Baker McKenzie BV/SRL

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Géry Bombeke heads the Tax Practice Group at Baker McKenzie Belgium. He is based in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2004, after several years of experience in a Big 4 company and its related law firm. He became partner in 2010 Géry advises our clients on a broad range of corporate income tax issues, both international and domestic. Géry's practice focuses on transfer pricing, where he assists clients with strategy, design, implementation and documentation. He also regularly negotiates unilateral and bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APA), and assists in transfer pricing audits and disputes, including mutual agreement procedures. In addition to transfer pricing, Géry is also a tax specialist in corporate restructurings such as mergers and de-mergers, etc. where he assists our clients on pre- and post-acquisition restructurings, corporate simplifications, etc. Being based in the centre of the EU, Géry centralizes and coordinates for most of his international clients the firm's tax assistance in the region.

Geert Bovy heads the International Commercial & Trade Practice Group at Baker McKenzie Belgium and in the EMEA region. He is based in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2001. Geert was a teaching assistant in procedural law at KULeuven from 2006 to 2009 Geert advises clients on all aspects of commercial and consumer protection law. He often works on global or pan-European projects, assisting clients in navigating the differences between various local laws in a centralized and coordinated manner. Geert has extensive experience in drafting and negotiating a wide range of commercial agreements (e.g., sourcing, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, agency, franchising, selective distribution, sales. etc.) both in business-to-business and business-to-consumer contexts. He also advises clients on regulatory issues, marketing, promotion, labelling and advertising of consumer products, particularly food products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Geert's practice also comprises commercial litigation, including pre-litigation assistance, litigation and settlement negotiations.

Fiona Carlin heads the EU Competition & Regulatory Affairs Practice at Baker McKenzie Belgium. She is based in the Brussels office. She is the former chief executive of Baker McKenzie's EMEA region and the former chair of the Firm's Global Competition and Antitrust Law Practice comprising more than 320 lawyers in over 40 countries. She has remained an active practitioner throughout her various leadership roles with a particular focus on regulated industries. Fiona was a founding and long-standing member of Baker McKenzie's Global Diversity & Inclusion Committee and is dedicated to creating an inclusive high-performance culture where the talent of our lawyers and business professionals can flourish. Fiona advises clients on a wide range of competition law issues, including merger control, the structuring of distribution networks, state aid grants, compliance programmes and the defence of clients involved in competition investigations up to the appeal stage before the European courts in Luxembourg. Her focus is predominantly on the life sciences, consumer goods and industrials segments. Fiona has a stellar success rate before the European courts in competition and state aid cases. She has served as key adviser to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations ever since the European Commission's pharmaceutical sector inquiry was launched in 2007.

Elisabeth Dehareng

Elisabeth Dehareng heads the Information Technology & Communications and Intellectual Property practice groups at Baker McKenzie Belgium. She is based in the Brussels office. Elisabeth advises clients across all areas of IT, IP and new technology law, with a special focus on privacy, cybersecurity and AI. Her practice focuses on European and worldwide data protection compliance projects, in which field she advises on GDPR-readiness programmes, cross-border data transfer strategies, cybersecurity and data breach management. She provides strategic advice on internal compliance issues, whistleblower protection legislation, investigations and privacy/data litigation. She also helps clients navigating the new regulatory developments and enforcement in relation to the growing body of legislation governing the European Data & Digital Economy (DMA, DSA, Data Governance Act, Data Act, AI Act, NIS 2, Cybersecurity Act, Cyber-Resilience Act, among others), advertising and marketing practices, including adtech, and consumer protection. She represents clients in all sectors, with strong industry focus on tech, healthcare and financial services. Elisabeth's practice also covers data protection and cybersecurity aspects of corporate transactions and reorganisations.

