The firm’s public and administrative law team has 15 lawyers, including three partners: Dirk Lindemans, Bernard Deltour and Frank Judo. It is generally regarded as one of the very best in the country, especially in relation to environmental law (including town and country planning) and energy. The team practises both federal law and the regional laws of Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia.
We advise a large number of corporations and federations of undertakings, both Belgian and foreign, in sectors as diverse as real estate, large-scale distribution, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, the extraction industries, energy, environmental services, the oil industry, etc. We are also frequently consulted by public authorities, mainly in Belgium, public agencies and autonomous public corporations (in areas such as public finance, the media, transport, education and tourism), as well as by private individuals.
Because the regulation of different economic sectors is inherent in and strategic to numerous areas of business life, our teams are daily required to work in close collaboration with the firm’s other departments and teams. Particularly in real estate transactions, the development and financing of projects or in relation to mergers and acquisitions. Or in tax matters.
In Belgium, public business law is especially complex in nature due to the institutional and cultural diversity of the country. Made up of seasoned, multilingual practitioners hailing from a variety of quarters, our teams are distinguished not only by their legal excellence but also by their socio-political intelligence and pragmatism.
A. ENVIRONMENT
B. ENERGY
A. ENVIRONMENT
Sustainable development and its environmental challenges are of strategic importance more than they’ve ever been. Global stakes, international debates, regional campaigns, local impacts: all have effects of greater or lesser directness and intensity, but always of essence to the functioning of our society and its citizens, both private and corporate.
For decades, our lawyers have assisted our clients in the practice of environmental law.
Our multilingual teams assist our clients in dealings with European, federal, regional and local institutions in dispute-resolution cases (whether involving constitutional, administrative, civil or criminal law), or in advising on project development or merger and acquisition transactions. In Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region, our continual presence at their side has earned us a reputation as one of the best teams in the country in this domain. On an international level, we have forged a dense network of privileged relations with renowned law firms in this area of practice.
Our involvement focuses on our clients’ interests. Our course of action is pragmatic. It combines legal excellence with intelligence of the economic or socio-political stakes that our clients face. Conscious of complex technical and scientific reality and the frequent importance of the media angle, our tack is always to maximise the value-added of our involvement.
The rigour and efficacy of our working methods have earned us the confidence of a large number of companies and federations of undertakings, especially in the following sectors:
Recently, the firm has acted in the following cases:
the allocation of emissions quotas in the context of an acquisition of industrial assets;
exemption from soil clean-up obligations, by administrative or judicial means;
assistance in a project for the development of a commercial property subject to a study of cross-border environmental impacts;
assistance in projects for redevelopment of waste management plant;
institution of a network for the collection of special waste in the country’s three regions;
assistance to an industrial sector subject to environmental taxation, at a regional and Community level (legislative advocacy; constitutional dispute-resolution; etc.);
assistance in a number of the more important real estate portfolio transfer and acquisition operations in Belgium;
various advisory cases relative to pan-European implementation of the Community REACH, WEEE and RoHS rules, in close collaboration with foreign law firms;
assistance in the operational expansion of the largest industrial operator in the Walloon Region;
set-up of a consortium to study the environmental and health impacts of nano-materials in food and drink products.
B. ENERGY
In relation to energy law, the firm’s practice concentrates mainly on deregulation of the gas and electricity markets. In these areas, our involvement mainly covers transport and distribution, but also production, supply and transit.
The energy law team is especially well-known for the scope of its experience and its sectoral competences, and it is instructed in a large number of advisory and dispute-resolution cases.
Our advisory activities particularly encompass the organisation of the market and the structuring of its players, regulatory changes, the various forms of downstream contract, the obligations incumbent on new set-ups, etc. The firm has thus acted in all the major recent operations to restructure the Belgian electricity and gas market.
Our advocacy practice in energy law has contributed considerably to the firm’s reputation in this area. We particularly act in a large number of cases involving tariffs, interconnection capacities, supplier accreditation, transport authorisations, the location and relocation of plants, the taxation of certain activities, etc. From simple appeals to the administrative authorities (federal or regional) to the highest courts in the land (the Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation and the Supreme Administrative Court), our experience covers every level of instance, including the Brussels Court of Appeal and the Competition Council in the framework of their specific jurisdictions.