conditions respectively. It also acted for a leading Belgian manufacturer in a fiercely contested restructuring, resulting in collective lay-offs, extensive press interest, and a union “lock-out”, before an agreed settlement. The team’s litigation caseload, having grown, is extensive as it handles essentially respondent litigation for Belgian’s larger businesses.

Erwin Vandervelde of Laga heads the team, whose clients include a global oil and gas company, a major French financial services provider and a local utilities manufacturer. Its approach is typified by Stefan Nerinckx, who is ‘very responsive, friendly, down-to- earth and to-the-point’, and ‘takes a pragmatic approach and solves problems quickly’. Advisory work handled includes transfers of undertaking, pension issues, expatriate employment contracts, social security, and immigration; employment litigation is also handled, (including dismissals of CEO/CFO-level staff). Clients include Manpower.

Vincent Busschaert heads the five-partner team at Liedekerke Wolters Waelbroeck Kirkpatrick, whose ‘industry knowledge is overwhelmingly good’; it is also praised for advising clients on court cases, who say ‘its percentage of winning cases is high’. Equally, the team’s lawyers ‘do not settle easily’ although, if needed, ‘they will negotiate a fair settlement’. Paul Geerebaert provides clients with ‘a perfect and adequate response to questions’. The team acted for a major US airline company in updating contractual conditions, and for a Dutch client on the merger of two Belgian subsidi aries.

Linklaters’ labour lawyers have ‘good knowledge of the areas we need help with’, with service quality being rated ‘very high in all areas’. It assisted with a number of redundancies on the Belgian market, including Unilin and Holiday Inn’s Belgian HQ, and on a 109-person collective dismissal for Hansen Transmissions. Transactional work included advising on Amlin’s takeover of Fortis’s former insurance businesses. Litigation highlights included representing Ford and Belgacom on separate individual high-level dismissal claims. Luc Vanaverbeke is recommended.

Loyens & Loeff is praised for ‘deep business understanding’ informing its ‘clear advice and direction’; it has ‘a very qualified team’. Christian Willems ‘has selected a strong team around him’ and is ‘a strategic thinker’. Aurore Gillet ‘has tactical implementation skills’. Of counsel Lut Sommerijns joined the team, adding a wealth of pensions law experience and connections. Work highlights included acting for MCB Belgium, in a complex collective dismissal, the cornerstone of an entire restructuring of the Belgium business, which included 50% of the workforce, including senior managers.

Lydian is praised for being ‘very knowledgeable, great value for money, as it gives useful, to-the-point advice, without too many caveats’. With fifteen lawyers, highlights included advising BASF on the special status of harbour workers in the chemical industry, and assisting the Belgian Chemical Industry on pension law issues. Clients single out managing partner Jan Hofkens and Alexander Vandenbergen in seeking ‘practical and useful solutions with full disclosure of risk exposure to the client’. Beneficiaries of such advice include Honeywell, and new clients KPMG and Woulters Kluwer.

Stibbe handles mostly employer-related work, and is particularly praised for handling of collective bargaining issues with unions. Clients state they are ‘very satisfied about the service’ given by practice head Jean-Philippe Cordier. Corinne Merla’s pensions work is growing, plus the team also promoted Elisabeth Matthys to partner. Additional notable instructions included representing Arcelor-Mittal in proceedings over employee share benefits, worth €35m, and voluntary redundancy plans, for BNP Paribas Fortis.

Van Eeckhoutte, Taquet & Clesse ‘has a good reputation’ for its mixed applicant/respondent practice. The firm is located in Brussels, Ghent and Liège. Clients are ‘very satisfied with its work’; Ghent-based Willy Van Eeckhoutte appears before the Belgium Supreme Court in employment cases, and has a high standing for his academic and professional acumen. Wim Van Roeyen is ‘a reasonable negotiator and strong litigator’. Sammy Bouzoumita is also recommended.

CMS DeBacker’s Stanislas van Wassenhove had a busy year advising senior executives following the global downturn. His colleagues have been no less busy, with numerous reorganisations involving difficult negotiations- (including on lowering retirement ages), as well as temporary measures to avoid unemployment; all of which involved unions, and some dismissals. The team has also been involved in cross-border mergers, with post-merger harmonisation of employment terms. Clients include Lloyds Development Capital.

DLA Piper’s Eddy Lievens highlights included assisting a leading European communications manufacturer in a significant restructuring, done in two months, including union consultations, collective bargaining, and necessary redundancies. The team also assisted on the closure of a chemical production plant. Damien Stas de Richelle made partner.