Mario Deketelaere

Mario Deketelaere is an of counsel in the Environment Practice Group in the Antwerp office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2002. He is experienced in administrative and public law. Mario is also a visiting professor at KU Leuven and a lecturer at Karel de Grote Hogeschool (Antwerp). Mario focuses on the regional, federal and European "environmental law" (Omgevingsrecht/Droit de l'Environnement), i.e. all law matters relating to the planning and protection of the human living environment, including the strengthening relations between environmental law, urban planning law, nature conservation and environmental impact assessment. In this field he is recognized as one of the most recommended and leading Belgian practitioners (International Who's Who of Environment Lawyers). He has extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of soil clean-up and (hazardous) waste management, environmental liability issues, environmental and building permit procedures, product safety, and environmental taxes. He advises Belgian and foreign multinational companies from different industrial sectors (chemical, metal industry, raw materials, waste treatment, energy, construction, food, ICT) on authorisation procedures and regulatory compliance, and assists clients with litigation relating to those areas of law (i.e. in civil, criminal and administrative disputes and procedures) before the national courts, the Council of State, the Constitutional Court and the EU Court of Justice.

Kurt Haegeman is a partner in Baker McKenzie's EU Competition & Regulatory Affairs Practice in Brussels and co-Managing Partner of the Firm's Belgian offices. Kurt has extensive experience in advising consumer goods, luxury & fashion and cosmetics clients, and clients from other industry sectors, on complex multi-jurisdictional antitrust matters, including antitrust investigations focusing on horizontal and vertical conduct, dawn raid defence and leniency strategy. Kurt's team has a particularly strong track record in developing successful defense strategies for clients that are involved in antitrust investigations. Kurt assists consumer goods, luxury & fashion and cosmetics clients regularly in the development, roll-out and policing of Europe-wide distribution systems, and he has particular expertise in advising on selective distribution and ecommerce management. Kurt has been at the forefront of Baker McKenzie's efforts to support CG&R clients in their response to some of the most prominent challenges in today's marketplace, including the acceleration of digitisation, the shifting consumer attitudes towards ESG and the increasing regulations on supply chain transparency.

Raphaël Hendrickx

Raphaël Hendrickx is a junior associate in the IP and Technology Group in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2021. Raphaël advises clients on intellectual property and ICT-related matters, with a focus on tech, e-commerce, telecom and audio-visual content services regulation.

Bram Hoorelbeke

Bram Hoorelbeke is a counsel in Baker McKenzie's European Competition & Regulatory Affairs group in Brussels. He started his career in 2007 as a lawyer in the EU, competition and regulatory department of a highly regarded Benelux law firm. Bram joined Baker McKenzie in 2017 and is the assistant editor of Competition, the leading review on Belgian Competition law. In relation to EU competition law, Bram advises clients on a wide variety of competition law issues including merger notifications and Article 101 and 102 TFEU cases. Bram also advises on State aid cases and the application of the EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation. Bram also has extensive experience in government procurement procedures launched by European Union institutions. In addition, Bram deals with follow-on damage actions and competition-law-related claims before Belgian courts of law. Besides these competition-law-related matters, Bram advises clients on general EU law, such as free movement, customs, etc. With regard to Belgian competition law, Bram assists clients in the notification and follow-up of concentrations, and in complaints and procedures before the Mededingingscollege/Collège de la concurrence (Belgian Competition Council) and the Belgian courts of law. His sector experience includes fast-moving consumer goods, sports, the automotive industry, telecoms, platform economy, pharmaceuticals, semiconductor, chemicals and financial technologies.

Alain Huyghe is a partner in the Tax Practice Group of the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 1986 and became partner in 1994. Alain advises clients on a broad range of domestic corporate tax and international tax issues. He also has extensive experience in tax controversy work (including transfer pricing audits and disputes, mutual agreement procedures, and the representation of clients before the European Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court) and has successfully handled a number of major cases. He also focuses on advisory and tax controversy work for insurance companies on specific tax matters inherent to the insurance sector.

Els Janssens is a counsel in commercial law, litigation and healthcare regulatory issues in the Brussels office. Els worked as a senior regulatory legal counsel for Johnson & Johnson, supporting the company's global safety operations and advising on regulatory issues in relation to specific medicinal products. Els also worked as legal advisor for the European Medicines Agency, where she advised management, scientific committees, CMD(h) and the European Commission on a wide variety of issues in connection with authorisation procedures, submission requirements, pharmacovigilance obligations and procedures, as well as inspections. Based in Abu Dhabi from 2014 to 2019, she advised both multinational medical devices and pharmaceutical clients on healthcare regulations in the EU and UAE. Els advises multinational pharmaceutical clients and investors on healthcare regulations in the EU and UAE. She equally supports the Firm's global healthcare group with knowledge management for the healthcare sector.

