Liedekerke

Helped Poland to set aside a treaty award in the Belgian courts

Founded in Brussels in 1965, Liedekerke was one of the few players in the Belgian market to resist the trend of integration with Anglo-American law firms in the early 2000s. It has remained independent ever since, leaving the disputes team less hampered by conflicts of interest than some of its competitors.

Liedekerke got into international disputes at an early stage. In 1970, two of the founding partners, John Kirkpatrick and Michel Waelbroeck, represented Belgium before the International Court of Justice in the landmark Barcelona Traction case concerning protection of foreign shareholders.

The firm has developed a strong focus on francophone Africa and handles arbitrations for various companies and governments in the region. It has also been involved in some of the biggest enforcement proceedings in the Belgian courts of recent years, including the Yukos case against Russia. Liedekerke is one of the few Belgian firms that also acts in foreign court proceedings, including in France, Canada and the UK.

The arbitration and dispute resolution practice has been led since 2019 by Arnaud Nuyts, who has been at the firm for almost three decades. He works alongside partner Aimery De Schoutheete and counsel Bruno Hardy. Another name to know is senior associate Gabriele Ruscalla, who joined in 2021 after five years as counsel at the ICC in Paris.

Network

While the arbitration team is based in Brussels, Liedekerke also has offices in London as well as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda.

Who uses it?

The firm’s state clients include Belgium, Poland and the DRC, whose national mining company Gécamines regularly uses it for commercial arbitrations. Kazakhstan is another high-profile client.

In addition to the Yukos shareholders, its private clients include Lebanon’s Consolidated Contractors Company, and Emirati logistics company DP World.

Track record

The firm lifted attachments on more than US$22 billion in assets owned by a Kazakhstan sovereign wealth fund in 2018. The assets had been frozen at the request of the Statis, Moldovan businessmen trying to enforce a US$500 million Energy Charter Treaty award. 

Together with Foley Hoag, the firm helped Belgium see off a €1 billion ICSID claim brought by a Chinese shareholder in financial services group Fortis Financial, in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis. The case was thrown out in 2015.

It has had several wins for the DRC. In one case, it defeated a US$150 million claim by the Congolese subsidiary of a US grain dealer in a Zurich-seated case under Swiss Rules. Liedekerke also knocked out the vast majority of a US$750 million ICC claim by another US investor.

Liedekerke helped Gécamines settle an ICC claim worth US$150 million that it brought against subsidiaries of China’s Jinchuan Group over a copper and cobalt mining venture. Jinchuan apparently agreed to pay US$25 million to settle the dispute.

Finnish businessman Mohamed Bahgat turned to Liedekerke to help attach money paid by Egypt to Brussels-based international air safety body EUROCONTROL. Bahgat was seeking to enforce a US$120 million award against Egypt over the loss of his metal investments. The state agreed to settle the award in 2021.

Recent events

Liedekerke secured another good result for Kazakhstan in its dispute with the Statis, persuading the Brussels Court of Appeal that the ECT award was obtained by fraud and therefore cannot be enforced.

Nuyts, alongside a team from Skadden, helped DP World win on liability in an ICSID claim against Belgium over a container terminal at the Port of Antwerp. A tribunal majority held that the repossession of land at the concession amounted to partial expropriation. The proceeding is now in the quantum phase, with reports that Belgium could be on the hook for as much as €150 million.

The firm also helped Poland to overturn an UNCITRAL award obtained by Manchester Securities Corporation under the US-Poland BIT. The firm says this is the first time an investment treaty award has been annulled by the Belgian courts.

At the ICC, the firm is acting for an international construction company in a Geneva-seated arbitration relating to a major oil and gas project in Qatar, and a UAE-based pharmaceutical distribution company in a London-based case with a Russian manufacturer.

Liedekerke continues to act for Gécamines in a Paris-seated ICC arbitration concerning its role as a minority shareholder in a joint venture with a foreign investor to operate ore and cobalt deposits in the DRC.

Hardy, who has been at the firm since 2015, was promoted to counsel in 2022.

Client comment

A state client says the firm is “exceptional”, with Nuyts, in particular, excellent at dealing with complicated matters.

Fady Khayat of UAE healthcare company Panchrest says Nuyts is “strategic, academic, experienced [and] cool”. Associate Julien Degroof is “very smart, can recall every minute detail and is great at contextualising the issue at hand”.

Sevag Panossian, general counsel at Consolidated Contractors, says it is “always easy to coordinate” with the Liedekerke lawyers and to “have them understand our company’s needs and perspectives”.