European law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse announces today the appointment of partner Stijn Debaene who joins the firm’s Brussels office. His appointment will be closely followed by that of associate Hakim Haouideg who joins in October. Both join the firm from Allen & Overy.
Stijn joins Field Fisher Waterhouse to further develop the Brussels intellectual property (IP) practice, working closely with the firm’s IP practices in London, Paris and Hamburg. He advises on both contentious and non-contentious IP. His practice covers patent, trade mark, copyright, domain name and unfair competition disputes and he advises on the IP aspects of mergers and acquisitions, research & development and joint venture agreements. He also has particular expertise in the pharmaceuticals sector, advising clients on clinical trials, pricing, parallel imports, advertising and reimbursement issues.
Stijn and Hakim’s appointments will be a significant boost to the firm’s leading European IP practice which totals 22 dedicated IP partners and over 35 lawyers across four countries.
The Brussels office opened in April 2007, founded by three partners. Since then it has rapidly expanded and continues to grow with these latest hires bringing the total number of lawyers in Brussels to 12 partners and 35 fee earners.
Eric Cusas, managing partner of the Brussels office, said: “We are delighted to welcome Stijn and Hakim to the firm. Their appointments allow us to further develop the IP capability in Brussels, offering IP advice to Belgian clients as well as strengthening the firm’s cross-jurisdictional European IP capability.”
