Brussels, 12 April 2007— LAWFUEL – The Law Firm Newswire – Laga, one of the most prominent law firms in Belgium, is proud to announce that David Roelens has joined the firm as a corporate M&A partner.
David Roelens will contribute to the further expansion of the corporate M&A practice of the firm. His practice focuses on cross-border and domestic M&A, private equity and real estate transactions. He also advises clients on corporate law, financial law and general commercial law.
David gained extensive experience in the corporate M&A department of Clifford Chance Brussels where he started his career in 1996. He also spent significant time at the Clifford Chance New York office. Prior to joining Laga, he spent two years as senior legal counsel with The Post.
A graduate from the law faculty of KU Leuven in 1995, he completed an LLM at the New York University School of Law and obtained a postgraduate degree in finance at the K.U. Leuven.
Furthermore, Laga expanded its international commercial law practice with the recent arrival of Bart Lieben. Bart specialises in (international) commercial law, with a particular focus on intellectual property law, technology, media and telecommunications law. He represents clients in protecting, managing and enforcing their intellectual property rights, including transactional matters, such as distribution, agency, licensing, technology transfer, software development, outsourcing and service level agreements.
Bart holds a law degree (1998) and a Masters in business law from the University of Antwerp (2001), as well as Masters degrees in intellectual property law (1999) and corporate law (2000) from the Catholic University of Brussels and Louvain. He is a researcher at the Law Faculty of the University of Antwerp and the Brussels-based Institute for European Studies. He teaches on a regular basis at the University of Antwerp and the University of Alicante (Magister Lucentinus) on intellectual property matters, particularly technology transfer, the legal aspects of information technology, intellectual property dispute avoidance and dispute resolution.
Hilde Laga, the firm’s chairman, commented: “Over the past years we have made great progress in the development of our business law practice. The arrival of David, and the additional experience and expertise he brings in adds further depth to our corporate M&A practice and will further improve our offering in this area, particularly in the field of cross-border M&A and real estate. The expertise of Bart in the field of international commercial law and in particular intellectual property significantly broadens and reinforces our existing commercial practice. We are very glad to have them on board.”
Over the last year, Laga’s corporate M&A team advised in a number of transactions including the secondary buy out of Aliplast, the recapitalisation and the subsequent trade sale of Partners in Lighting NV, the legal and tax structuring of early stage ICT fund Big Bang Ventures II, the MBOs of Penne and VEHA Group (Disor/Frisor) in which it advised Fortis Private Equity and the sale of Indicator Groep to Waterland Private Equity.
Laga’s banking and finance team advised on several high-profile transactions in the real estate finance, acquisition finance and securitisation areas acting for Belgian and City financial institutions (such as Barclays, Citibank, Bank of New York, Lehman Brothers, Dexia Bank and Fortis Investment) as well as corporate entities (such as the ZBG Group), and acting as referral counsel for such leading law firms specialising in finance as Sidley Austin and Slaughter and May.
So far this year Laga has attracted ten outstanding junior lawyers as new hires.
For more information, please contact Hilde Laga at hlaga@laga.be or telephone: + 32 56 59 43 00.
About Laga
A top legal practice in Belgium, Laga is a full service business law firm, highly recommended by the Legal500 and Chambers legal guides. Laga comprises more than 100 qualified lawyers, based in Brussels, Antwerp and Kortrijk. Laga offers expert advice in the fields of banking & finance, commercial, corporate/ M&A, employment, IT/ IP, public, restructuring, real estate and tax law.
Laga provides thorough and practical solutions tailored to the needs of clients ranging from multinational companies, national large and medium-sized enterprises, and high net worth individuals, to government bodies.
Laga’s multidisciplinary approach in the delivery of legal services is the cornerstone of its growth strategy.
More information: www.laga.be