Joren Jansseune

Joren Jansseune is a partner in the Banking & Finance Practice Group in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2012. Joren advises on a broad range of domestic and cross-border financing transactions, including syndicated lending, acquisition finance, real estate finance, trade and export finance, securitization, structured finance, financial restructuring, general financing operations and security interests.

Gregory Lebrun heads the Dispute Resolution & Arbitration Practice Group at Baker McKenzie Belgium. He is based in the Brussels office. Gregory has a particular focus on international litigation and arbitration, notably in the construction, technology and pharma sectors. He has extensive experience and an outstanding track record before commercial courts (including in summary proceedings), international courts and the Council of State. He is also known as a skilled negotiator, especially in the context of commercial contracts, settlements and discussions with public authorities. Gregory writes about and speaks regularly on litigation and arbitration, as well as on public contract-related topics. Gregory advises national and international clients on all legal aspects of business, commercial and administrative disputes, including regulatory issues. As well as representing clients in disputes, Gregory advises on dispute avoidance and project management issues. He and his team are known for managing pressing and/or critical situations and assisting large clients in crisis and reputational management.

Dominique Maes is co-managing partner of the Belgian offices. He also co-heads Baker McKenzie's Corporate Practice for the EMEA region and is a member of the Firm's Global M&A Steering Committee. Dominique is a Corporate/M&A partner in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 1999 and has been a partner since 2009. Dominique advises clients on M&A, private equity, reorganisations, and corporate compliance and governance. His practice focuses on private equity and M&A transactions, buy-outs, corporate restructurings and corporate governance issues.

Pascal Mallien is a senior counsel and leads the Environmental Law practice group in the Belgian offices. His experience is broader than environmental law; it also includes general compliance issues, construction law, renewable energy, zoning, and public procurement. Pascal's practice focuses on advice and litigation. He has developed extensive experience in these areas through defending landowners, contractors, architects and action groups. Pascal assists and represents clients in matters involving permit issues for all kinds of industries, including chemical plants, gas stations and wind farm projects. He deals with many soil contamination issues and related procedures on behalf of major industrial sites. His litigation knowhow comprises criminal, administrative and civil procedures, as well as environmental/product liability. His practical knowledge is very useful in ad rem advices.

Davinia Martens

Davinia Martens is a partner in the Corporate Finance Practice Group in the Brussels office. She joined Baker McKenzie in 2004. Davinia's practice focuses on reorganisations, M&A, private equity, and corporate compliance and governance. She is also a member of the Global Reorganisations Practice Group. Davinia advises both domestic and international clients on corporate finance matters, covering Belgian and cross-border M&A transactions and corporate reorganisations and restructurings, buy-outs, private equity, and venture capital transactions. She also advises clients on corporate compliance and governance matters and has played a prominent role in many of the reorganisations that our Belgian practice has been involved in.

Roel Meers is a partner in the Corporate Finance Practice Group of Baker McKenzie's Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 1997. Roel is head of the Corporate Finance Practice Group of Baker McKenzie in Belgium. He is also chair of the EMEA Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Group, and a member of the steering committee of the Global Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry Group and the EMEA Capital Markets Practice Group of Baker McKenzie. Roel advises clients in the field of corporate finance, covering mergers and acquisitions (public and private), private equity transactions, as well as security offerings, listings and other capital market transactions. He also advises on complex corporate restructurings, corporate governance matters, and shareholder activism.

Luc Meeus is a partner in the Tax and Corporate Finance practice groups and the global equity service line in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 1997. Luc has been mentioned consistently as a recommended tax lawyer in the European Legal 500 and other legal publications. Luc advises on the corporate and tax aspects of transactional work, with a specific focus on private equity, fund structuring and equity-based compensation plans. He focuses on fund structuring, private equity, equity-based compensation and transactional tax planning.

