Because of the surge in laws in this field today everyone is at risk of being confronted with a criminal law issue at some point. Every kind of litigation can end up before a criminal court. There now are penal procedures in employment law, press and media law, health law, environmental law, city planning law, economic and financial law as well as tax law or customs law. That is why we feel it inconceivable to practice law nowadays without also being a criminal lawyer. From legal aid to heavy criminal courts, from illegal immigrants to CEOs, we have acquired the necessary tools to fight that close quarters combat and the expertise needed for this specific procedure, based on inquisitive investigations and oral trials.

Before hand we help companies and their management assess the penal risk related to their field of business and identify the relevant duties of care or compliance. If needed we represent them in all the situations that can arise in business life such as fraud, misuse of company assets, breach of trust, laundering, forgery and use of forged documents, accounting fraud, etc. Furthermore we also act on insider dealings, corruption, unlawful conflicts of interest or collusion, infringements on procurement and other issues that arise in economic and financial dealings.

Criminal law has followed the path of globalization. More
and more countries are passing criminal laws that have extraterritorial implications. For instance in terms of corruption, embargo or transborder fraud—see the incredible surge in bank transfer fraud over the past few years. International criminal law is no longer an academic topic, rather a booming area of practice, in which we are particularly active. We are also involved in human rights matters—for example we were behind the first criminal trial of a Rwandan convicted for genocide held in France.