CMS EU > Brussels, Belgium > Firm Profile

CMS EU
Avenue des Nerviens 85
1040 Brussels
Belgium

Email firm Visit website 32 2 743 69 00 32 2 743 69 01

Department	Name	Email	Telephone
Banking and finance
Commercial
Competition and EU
Consumer products
Corporate and M&A
Dispute resolution
Employment and pensions
Climate Change & Energy
Environment
Hotels and leisure
Infrastructure and project finance
Innovation
Insolvency and restructuring
Insurance and funds
Intellectual property
Life sciences and healthcare
Private equity
Public law
Public procurement
Public-private partnerships
Real estate and construction
Tax
TMT
Data protection and information security

Name	Position	Profile
Mrs Sophie Berg	Partner	View Profile
Mr Pierre-Axel Chabot	Partner	View Profile
Mr Gaël Chuffart	Partner	View Profile
Mr Tom De Cordier	Partner	View Profile
Mrs Julie De Pauw	Senior Associate	View Profile
Mrs Lisbeth Depypere	Senior Associate	View Profile
Mr Vincent Dirckx	Partner	View Profile
Mrs Elke Duden	Partner	View Profile
Mr Renaud Dupont	Partner	View Profile
Mr Bruno Duquesne	Partner	View Profile
Mr Bruno Fonteyn	Senior Associate	View Profile
Mr Jean-François Goffin	Partner	View Profile
Mr Tom Heremans	Partner	View Profile
Mrs Stéphanie Houx	Partner	View Profile
Mr Carl Leermakers	Partner	View Profile
Mrs Annabelle Lepièce	Partner	View Profile
Mrs Catherine Matton	Senior Associate	View Profile
Mr David Prync	Partner	View Profile
Mr Olivier Querinjean	Partner	View Profile
Mr Dirk Van Liedekerke	Partner	View Profile
Mr Arnaud Van Oekel	Partner	View Profile
Mr Benoît Vandervelde	Partner	View Profile

Number of lawyers : 163 (Brussels/Antwerp/Luxembourg)

English
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Portuguese
Spanish
Serbian
Swedish
Greek
Chinese

Contact : Renaud Dupont
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni, Italy;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo, Spain;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, France;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Cameron McKenna, UK;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Derks Star Busmann, Netherlands;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS von Erlach Poncet, Switzerland;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Hasche Sigle, Germany;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz, Austria;
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Rui Pena Arnaut, Portugal
Other CMS alliance member firms : CMS Luxemburg

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers Verdict

With an ‘international, national and regional presence, a collegiate work culture and approachable senior lawyers’ it’s easy to see why the current trainee cohort chose CMS. A ‘top reputation in the energy and infrastructure sectors’ and an ‘amazing client pool’ also convinced recruits that this was the firm for them. CMS’ commitment to diversity and inclusion came up time and time again in the feedback: ‘the firm shows its dedication to diversity by embedding these principles into its culture’ and 'you can see this by speaking to anyone at the firm’. The ‘hybrid working policy is strong’, leading to the firm being awarded a Future Lawyers Winner medal in this category. The people are ‘driven, innovative and intelligent but also very approachable’ and the work environment is ‘described as ‘collaborative and encouraging’. Elaborating, one respondent said: ‘the social benefits of working at CMS are definitely the best thing. The culture is not what you would expect from an international law firm’. Things that annoy trainees are the ‘lack of transparency around seat rotation’, that ‘Scottish (and other regional office) pay at trainee/NQ level is lacking compared to similarly-placed firms’, and that some recruits have to 'split our training contracts across two cities’, which makes for logistical difficulties. Best moments ranged from ‘closing a multi-billion-pound deal’ and ‘carrying out research for well-known football club clients’ to ‘working on a large portfolio property sale’. Worst moments included ‘occasional (but pretty major) time squeezes when working for multiple teams', ‘silly spelling errors sent in emails’, and ‘our training being frontloaded, rather than introduced gradually to allow aspects to sink in’. For ‘high-level, rewarding work across multiple practice areas’ in a firm with a ‘global demographic’, research CMS.

CMS ADVISES ROOJAI ON ITS US$42 MILLION SERIES B FUNDRAISING

22nd August 2023 CMS has advised Ignite Thailand Holdings Limited (trading as “Roojai”), a managing general agent developing its own retail insurance products and distributing them digitally on a B2C model in Thailand and Indonesia,

CMS ADVISES BITDEFENDER ON ITS ACQUISITION OF HORANGI CYBER SECURITY

22nd August 2023 CMS has advised Bitdefender, a global cybersecurity leader, on its cross-border acquisition of Singapore-based Horangi Cyber Security to address the growing demand for advanced, streamlined management of cybersecurity, compliance, and governance of multi-cloud environments.

