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Areas of practice

  • Aviation & Transport
  • Dugardyn & Partners has extensive experience in aviation law, specifically aircraft finance and leasing with respect to commercial aircraft and corporate jets.  It has been nominated as Aviation Law Firm of the Year- Belgium 2010 by Global Law Experts. Birgitta Van Itterbeek is for several years now listed as a leading aviation lawyer in Who’s Who Legal.

    We act for the major airlines in Belgium as their house lawyers for several years, but also regularly advise lessors and financial institutions on aircraft finance and leasings. The firm has also advised large multinationals or wealthy individuals on corporate jets.
    Apart from the aircraft finance and leasing, the firm has also, with Olivier Dugardyn as leading expert a well established practice in regulatory affairs, such as IATA issues, passengers’ rights, EASA rules, national and international transport law. It also assists clients such as insurance companies and airlines on insurance issues in the above matters.

  • Banking and Finance
  • Dugardyn & Partners has a vast experience in financial law, both the litigation and transactional aspects or for specialist legal advice. In litigation the firm has a particular knowledge in MiFID issues, consumer credit and derivates. Both Thierry Ongenae and Françoise Guebs have a particular knowledge in funds, including UCITS IV and AIFMD UCITS V and PRIP’s regulations. Françoise Guebs has also a particular knowledge in clearing, settlement and custody, and capital markets.

    With Birgitta Van Itterbeek the transactional practice, includes unsecured or secured syndicate or single lender facilities, drafting of security interests, acquisition financing, real estate financing, leasing, securitisation, aircraft financing, asset based or asset backed financing and project financing.


    We regularly advise financial institutions, companies, wealthy private individuals and investment funds.


  • Distribution, Agency Law & International Sales

  • Dugardyn & Partners has a significant experience in drafting distribution and commercial agency agreements as well as international sales agreements. We regularly provide legal advice and handle litigations for both Belgian and international clients in several industries, including food and wine sector.


  • European Competition Law & General EU Law

  • The lawyers active in this department of our law firm have a broad experience in advising clients on all aspects of Competition Law, in various industries, including cartels, merger control, abuse of dominant positions, joint ventures and distribution arrangements.  They represent clients before the European and national competition authorities and before the courts.

    They have also developed a special expertise in the representation of European state employees and civilians in the procedures against Member States and European institutions.


  • General commercial and corporate

  • We assist our clients with all their corporate law issues, ranging from corporate house keeping to incorporation of companies, capital increases or decreases, liquidations, insolvency or solvent restructurings issues, shareholders agreements or litigations and general corporate advice.

    Apart from the specialist area’s, we have e general commercial law practice, including un fair trade practices, debt recovery, service contracts, sales and purchases of business or stock, general sales conditions, Inco terms, documentary credits and international sales.


  • Information Technology Law

  • At Dugardyn & Partners, our lawyers acting in the information technology law field are recognised as experts on subjects such as Internet intellectual property, electronic payment systems, electronic contracting, personal data protection, encryption, export control issues, and database protection.

    They regularly advise companies in Information Technology Law aspects of all kinds of business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-business endeavors.


  • Insurance & Reinsurance

  • At Dugardyn & Partners, our lawyers have a particular knowledge of insurance matters with a special focus on reinsurance and retrocessions.

    We regularly assist reinsurance and insurance companies.


  • Intellectual Property

  • Our lawyers achieve their clients’ intellectual property objectives effectively and efficiently by combining a deep understanding of patent, copyright, trade secret, and trademark law with knowledge the relevant business and regulatory environments.

    Our specialists’ intellectual property work encounters the following issues:

    • Copyright
    • Copyright litigation
    • Domain name
    • IP audit and asset management
    • IP litigation
    • Patent advisory and litigation
    • Piracy & Counterfeiting
    • Trademarks registration, management and litigation and
    • Trade secrets protection and litigation

  • Labour law

  • We represent both employers and employees, and our varied client base ranges from small enterprises to multinational organizations and trade unions. We, with Marc Loveniers as leading expert, and Christophe Van Hecke as responsible partner handle both individual and collective labour law matters, including breach of contract, hiring, collective bargaining, and moral and sexual harassment in the workplace.

    Drawing on our in-depth knowledge of labour and employment legislation and case law, we also represent our clients in court and are well versed in alternative means of dispute resolution, such as mediation and arbitration.


