Compliance & Investigations

Our cross-departmental Compliance and Investigations Group helps clients to understand their compliance obligations and how best to manage the range of related legal, commercial and reputational risks while allowing business operations to continue.

Ensuring compliance is a critical part of corporate governance given the risk of fines, reputational harm and potential litigation. More than ever businesses today need to keep an increasing number of plates spinning to deal with a complex set of evolving regulation and related legal compliance requirements. Faced with these growing challenges and more stringent enforcement, in-depth legal expertise and close follow-up in various legal areas is imperative as a means to solidify and improve a company’s market position.

EXPERTISE

For every compliance or investigation issue, whether at national or cross-border level, we can swiftly set up a bespoke multi-disciplinary team of experts covering the following areas:

• Antitrust and competition

• Anti-corruption, anti-terrorism and bribery

• Anti-money laundering

• Consumer Law

• Corporate

• Cyber Security

• Data protection (personal and non-personal data, including PSI)

• E-marketing

• Employment and social law

• Energy

• Environmental/ Health and Safety law

• Financial services

• Food

• Health care

• Insider trading

• Mobility

• Real estate

• Regulatory specific topics

• Tax

SERVICES

We combine trusted legal advice, speed and flexibility to achieve tailored and business friendly compliance solutions that cover the entire spectrum of corporate compliance, including:

• Compliance advice: (In)formation, prevention and detection

• Compliance audits/deep dives (presentations, interviews, (forensic) data research, risk identification, assessment and roll-out of tailor-made compliance programs)

• Compliance training and compliance manuals; E-learning programmes

• Crisis management in case of a cyber security incident or data leakage

• Due diligence for third party relationships and corporate transactions

• Commenting relevant parts of prospectus

• Internal whistleblowing and amnesty programmes

• Mock raids to prepare staff on-site

• On-the-spot raid assistance

• Raid response manuals and procedures (for reception, staff, IT, etc...)

• Advice re sanctioned countries/targets and export (divergence EU-UK Brexit)

Our Relevant Experience

• Providing assistance to clients (i) during dawn raids, (ii) in the design of dawn raid response procedures; and (iii) for the organization of mock/ walk-through dawn raids.

• Conducting an internal investigation concerning an alleged use of false documents by the management of our client in Belgium.

• Assisting a well-known real estate investment company with the drafting and the implementation of a whistleblowing policy.

• Crisis management and prevention of cyber security

• Assisting a prominent and well-known bank, in setting up a system for the prevention of data leakage.

• Drafting a company policy in order to avoid the company and its employees to be involved in money-laundering.

• Assisting banks and production companies in case of data leakage (towards authorities and before courts)

• Drafting company guidelines from top to bottom on how to act and on what to do in case of a dawn raid and providing training for all the employees of a world leading firm in high-quality products.

• Assisting a client active in the petrochemical industry with the drafting of guidelines to be followed in case of industrial accident.

• Conducting data audits and designing privacy policies and GDPR compliance strategies and internal compliance trainings for several clients and their staff.

• Roll-out governance structures and contracts.