De Wolf & Partners act for employee applicants, as well as for employers responding to employment claims. Thierry Vierin is recommended for his work in litigation, works council elections, strikes and unfair dismissal cases. The team gives a ‘very high level of service’ with ‘pragmatic and timely advice’ and ‘good, proactive, technical support’. It has assisted clients Xerox, Metraux and Arcent with advice on complex issues of collective labour law.

Eubelius is noted for its experience in counselling public sector institutions as well as Belgian businesses; examples include the Belgian Ministry of Work, for whom it acts in litigation up to Supreme Court and ECJ level; NMBS (Belgian Railways, on health and safety matters); Devan Chemicals (on international employment matters); and Caterpillar (on litigation, and pensions law advice). Véronique Pertry and Leen Cornil are recommended.

Bruno Blanpain is recommended at Marx, Van Ranst, Vermeersch & Partners, acting for a diverse range of clients that included a motorway restaurant chain, various IT companies (including hardware and network solutions), and a discount retailer. Work handled includes corporate restructurings, outsourcing and collective dismissals. It also assists senior executives on individual contractual matters, including employee benefits.

NautaDutilh remains busy across a range of employment matters, thanks in part to a steady diet of transactional work; here, clients include QBE, Jet Airways and Telenor, plus difficult restructurings for chemical industry companies, as well as defending employers before the Brussels Labour Court and on appeal. Clients say managing partner Philippe François’s service quality is ‘very high and very favourable to us’. Thierry Duquesne was appointed associate partner.

Van Bael & Bellis’ Catherine Longeval ‘did a great job of assisting us in every area of our work, related to employment law and business operations’. The firm has assisted clients with HR audits of Belgian subsidiaries, a merger between the Belgian operations of two US multinationals, and advised Abbott on in-house training on international employment law.

Van Olmen & Wynant is praised for providing advice on contractual and statutory employment relationships, especially to state-run businesses. Clients say ‘it has unique experience, encompassing both private and public sectors’ in both contentious and advisory forms of labour law. Chris Van Olmen is ‘an exceptional lawyer, understanding business needs, with a great team’. The team also worked on high profile restructurings for financial and retail sector clients.

Altius (in co-operation with Tiberghien)’s Sylvie Dubois (‘excellent pragmatic advice’) and the newly promoted Sven Demeulemeester service a diverse client mix including Google and WPP Group. It carried out successful restructurings for tank terminal company Vitol, and construction industry product manufacturer Hilti.

Eversheds act for a range of multinational clients, including Tyco, Teleflex, GE, Symantec and Newell on a range of individual employment instructions, as well as advising on corporate restructurings. Stefan Corbanie leads the practice, which saw the arrival of associate Céline Wauters.

Field Fisher Waterhouse’s Olivier Rijckaert (‘always excellent’) assisted a Belgian employer with the wholesale transfers of personnel to two other EU countries, in a year where collective labour law predominated within a busy caseload. He also advised NYSE Euronext and several retail, pharmaceutical, and electronics companies.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s employee benefits practice relies on the experience of Axel Haelterman as the chief contact at the firm, with new senior associate, Julie Panckert in support. It acts for mostly blue-chip Belgian and EU companies, including Sara Lee, who it assisted with restructuring and pensions law questions. Koen De Bischopp left to set up Reliance Advocaten.

Lorenz is praised for giving ‘hands-on, practical, clear solutions’. Bertold Theeuwes gives ‘good structured advice in clear language’, plus he ‘translates ideas easily into good contract clauses’ without losing oversight of a contract’s main thread. The team covers all areas of employment law, but is particularly praised for ‘tailor-made, pragmatic solutions with an international context in mind’.

Monard – D’Hulst’s Karin Raschaert is ‘very good’; clients praise her for spotting opponents ‘weaknesses and mistakes, and dealing with them in a very professional manner’. Clients include Belgian mid-market corporates, local authorities and individual clients. Restructuring instructions, plus Labour Court appearances, run alongside general advisory support for HR teams.

New to the market, Reliance Advocaten’s popularity with clients is clear; the boutique has ‘excellent business acumen’. Ex-Magic Circle lawyer Edward Carlier ‘has broad HR experience’ and ‘is responsive and knows our needs’; the trilingual Koen De Bisschop is ‘delightful to work with’, his responses to clients are ‘rapid and concise’. Work included contract drafting, work regulations, dismissals and negotiations with works councils.