Julie Permeke is a partner in the Tax Practice Group of the Brussels office. She joined Baker McKenzie in 2016 after several years of experience as a tax lawyer in other well-reputed Benelux law firms. She also works as a voluntary researcher in the tax department of the Free University of Brussels. Julie has been listed as a recommended tax lawyer in the Legal 500. Julie has 10 years of extensive experience in tax controversy and tax advisory work. She has significant experience in complex procedural and dispute resolution tax matters, and represents clients at every stage of a tax dispute (e.g., assisting during tax audits, negotiating settlements, filing tax complaints and representing before the tax courts). She assists clients facing complex national or multijurisdictional tax audits and helps clients to deal with (or preparing for) tax dawn raids (including e-discovery matters). Julie also has extensive experience in national and international tax planning. She developed particular expertise in the field of wealth management, assisting financial intermediaries and high-net-worth individuals on personal tax planning and management of estates. In this context, she has also assisted many high-net-worth individuals with migrations from and to Belgium.

Benjamin Pirlet

Dr. Benjamin Pirlet is a counsel in the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group in the Brussels office. Benjamin primarily advises Belgian and foreign clients on real estate and related tax matters. He has experience in all aspects of real estate matters, including corporate, tax and public law, and primarily focuses on real estate transactions and development projects, as well as tax structuring. His experience encompasses all types of real estate structures, including share deals, asset deals, split sales, in rem rights, building rights, financial leasing and sale-and-lease-back transactions, integrating both transactional and tax aspects. He is a regular speaker at real estate conferences, and he teaches and publishes regularly in the fields of real estate and tax law. He has completed a PhD at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on the transfer of real estate contracts.

Caroline Serbanescu

Caroline Serbanescu is a junior associate in the IP & Tech Practice Group in the Brussels office. She joined Baker McKenzie in March 2022. Prior to that, she worked as a Blue Book trainee at the European Commission and as a trainee at the Belgian Data Protection Authority as well as at several international business law firms. Caroline advises clients on various aspects in the field of Tech Law. Her practice focusses on assisting clients on complex legal questions in the areas of data law, data protection law, whistleblowing law, e-commerce law, marketing law, consumer law as well as cybersecurity law.

Kim Stas is a counsel in the Corporate Finance Practice of the Brussels office. She joined Baker McKenzie in 2008 after several years of experience in another international law firm. Kim advises clients on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate reorganizations as well as corporate governance and compliance.

Sebastian Tytgat

Sebastian Tytgat is a counsel in the International Commercial & Trade Practice Group in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2021. Sebastian has also been a civil procedure teaching assistant at KU Leuven from 2018 to 2024. He started his career as a lawyer at a first-tier independent Belgian law firm and continued as in-house counsel at the world's largest beer brewer, where he advised on contentious and non-contentious matters for the leisure and hospitality business in Belgium and Luxembourg. Sebastian advises national and international clients on contentious matters before judicial and arbitral courts. He also advises clients in various legal aspects of business, commercial and consumer protection law as well as the drafting and negotiating of a wide range of commercial agreements inter alia in the fields of agency, franchising and distribution.

Michael Van Acker

Michael Van Acker is a partner in Baker McKenzie's Banking & Finance practice group in Brussels, having been with the Firm since 2004. Michael advises on international finance, with a particular focus on leveraged finance deals across a number of industries and asset types. He is also well accomplished in advising on financial restructurings. Michael has represented a wide range of lenders and private equity sponsors on the leveraging of domestic and cross-border buy-outs, real estate acquisitions, and property redevelopments, among others.

Olivier Van Den Broeke

Olivier Van den broeke is a senior associate leading the Financial Services Regulatory, Fintech and Insurance practice in Belgium. He joined Baker McKenzie in 2013 and has more than 10 years of experience in advising financial institutions and Fintechs on a broad variety of financial services, Fintech and insurance regulatory matters. Olivier has authored several articles and contributions for leading journals on a variety of financial services regulatory matters. Olivier's practice focuses on complex financial services regulatory issues, regulatory driven strategic projects, transactions and restructurings, and financial services litigation and enforcement. He advises a broad range of clients active in the banking, insurance, Fintech, funds and payments industries. His clientele includes banks, insurers, payment and e-money institutions, investment firms, asset managers, pension funds, crypto asset firms, consumer lenders and various types of financial and insurance intermediaries. Matters that Olivier advises on include license applications, up-scaling and expanding of clients' businesses, digitisation and financial innovation, cross-border offering of financial services and products, obtaining regulatory approvals for strategic transactions and restructurings, complex financial contracting, securitisations, fund regulatory matters and supervisory enforcement. Olivier is also a trusted advisor in relation to governance requirements for financial institutions, sustainable finance, anti-money laundering and financial crime issues. From time to time, he is also involved in restructuring and insolvency matters.