  • Life Sciences & Healthcare

  • Dugardyn & Partners integrates its specialized lawyers’ extensive regulatory and intellectual property experience to meet the needs of life sciences companies. The lawyers in this group have substantial cross-disciplinary experience in these practice areas, including practice experience in the European Union and China. This approach enables them to quickly understand our clients’ regulatory, intellectual property and commercial needs, to identify potential issues and to develop creative approaches of those issues.

    In terms of healthcare, our specialist can take advantage of the researches she leads within the Institute of European Studies of the Free University of Brussels. These researches concern mainly the possibility of an innovative use of the rising information technologies to allow a wide access of the patients to effective, profitable health care and of high quality.

    Within the framework of the expertise which she developed, our off-counsel lawyer can provide you the following services:

    • Drafting of subcontracts in medical on-line data processing
    • Analysis of existing contracts on the subject and modification according to the applicable legislation
    • Analysis of the obligations of the subcontractors in the eyes of the law of August 22nd, 2002 relative to the rights of the patient and the law of December 8th, 1992 relative to the private life
    • Opinion relating to quality of subcontracting services (interruption of the service, access to the codes in case of bankruptcy, etc.)
    • Opinion relating to the services of healthcare professionals an
    • Advice in development strategy of software by subcontractors
  • Litigation & Arbitration

  • At Dugardyn & Partners, our experienced lawyers handle litigation in business law, corporate law, financial products, insurance, insolvency, contractual and extra contractual liability and other commercial law matters, as well as arbitration, mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution at both the national and Community levels.
    Thanks to their experience in court, our lawyers can take advantage of the most suitable litigation tools available, and in many cases are able to predict the court's position before proceedings commence. We stress direct follow-up of cases by our lawyers, always keeping the client's best interest in mind.


  • M&A

  • Our practice focuses on small and medium size companies for which we handle on the buyer or seller’s side the entire process, from preparing the due diligence for the seller, and the corporate and financial structure, to drafting confidentiality letters, due diligence reports and share purchase agreements. If required we can assist our clients with tax issues in close cooperation with tax lawyers with whom we have close working connections.


  • National Competition Law & Anti Trust

  • Our lawyers have extensive experience in various areas of industry which allows them to come up with effective, creative and business-oriented solutions that comply with antitrust and competition law.

    We provide legal advice and counsel in this field for transactions such as joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and take-overs. We also represent our clients before the competition authorities on both the national and Community levels.


  • Privacy and Data Protection

  • Effective management of personal and sensitive data and privacy issues have become a priority for private companies and government agencies. Our specialists in personal and sensitive data protection, with Isabelle Andoulsi as leading expert assist these lasts on the following:

    • Compliance with requests for personal data by data protection authorities or in court proceedings
    • Personal data management and privacy policies
    • Compliance reviews and privacy audits
    • Cross-borders data exchanges
    • Structures for the management and procession of healthcare data
    • Management of other legal issues linked to personal data processing
    • Risks analysis in corporate M&A
    • Binding corporate rules and codes of conducts

  • Real Estate and Construction

  • Our lawyers, with Carl Van Gansewinkel and Jacques Buekenhout as leading experts, have extensive experience in all matters related to real estate and construction law and have assisted contractors, investors, owners and promoters in either the construction or acquisition of real estate. We also have excellent relations with the competent authorities.

    Our range of services encompasses the various stages of construction, from nurturing relations in the construction business and providing preliminary legal advice for a specific deal to drafting and negotiating all types of agreements. We are also able to assist our clients in financing, renting and leases, joint ventures, ownership structures, partnerships and condominiums, as well as the purchase or sale of real property and regulatory filings related to such projects.

    Our lawyers are also experienced in litigation. They are able to handle all kinds of procedures involving real property and construction and have successfully defended complex cases in court.


  • Travel Law

  • At Dugardyn & Partners, we work with leading experts and household names in the travel industry. For years, our lawyers have acted as counsel and advisors to a wide range of clients, including travel groups and agencies, airlines, and hotel chains and resorts and are often invited to speak at conferences around the world.

    Due to our vast experience in this field, we are able to provide in-depth and case-by-case solutions to meet our clients' needs. In addition, we have successfully represented our clients before the national, Community and international authorities.