Singapore corporate regulator plans changes to stiffen AML prevention

3rd November 2023

This article is produced by CMS Holborn Asia, a Formal Law Alliance between CMS Singapore and Holborn Law LLC.

Introduction

Amidst a high-profile money laundering investigation involving (currently) at least S$2.8 billion in domestic assets, Singapore’s government has recently announced plans to introduce additional measures to strengthen Singapore’s anti-money laundering (“AML”) regime.^[1]

Expanding the scope of digital oath taking in Singapore

8th August 2023 The Oaths, Declarations and Notarisations (Remote Methods) Bill was passed in Parliament on 2 August 2023.

Roadmap to Terminate the SGD Cheque Truncation System Eliminating Corporate Cheques by 2025 (MAS’ response to feedback received)

7th August 2023 Introduction

As part of its Smart Nation Vision, Singapore aims to transition into an innovative e-payments society where everyone has easy access to swift, simple and secure payments. To facilitate this transition, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) consulted[1] financial institutions, members of industry associations, government agencies and members of the public on proposed initiatives to:

eliminate centrally cleared cheques issued by corporates (“corporate cheques”) by 2025; and
assist and encourage remaining users of centrally cleared cheques (including individuals) that are able to switch to alternative payment methods to do so.

2. The consultation began on 2 November 2022, and closed on 13 December 2022. 3. On 28 July 2023, MAS published its response[2] to the consultation in which it evaluated the feedback obtained from respondents and explained how it would incorporate suggestions into its roadmap to terminate the SGD Cheque Truncation System (“CTS”). The more pertinent portions of MAS’ response are summarised below. Barriers in switching to non-cheque alternative payment methods 4. Property and legal sectors

Respondents noted that cheques are commonly used in property-related transactions. For example, cheques are often used for the payment of stamp duties to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, and flat purchases from the Housing Development Board. To this end, MAS highlighted that the Electronic Deferred Payment (“EDP”) solution, which will be launched by 2025, can serve as a cheque alternative for property transactions. More information on the EDP solution can be in Annex B of MAS’ response[3]. The Singapore Land Authority is also developing a Digital Conveyancing Portal (“DCP”) that seeks to digitalise the existing manual and paper-based conveyancing process, thereby eliminating cheques from the process as well. The DCP is targeted for full commissioning in 2026.
As for the legal sector, respondents noted that while the Legal Profession (Solicitors’ Accounts) Rules has been amended to allow for the use of e-payments in respect of payment of monies out of client accounts, the requirement for such e-payments to be made with the authorisation of two solicitors using biometric authentication made it operationally and technically difficult. In response, MAS highlighted that the Law Society of Singapore has completed its review of the challenges relating to the use of e-payments for the payment of monies out of client accounts and has published a revised Practice Direction 3.3.11 for its members. The revised Practice Direction 3.3.11, which came into operation on 23 May 2023, clarifies the technical requirements for digital payments from client accounts.

Initiatives to eliminate corporate cheques and encourage cheque users to switch to alternative payment methods 5. Charges to be imposed for cheque usage

All Domestic Systematically Important Banks (D-SIBs)[4] in Singapore will impose charges on SGD-denominated cheques by 1 November 2023, while the rest of the banks will do so by 1 July 2024. This will encourage payment users to switch to cheaper and more convenient alternative payment methods, where available. The financial industry will not adopt a baseline rate to be charged in view of anti-competition rules.
There are also plans to implement charges for USD-denominated cheques for both corporate and retail users. Timelines for this and related initiatives will be set out in MAS’ second public consultation.

6. Public communication and support MAS will work with the Association of Banks in Singapore and other government and industry stakeholders to raise public awareness of the elimination of corporate cheques by 2025. Together, they will address concerns and provide support for those that may face challenges in their transition to alternative payment methods.

Footnotes [1]p011_consultation-paper-on-roadmap-to-terminate-the-sgd-cts---eliminating-corporate-cheques-by-2025.pdf (mas.gov.sg) [2] response-to-consultation---roadmap-to-eliminate-corporate-cheques.pdf (mas.gov.sg) [3] response-to-consultation---roadmap-to-eliminate-corporate-cheques.pdf (mas.gov.sg) [4] These banks are Citibank, DBS Bank, HSBC, Maybank, OCBC, Standard Chartered Bank and UOB.

Doing business in the UAE
CMS’s John O’Connor and Harkee Wilson discuss the challenges and issues businesses face operating in the UAE and investigate some of the recent changes in the business environment.

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CMS ADVISES ROOJAI ON ITS US$42 MILLION SERIES B FUNDRAISING

CMS ADVISES BITDEFENDER ON ITS ACQUISITION OF HORANGI CYBER SECURITY

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Singapore corporate regulator plans changes to stiffen AML prevention

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Expanding the scope of digital oath taking in Singapore

Roadmap to Terminate the SGD Cheque Truncation System Eliminating Corporate Cheques by 2025 (MAS’ response to feedback received)

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