News
News | September 2019
Hanotiau & van den Berg promote in Brussels
Brussels-based arbitration and litigation boutique Hanotiau & van den Berg announced four promotions. The fact that all promotions came from its internal ranks shows the firm’s commitment to investing in young talent.
Maarten Draye and Iuliana Iancu will join the firm’s partnership, which brings the total number of partners to eight.
Maarten Draye focuses on arbitration and complex litigation, assisting clients before arbitral tribunals and state courts, including in proceedings relating to the enforcement and setting aside of arbitral awards. He also sits as arbitrator, adding recent appointments under the ICC and CEPANI Rules to his portfolio. In 2018, he was the first Emergency Arbitrator appointed under the CEPANI Rules to render an emergency order. Further recent case work includes sitting as sole arbitrator in an ICC arbitration seated in Paris between a UAE seller and a French buyer under Dutch law. He currently represents a US multinational against a group of European and African companies and individuals concerning a post-M&A dispute in a Brussels-seated ICC Arbitration.
Mr. Draye joined Hanotiau & van den Berg in 2007, after reading for an LL.M. at Queen Mary University of London. He lectures on arbitration at the Dutch Speaking Brussels Bar and regularly speaks and writes on topics relating to arbitration. In 2016, he co-edited a treatise on arbitration in Belgium with Niuscha Bassiri. Mr. Draye represents Belgium at the ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR, serves as chairman of the Alumni & Friends of the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary (AFSIA) and is part of the CEPANI40 Steering Committee. He is a member of the LCIA and CEPANI, representing the latter at the UNCITRAL Working Group II on dispute settlement in Vienna and New York.
Managing partner Pascal Hollander says: “It is very special when someone you accompanied in his legal career from the very beginning passes such an important milestone. Since he joined the firm as a first-year associate, I have always been able to rely on Maarten’s hard work, dedication and competence on the matters we handled together. Aside from his already impressive activity as arbitrator, Maarten is a remarkable advocate and we are delighted to be able to count on him to continue to strengthen the firm’s capabilities in counsel work, both in commercial arbitration and complex court litigation.”
Iuliana Iancu has over ten years of experience in arbitration, having acted as counsel in commercial arbitrations, and as arbitral secretary or assistant to tribunals in several dozen high-stakes, high-value and complex international investment and commercial arbitrations, both ad hoc and under a variety of arbitration rules. These spanned various industry sectors (banking, insurance, telecommunications, energy and natural resources, construction, pharmaceutical and M&A). Recent cases include an ICSID arbitration initiated against a European State as a result of a series of measures implemented during the Eurozone financial crisis and an ICC arbitration concerning a telecommunications operator in a Central European State.
A Romanian national, Ms. Iancu joined Hanotiau & van den Berg in 2012, after obtaining an LL.M. degree from Columbia University, New York (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar). Ms. Iancu is a founding member of the Romanian Chapter of the Spanish Arbitration Club and is involved in several other international arbitration groups (Young ICCA, ICC YAF, YITA). Ms. Iancu regularly speaks on topics related to arbitration and is a guest lecturer at the University of Bucharest’s LL.M. program in international arbitration. She is admitted to practice in Bucharest and is registered with the Brussels Bar.
Bernard Hanotiau says “Iuliana is an outstanding lawyer with a fantastic career ahead of her. During the seven years she has worked at Hanotiau & van den Berg, she has impressed with her rigorous and analytical mind, her in-depth knowledge of international arbitration, both investment and commercial, and her excellent business sense. I am delighted for her to join our partnership and I am convinced that she will do very well.”
The firm further promoted Senior Associate Magali Servais to Counsel. Ms. Servais joined Hanotiau & van den Berg as an associate in October 2011 after obtaining her Master in Law from the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (UCL). She simultaneously continued her training with a Master in Intellectual Property Rights at the Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussels (HUB). The major part of her activity is dedicated to the handling of cases before the Belgian Supreme Court in both French and Dutch, reason for which she currently participates in the professional training of the Supreme Court bar (cycle 2015-2019). Her Supreme Court experience also leads her to intervene in proceedings for the annulment and execution of domestic and international arbitral awards before the Belgian courts.
Ms. Servais was part of the team that successfully represented the Russian Federation in enforcement and attachment proceedings in Belgium relating to the Yukos matter. Paul Lefebvre recalls that “when acting on behalf of the Russian Federation in a complex and delicate matter like the Yukos case, it was invaluable to have Magali by my side and assisting me”
Finally, Gladys Bagasin was promoted to Senior Associate. Ms. Bagasin, a Philippine national, joined the firm three years ago from Georgetown University where she was working in the international trade law department. Prior to this, she worked as a litigation lawyer in the Philippines. Ms. Bagasin has experience serving as tribunal secretary or assistant to the tribunal in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations covering a wide range of disputes relating to, among others, construction, gas pricing, energy and power, project management, and banking.
Bernard Hanotiau says: “Gladys is a very talented and hardworking lawyer. In particular, she has demonstrated an exceptional ability to deal with the most complex factual and legal disputes in the construction and energy areas.”