NautaDutilh was named "Litigation & Arbitration Law Firm of the Year" at the Trends Legal Awards ceremony, held on 22 April 2015 in Brussels.
The award recognises the team's involvement in a number of landmark cases with major financial consequences for clients, including financial and insolvency litigation and private damages suits in cartel cases. The jury praised both the team-oriented approach and the high quality of the individual team members and pointed to its "outside the box" thinking, which is entirely in line with NautaDutilh's "Challenge the Obvious" motto.
Dispute resolution partners Stan Brijs and Sophie Jacmain add: "Our fast-growing team takes a strategic and economic approach to avoid - or at least limit - costly proceedings for clients. At the first signs of an impending dispute, long before judicial or arbitral proceedings are commenced, we design a strategy. While vigorous litigation is sometimes necessary in order to defend the client's interests, we identify and use all the leverage we can find at each stage of the proceedings in order to reach a settlement. We rely on alternative dispute resolution methods, such as mediation, whenever possible and appropriate."
Philippe Péters, the managing partner of NautaDutilh Belgium, states: "I am particularly happy with this prize because dispute resolution and conflict management have historically been cornerstones of the legal profession, and this acknowledgement from the market demonstrates that we are leaders in this area and are indeed successful in providing consistently high-quality services."
