Firm Profile > Bird & Bird > Brussels, Belgium

EU regulatory: Pharma, medical devices and biotech Tier 1

Bird & Bird's life sciences practice has been busy handling biobanking, public procurement matters, compliance issues and clinical trials for pharmaceutical, biotech and medical devices entities, among others. The team also counts advising companies on regulatory and implementation issues on the use of human biological samples as a key strength. Department head Marc Martens and counsel Nicolas Carbonnelle are the key contacts.

EU regulatory: Privacy and data protection Tier 1

Benoit Van Asbroeck leads the team at Bird & Bird, which is a member of a consortium advising on an ongoing EU-funded big-data project. Other areas of instruction include data breach cases, e-privacy matters, GDPR compliance and data transfer matters. Senior associate Julien Debussche is noted. Takeshige Sugimoto left the firm in July 2019.

Fintech Tier 1

Bird & Bird's long-established reputation in the technology sector makes it a first choice for many clients. In Brussels, the team is particularly well-known for its strengths in the payments sector, where it provides comprehensive advice on the gamut of competition, regulatory and commercial legal issues. Clients include international banks, corporates and payment services providers. Scott McInnes and Paul Hermant advise fast-growing San Francisco-based technology company Stripe on its payments regulatory issues in Europe, including those relating to PSD2. Another name to note is Cathie-Rosalie Joly, who is based in Paris, but also admitted to the Brussels bar. She advises fintech clients on financial regulation, data protection and cybersecurity.

Industry focus: Food Tier 1

Bird & Bird leverages its full service capabilities to provide well-rounded advice on the full range of contentious and non-contentious matters in the food and beverage sector; it also utilises the firm's international network in cross-border matters. Jean-Christophe Troussel, who advises on a range of commercial, IP and regulatory issues, heads up the practice group.

Industry focus: Healthcare and life sciences Tier 1

Bird & Bird's 'highly responsive and knowledgeable' life sciences and healthcare team handles the full range of contentious and non-contentious matters in the sector, including regulatory, corporate and commercial, competition and IP issues. Regulatory expert Marc Martens heads up the international industry practice group and has particular experience advising on advanced therapies, clinical trials and data exclusivity mandates. Counsel Nicolas Carbonnelle is another name to note for regulatory matters, while IP partner Jean-Christophe Troussel is highlighted for patent and trade mark issues and corporate partner Paul Hermant handles transactional work.

Industry focus: IT and telecoms Tier 1

Bird & Bird's TMT practice advises on the full spectrum of contentious and non-contentious issues including licensing work, outsourcings and joint venture agreements, IP protection, regulatory issues and public procurement mandates across the IT and telecoms sectors. Benoit Van Asbroeck, who combines data protection, commercial contract and public procurement expertise, and EU and competition specialist Hein Hobbelen jointly lead the practice.

Intellectual property Tier 1

Bird & Bird has been especially active in big-ticket patent litigation, often with a cross-border flavour, and reports an increase in licensing disputes. The group also handles copyright disputes and trade mark litigation, as well as non-contentious IP mandates. Jean-Christophe Troussel heads the practice; Benoit Van Asbroeck, associate Guillaume de Villegas de Clercamp and counsel Domien Op de Beeck are key contacts.

EU regulatory: Financial services Tier 2

Scott McInnes and Paul Hermant are the key contacts at Bird & Bird. The team is well known for its solid capabilities in assisting with online payment and electronic banking matters, and in this space, is advising software company Stripe on payment regulation issues.

EU regulatory: Food Tier 2

Counsel Nicolas Carbonnelle heads up Bird & Bird's food practice. The 'pragmatic' group has been advising food producer Dr. Oetker on labelling issues, novel food matters and EU recipe compliance, to name a few areas.

EU regulatory: Information technology Tier 2

Benoit Van Asbroeck and Marc Martens jointly head Bird & Bird's practice, which counts IT contracts, cybersecurity and public procurement matters as key areas of expertise.

Industry focus: Media and entertainment Tier 2

The technology communications and media team at Bird & Bird leverages a multidisciplinary team to advise clients in media-related arenas. The group is jointly led by IP and IT-sector expert Benoit Van Asbroeck and Hein Hobbelen, who focuses on EU and competition law.

Not-for-profit Tier 2

Employment Tier 3

Bird & Bird's team is 'very practical, with a business solution mindset'. Compliance matters have been prominent in the group's workload over the past year; restructuring, dismissals and contentious work has also been prominent. The client base includes prominent life sciences and technology entities. Pieter De Koster heads the department; counsel Cecilia Lahaye and senior associate Anton Aerts are key contacts.

Dispute resolution Tier 4

At Bird & Bird, the team is perhaps best known for its strength in IP litigation, however the group is also adept at handling corporate and financial disputes; Paul Hermant is a key figure in this area. The department is led by IP expert Benoit Van Asbroeck.

Tax Tier 4

Bird & Bird's tax practice is particularly active in industries such as aviation, life sciences, media and IT and e-commerce. Another area of strength is in the not-for-profit sector, where it handles a wide range of direct and indirect tax issues for a sizeable number of international associations with a presence in Belgium. The main contact at the firm is Brent Springael, who is a member of institutes such as the Tax and Legal Committee of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) and the Belgian branch of the International Fiscal Association. Recent highlights included Springael acting as tax counsel to BBAM in an aircraft lease novation transaction. He also assisted UK non-profit organisation the International Currency Association with corporate and tax issues connected with the structuring of its conference activities in Europe. Also notable is that Springael has particular expertise in tax matters that have an interplay with intellectual property issues.

Commercial, corporate and M&A Tier 5

Bird & Bird's corporate and M&A team handles a range of corporate and commercial transactions and governance advice. It counts the life sciences, TMT and financial services industries among its sector specialisms, and has recently been particularly active in venture capital transactions. Paul Hermant leads the practice and has broad experience across M&A deals, IPOs, joint ventures and litigation.

Competition: EU and global Tier 5

José Rivas heads up Bird & Bird's multinational competition team, which attracts a large and diverse portfolio of high-profile, cross-border work. Its coverage of all the main subsets of competition law is complemented by its knowledge about sector-specific regulatory issues. Scott McInnes is an expert in competition and regulatory issues impacting the payments sector, particularly card payments. Hein Hobbelen has specialist expertise in the areas of technology and communications, media, entertainment and sports. Hobbelen was recently part of the team which acted for T-Mobile Netherlands as an interested third party on the re-notification of the Liberty Global (UPC)/Ziggo transaction at the EC.  Anne Federle is particularly knowledgeable about the automotive industry. The team also includes of counsel Lawrence Freeman, who joined in 2018 from Tesla. The firm also generates work from clients in other industries. In one example, Rivas is part of a cross-border group, which is acting for Easyjet before the General Court of the EU in an appeal of an EC decision on State aid concerning funding granted to Sardinian airports. Of counsel Serge Durande joined from DG COMP.