Barbara François > EY Law > Brussels, Belgium > Lawyer Profile

Barbara François

barbara.francois@be.ey.com View profile View profile

Work Department

Employment

Position

Senior Counsel

Career

Barbara focuses her practice on individual and collective employment law.

She has 15 years of extensive experience in individual and collective employment law and complex HR matters. Particular areas of expertise include individual and collective dismissals (including protected employees, drafting of termination documents, negotiations with the trade unions, drafting of a social plan, etc.), employee benefits and incentives, false self-employment, working with third parties, prohibited loan of manpower, assisting clients in negotiating and drafting of collective bargaining agreements at company level, dealing with employee representative bodies, assistance of companies with regard to cross-border and domestic reorganisation and restructuring projects (M&A, transfer of undertaking, etc.) including the employment and social security law aspects of (buy- or sell side) due diligence projects, etc. Furthermore, Barbara assists clients in the framework of social inspections and she represents clients before the labour courts.

Barbara has worked for an international client base active in diverse industries, including pharmaceuticals, IT, logistics, retail, automotive, food industry, fitness, etc.

Barbara’s areas of legal expertise include:

• Individual and collective employment law;
• Social security law;
• Employment and social security law aspects of due diligence projects;
• Day-to-day HR challenges;
• Social criminal law

Languages

Dutch, English, French

Memberships

• Member of the Brussels’ Bar Association;
• Member of the Vereniging Sociaal Recht.

Education

Barbara obtained her Master in Law in 2007 at the University of Ghent, Belgium. The same year she was admitted to the Brussels’ Bar.

Barbara started her career at a leading Benelux law firm as an attorney within the employment law practice. Afterwards, Barbara took up the role of HR Manager BeLux, responsible for Belgium and Luxembourg, for a public listed company. Prior to joining EY Law, Barbara was a Counsel within the employment law practice of another Big 4 law firm. Barbara joined EY Law in May 2022 and heads the employment law practice at EY Law in Belgium out of the Ghent office. Barbara is Dutch speaking with a good professional knowledge of English and French.