Vermulst Verhaeghe & Graafsma Advocaten--Avocats

Practice Areas

Vermulst Verhaeghe & Graafsma Advocaten is an independent international law firm based in Brussels. The firm is headed by three partners and a senior advisor. The firm is specialised in providing advice and rendering assistance on all aspects of international, EU and Belgian law. The firm's clients consist of major multinational corporations, international business organisations and governments.

The firm advises and assists clients in all areas of international and Belgian corporate, corporate finance, commercial, banking, and tax law. The firm has significant expertise in cross-border joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, corporate restructurings, project finance and capital markets work, including IPO, privatisation and securitisation work. The firm has also a media, real estate and labour law practice. The firm is internationally recognized for its expertise in customs law, anti-dumping and other commercial defence laws, and WTO law work.More specifally the practice areas of the Firm include:

I. International and EU Trade law

This practice consists of:

· Advising clients on EU trade regulations and policy, and representing them before the Community institutions in anti-dumping litigation, anti-subsidy investigations, and other EU trade litigation disputes. Advising clients on legal and practical options with respect to EU import restrictions such as quantitative restrictions and safeguard measures.

· Advising clients on EU customs law.

· Advising multilateral trade organisations, such as WTO, UNCTAD, OECD.

· Advising clients on and participating in WTO dispute settlement proceedings.

II. EU Regulatory Law

This practice consists of:

· Advising clients on EU trademark legislation and representing them before the Office for Harmonisation of the Internal Market.

· Advising international organisations, foreign governments and semi-governmental organisations on a wide range of EU internal market issues.

· Advising clients on the legislative initiatives on consumer protection, media and telecom and environmental law at the Community level and the Member States' implementing measures.

· Advising clients on EU competition law, and representing clients in merger control proceedings.

· Advising clients on EU public procurement law.

III. Corporate and Corporate Finance

This practice consists of:

· Advising and assisting clients in local and cross-border joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, corporate restructurings as well as with direct investments, distributorship and agency agreements, government procurement contracts, transfer of technology agreements and other similar matters.

· Advising and assisting clients in their financing needs, including assisting clients in their dealings with commercial banks and with accessing the national and international capital markets, including IPO's, secondary equity offerings, all kinds of debt offerings, private placements, structured finance and securitisation work.

· Advising and assisting clients, and in particular international finance institutions and commercial banks on project finance and privatisions projects.

· Advising and assisting clients in real estate development, investment and finance matters.

· Advising and assisting clients on a variety of corporate and corporate finance issues including but not limited to directors liability, conflicts of interest, insider trading, shareholders agreements, corporate governance, management buy-outs, stock option plans etc.

· Advising and assisting clients in the telecom and media industry with respect to their intellectual property rights, negotiation of national and international agreements, representation before the competent authorities

IV. Tax

This practice consists of:

· Advising and assisting corporate clients with respect to the international and Belgian income tax, value added tax, registration tax, and other tax aspects of local and cross-border joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, corporate restructurings as well as direct investments, the location of corporate headquarters, group finance, treasury, distribution and service centers, as well as of distributorship and agency agreements, transfer pricing and corporate finance structures.

· Advising and assisting corporate clients with respect to the relocation of expat employees to and from Belgium and in general advising and assisting corporate clients with respect to tax effective compensation techniques for employees and contractors.

· Advising and assisting clients with respect to estate tax planning.

V. Commercial litigation and arbitration

This practice consists of:

· Advising and representing clients in commercial litigation before the Belgian courts and advising, assiting and representing clients in international commercial and trade arbitration proceedings.