Annick Van Hoorebeke

Annick Van Hoorebeke is a counsel in the Tax Practice Group in the Brussels office. She joined Baker McKenzie in 1990. Annick advises on employee compensation and benefits (including equity-based compensation), with a focus on the tax, social security and labour aspects of executive compensation and employee benefits for resident and non-resident (expatriate) individuals. Annick also advises on the structuring of cross-border transfers of employees and directors.

Lionel Van Reet

Lionel joined Baker McKenzie as customs lead in February 2022. He has over 23 years of experience in the field of customs, international trade, excises and energy levy. Lionel is lecturer at the UIA (Antwerp) and ULG (Liege). He is in charge of the customs, excises and international trade course at the Solvay Tax MBA. In 2023, Lionel was appointed by the Global ICC board as Chair of the ICC Global Customs Valuation Working Group. Lionel is also chairing the Indirect Taxes subcommittee of AMCHAM BE. Lionel's Indirect Tax practice team has been recognized as Tier 1 Indirect Tax Team in Belgium by ITR World Tax. Lionel focuses mainly on Trade & Customs transformation initiatives, Trade & Customs essentials, Trade & Customs processes optimization, Trade & Customs Strategy & Governance and Trade & Customs compliance. He has extensive knowledge and experience in the field of export control and sanctions, and in assisting companies in reviewing and managing their export control compliance monitoring system. Lionel furthermore has comprehensive knowledge of trade management, compliance and risk technical solutions (e.g., SAP GTS, MIC, Oracle GTM, Conex, Descartes, Streamsoftware, etc.). Over the course of his career, Lionel has also been heavily involved in the Trade aspects and impacts of the implementation of several trade-related legislations: REACH, CITES, Green Deal (inc. CBAM,..) in the EMEA region.

Dimitri Van Uytvanck

Dimitri heads the employment & compensation department for Belgium. He is based at the Brussels office. Dimitri is a recognized professional in labour law and social security law. He has a particular focus on the employment law aspects of corporate restructurings, transfer of undertakings, flexible working arrangements and privacy. Dimitri also advises clients in connection with remuneration packages for executives, employee benefits schemes, employment contracts, labour union relations within companies and other business-critical issues. Dimitri advises national and international clients on all legal aspects of individual and collective labour law. Dimitri is known in the market as a pragmatic and to-the-point lawyer who always focuses on the legal and economic interests of the company. He and his team also assist in sensitive investigations related to HR and discrimination matters.

Jean-François Vandenberghe

Jean-François Vandenberghe heads the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group at Baker McKenzie Belgium and for the larger part of the EMEA region. He is based in the Brussels office. He joined Baker McKenzie in 1994. He is also a member of the Environmental Law Practice Group and the Corporate Practice Group. Jean-François was also the managing partner of the Belgian offices from 2009 to 2016, and more recently ad-interim since end of January 2023 to end of March 2024. Jean-François advises national and international clients on real estate transactions and their environmental aspects.

Koen Vanhaerents

Koen Vanhaerents is a partner in corporate finance in the Brussels office. Koen joined Baker McKenzie in 1987. He advises Belgian and foreign clients on a wide range of corporate finance operations (both public and private) and complex corporate law issues. He is closely involved in numerous operations and take-overs on the Belgian capital markets, private equity transactions and mergers and acquisitions. From October 2009 to October 2014, Koen was a member of the Executive Committee of Baker McKenzie and Chairman of the EMEA Region of the Firm. From October 2014 to July 2020, he was Head of Global Capital Markets. Koen advises Belgian and foreign clients on a wide range of corporate finance operations (both public and private) and complex corporate law issues. He is also closely involved in numerous operations and takeovers on the Belgian capital markets, private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions.

Nastassja Walschot

Nastassja Walschot is a counsel in the Dispute Resolution & Arbitration Practice Group and the International Trade & Commerce Practice Group, based in Brussels. She worked as a trainee in 2014 and 2015 and joined the Firm as an associate in 2016. Nastassja is also a teaching assistant at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Nastassja's practice consists mainly of assisting national and international clients in their contentious matters before judicial courts and arbitral tribunals, as well as in investigations and compliance matters. She also advises clients in various legal aspects of business, commercial, public and contract law.