Philippe & Partners

What motivates us?

We are convinced that priority must be given to innovation as a source of progress. Our action is therefore guided by a core value, a value reflecting a lawyer’s social role: the success of your projects.

How do we work?

Above all, we seek to understand you and your business.

This is why we do not see a lawyer’s role solely as describing legal rules, but much more as coming up with pragmatic yet legally sound solutions tailored to ensure the successful realisation of your projects. As many of us have worked within your companies (outsourcing/outplacement), we understand “how you tick”.

Anticipating legal developments helps ensure the long-term accuracy of legal solutions. This is the reason why our firm is made up of specialised lawyers. It has very close links with the academic world, and a number of our lawyers take on teaching assignments in the main Belgian universities and certain European ones.

Our firm has branches in several countries and our lawyers are multilingual. We have also developed, over time, privileged partnerships with international lawyer networks sharing our humanist values, allowing us to support your projects throughout the world.

Our firm is completely independent, has a human size and is guided by an irreproachable professional ethic.

Attentive to the sound financial management of our firm, we offer particularly attractive fees.

Our services

ENERGY

The energy sector (electricity and gas) has been in a state of constant (r)evolution since its deregulation in the early 2000's. Apart from substantial market restructuring, new decentralised production methods (wind turbines, PV panels, biomass, etc.) and new forms of consumption (growing energy needs in the IT industry, e-vehicles, etc.) are now confronting the sector with new challenges, including those related to transmission (interconnections,...), and distribution (smart metering, local extra-grid consumption, etc.).

Our Energy Department offers its services to a variety of market players: energy suppliers (electricity, gas, oil), producers, distributors, various intermediaries (traders, etc.), (European) professional associations and groupings, energy consumers and regulators, in both Belgium and Luxembourg.

EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS AND SOCIAL SECURITY

Made up of experienced lawyers, our social law department offers a wide variety of high-quality legal services to national and international clients regarding labour law issues (individual and collective relations), social security law (Belgian and foreign) and criminal social law.

Its work is concentrated on counselling (1) and on legal disputes in labour courts (2).

DEBT RECOVERY

Our firm has long experience in recovering debts nationally and internationally, whether for SMEs or large corporations.

Each lawyer is trained in the best methods to recover debts efficiently.

MARKET PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

The lawyers in our department are specialists in market practices and consumer protection under both Belgian and Luxembourg law: consumer information, pricing, advertising, unfair terms, prohibited or dishonest market practices.

PUBLIC LAW AND PUBLIC PROCUREMENT

Our firm provides advice to companies, private individuals and public authorities on the various aspects of constitutional and administrative law.  

Our team provides counselling and dispute management for cases before the Constitutional Court, the Conseil d'Etat, courts and tribunals, whether as plaintiff or defendant.

In each case, our lawyers perform an in-depth analysis of the various issues at stake with a view to providing the most suitable advice. Their aim is to gain an overall understanding of each situation, benefiting from the complementary know-how of each team member.

PRIVACY AND DATA PROTECTION

The protection of personal data is intrinsically related to all aspects of a company's operations, at the crossroads between a company's technical, IT and management operations and the specific rules and regulations governing each business sector (insurance, banking, energy, gambling, etc.).

INSURERS AND INTERMEDIAIRIES

Working in a highly regulated, competitive and constantly evolving environment, insurers and intermediaries are faced with many challenges.

Our "Insurance and tort" department offers its services to recognised insurance companies and intermediaries which have set their sights not just on domestic markets but also on markets abroad through the EU's freedom to provide services.

To provide insurers and intermediaries with services tailored to their business, our lawyers have specialist expertise in insurance and tort law as well as in many other fields of law.

COPYRIGHT LAW FOR COMPOSERS AND ARTISTS

Ensuring the legal protection of authors, composers and performing artists belongs to the expertise of the PHILIPPE & PARTNERS Copyright Department for authors, composers and performing artists.

Its lawyers have recognised knowledge in the field of the specific Belgian and international regulations governing the creative arts, whether in the field of art, music, theatre or film-making.

TAX & CORPORATE

Accountants, auditors and other tax advisers have to deal with a wide range of technical questions (sometimes even niche issues) on a daily basis. 

In the face of constantly increasing and fine-tuned legislation, our tax department offers its services to accounting professionals, supporting them in providing excellent advice to their clients and defending the taxpayers they help vis-à-vis the authorities and courts.

IT AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES

The technological revolutions associated with digitalisation and big data are sending shock waves through the majority of professions, affecting not only IT and ICT specialists, but also any person working in a regulated profession or in a knowledge-based, industrial or commercial sector.  An appropriate legal framework governing relations between the two parties is essential for ensuring the harmony and development of these relations.

Our "IT and new technologies" Department helps not only software programmers and developers, IT companies and software publishers but also their customers in drawing up and implementing the legal instruments necessary for balancing their respective rights.

They have recognised specialist knowledge of the legislation governing IT, the Internet, the media and  privacy.

Our department is able to reply to all the specific needs of IT software companies, software publishers and consumers of digital products.

TAX, INHERITANCE AND ESTATE PLANNING

Made up of experienced lawyers, our tax department offers a wide variety of legal services to national and international clients,

with a focus on tax advice (1) and tax disputes (2).

1. Tax advice:

Our lawyers provide private individuals and companies with help in finding pragmatic solutions enabling them to optimise the tax aspects of any measures they intend to take.

Aspects addressed include all tax matters (personal income tax, corporate tax, VAT, DLU (one-off declaration of financial assets), etc.).

A particular focus is put on estate and inheritance planning (especially on gaining rulings), as well as the tax aspects of insurance policies, in conjunction with - for aspects concerning civil law - our inheritance law department.

Our team undertakes to understand the issues at stake in each situation in order to provide the best possible advice.

Our expertise also covers international tax law, and in particular Belgo-Luxembourg situations.

2. Tax disputes:

The Tax Department helps the person or legal entity liable to tax in all stages of the procedure: tax inspection, responding to requests for information from the tax authorities, drafting administrative claims, legal proceedings, opposing seizures, etc.

PATENTS, TRADEMARKS, INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Technical and commercial innovations and inventions often constitute major human and financial investments. The lawyers working in the PHILIPPE & PARTNERS Patents, Trademarks and Industrial Designs Department will make use of all their legal resources to prevent a loss of such investments.

They have recognised expertise in the specific national and international regulations covering the field of industrial property and competition.  

Their specialist expertise is acknowledged in the field of Belgian and European law on patents, trademarks and industrial design and model rights in the European Union and the Benelux countries. Their daily work extends to Belgian and European law on economic competition and market practices.