Lydian

Managing Partner: Jan Hofkens
Number of partners: 17
Number of lawyers: 95
Languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Spanish

Firm Overview:
Lydian is a full-service Belgian business law firm with an Anglo-Saxon approach to practising law. Through a fine blend of transactional law expertise and litigation skills, the firm delivers straight to-the-point solutions that add true value.

Lydian listens to what is important and provides practical and personalised advice in a constantly changing world. That requires fresh thinking and tech savviness combined with proven experience. The firm believes that when knowledge travels, opportunities arise. It thinks client-focused, acts fast and speaks frankly in a language that you understand. Lydian makes sense, not nonsense. Expect accessible personalities, open minds and a pragmatic bullet point approach.

From its offices in Brussels, Antwerp and Hasselt, Lydian works as an extension of your team. Its lawyers cherish a close client-lawyer relationship, while their sophisticated approach outperforms the service of many competitors. Lydian believes in integrity, authenticity and consistency.

The firm’s mission is to find solutions through excellent legal insight and strong business instinct. That is how it exceeds expectations, delivers consistent results and forges long-term relationships with industry leaders.

Main Areas of Practice:  

Commercial & Litigation:
The firm’s commercial and litigation practice assists clients in all general commercial aspects of business. At the core of the department is a strong litigation practice and its lawyers have acted in some of the highest-profile cases. Lawyers from the department are renowned specialists in insurance, information and communication technology (ICT), information governance and data protection (privacy), intellectual property (IP) and life sciences.

Contacts: Bastiaan Bruyndonck, Hugo Keulers, Yves Lenders, Sandra Lodewijckx, Jo Willems

Corporate & Finance:
The firm’s corporate and finance lawyers assist businesses across the whole spectrum of corporate and finance work: M&A, acquisition finance, structured finance, joint ventures, private equity, capital markets, merger control, insolvency and restructuring, banking, regulatory finance and day to day corporate housekeeping. The firm assists clients in connection with both national and cross-border transactions both private and public.

Contacts: Peter De Ryck, Maxime Colle, Florence Colpaert, Tom Geudens

Dispute Resolution:
Dispute Resolution issues are extremely diverse and require expertise in many areas of practice. The size of Lydian’s dispute resolution team not only enables Lydian to offer clients a full range of services and support, but also makes sure that questions are handled by a specialist dedicated to the specific practice area that clients need. Each question, each issue, is pragmatically tackled. Clients are looking for no-nonsense answers, and this is exactly what this team delivers, always. Each lawyer in this team has a particular area of expertise, be it alternative dispute resolution (mediation, arbitration, etc.) or state court litigation.

Contacts: Hugo Keulers, Yves Lenders, Jo Willems

Employment, Pensions & Benefits:
Clients rely on the employment practice for all matters of Belgian, European and international employment, social security and pension law. The firm is particularly known for its company restructurings and pensions practice. Lydian’s lawyers have also acquired a solid reputation in discrimination in employment relations, whistleblowing cases, employee fraud, assisting senior executives and employment in the public sector.

Contacts: Jan Hofkens, Alexander Vandenbergen, Kato Aerts, Jurgen De Vreese

Information & Communication Technology:
The firm’s information and communication technology (ICT) team advises clients (technology companies and corporate customers) on the full spectrum of technology matters. The combination of the team’s in-depth knowledge of the industry together with its multi-disciplinary expertise in information technology (IT), outsourcing and technology contracts, e-commerce, e-communications regulation and projects, data protection (privacy) and intellectual property enables us to offer you a full range of services and support. The firm’s ICT team is familiar with the challenges facing the technology sector, understands the dynamics of this fast-paced environment and can demonstrate thorough industry knowledge and international experience.

Contact: Bastiaan Bruyndonckx

Information Governance & Data Protection (Privacy):
The firm’s information governance and data protection (privacy) team offers clients the best possible solutions and advice and is therefore your ideal partner. Together with the client, in an open and proactive atmosphere, its lawyers will work to find the solutions and opportunities the client is looking for. The team has specialist expertise in its field and has excellent contacts with the relevant authorities at European and local level.

Contacts: Bastiaan Bruyndonckx, Isabel Plets

Intellectual Property:
All the lawyers of Lydian’s intellectual property team have particular areas of expertise, whether in trademarks, patents, copyright, design, trade secrets and know-how, counselling or litigation, licensing, e-commerce, software, media and/or advertising.

Contact: Olivia Santantonio

Real Estate, Environment & Regulatory:
The real estate, environment and regulatory practice represents clients in real estate and environmentrelated matters. The firm’s public law experts also advise governments and private clients on all public law and regulatory issues. The team has specialist expertise in the fields of energy, ports and logistics, public contracts and real estate investment.

Contacts: Jens Debièvre, Dario Petosa, Bruno Stroobants

Tax:
Lydian’s tax practice encompasses the very broad fields of tax consultancy and tax dispute resolution, whether on a stand-alone basis or as an integral part of the full legal service offered by Lydian. The firm’s tax lawyers advise clients on how to comply with tax legislation whilst minimising the tax burden and structuring activities in a tax efficient way.

Contact: Geert De Neef

Clients:
Clients include a large number of high profile listed and non-listed Belgian and non-Belgian companies in all sectors of industry, as well as a large number of public sector clients.