Cleary Gottlieb Adds Leading Corporate and M&A Partner in Brussels

International law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP announced today that leading Belgian corporate and M&A lawyer Laurent Legein will join the firm as a partner in its Brussels office.

Mr. Legein, 38, comes to Cleary Gottlieb from Clifford Chance, where his current practice spans a broad range of corporate transactional and advisory work.  His main areas of practice are private and public M&A, private equity and equity capital markets transactions.  Mr. Legein has been recognized as a “leading individual” in Corporate/M&A in the Chambers Global 2006 guide and as a “leading lawyer” in both capital markets and M&A in the 2006 edition of IFLR 1000.

His appointment brings the total number of Cleary Gottlieb partners to 190.

“Laurent’s arrival at Cleary Gottlieb underscores our commitment to our Brussels-based corporate practice,” said Cleary Gottlieb managing partner Mark Walker.  “He is an extraordinarily talented and energetic lawyer who will further strengthen our capability to handle complex Belgian and cross-border corporate transactions.”

In 1994, Mr. Legein became a member of the Brussels Bar. He joined Clifford Chance that same year as an associate, becoming a partner in 2001.  In 1997, Mr. Legein spent significant time at Clifford Chance’s London office.

A graduate from the law faculty of the Université Catholique de Louvain in 1992, Mr. Legein obtained a post-graduate degree at the law faculty of Ghent University in 1993 and an LL.M. at Georgetown University in 1994.

Commenting on his move, Mr. Legein said, “Clifford Chance is a great firm. My time there has been extremely rewarding and I did my best to contribute to the success of their Brussels practice.  But I had reached a time in my career when I needed a new challenge.  Cleary Gottlieb has an outstanding reputation in Brussels and I look forward to working with them.”

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About Cleary Gottlieb’s Global M&A Practice

Cleary Gottlieb is a recognized leader in mergers and acquisitions throughout the world, excelling in M&A transactions in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia, which make use of the firm’s ability to handle cross-border transactions seamlessly.

Cleary Gottlieb’s M&A practice ranked highly in the Mergermarket, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Dealogic league tables for 2005.  The firm was first for global financial industry transactions based on deal value (Bloomberg) and was fifth in worldwide M&A based on deal value (Thomson Reuters).

About Cleary Gottlieb’s Brussels Office

The Brussels office was established in 1960 as a direct consequence of the close relationship between Jean Monnet and former Under-Secretary of State, George Ball, one of the firm’s founding partners and legal advisor to Jean Monnet on the implementation of the Marshall Plan and the drafting of the Treaties of the European Communities.  The primary practice areas of the Brussels office include antitrust, corporate, and regulatory work.

The corporate practice spans all areas of corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and structured finance, sovereign debt restructuring and tax law, and provides general and specialty advice in corporate and commercial matters, in areas such as contractual law, corporate obligations and reporting, director duties and other corporate governance issues.  Our corporate lawyers serve a wide variety of domestic and foreign corporations, financial institutions and sovereign governments.

In 2005, the Brussels office was one of the recipients of the “Equity Deal of the Year Award” from International Financial Law Review (IFLR) magazine for its work representing Belgium on the Belgacom IPO.

About Cleary Gottlieb

Founded in 1946 by lawyers committed to legal excellence, internationalism and diversity, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP is a distinguished international law firm with almost 850 lawyers around the world.  In 2001, the firm received the inaugural “International Law Firm of the Year” award from legal publisher Chambers and Partners.  In 2006, the firm was recognized for the “Cross Border Deal of the Year” by Acquisitions Monthly and “M&A Deal of the Year” by IFLR for its representation of HypoVereinsbank in its acquisition by UniCredit.  Cleary Gottlieb has offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, Brussels, London, Moscow, Frankfurt, Cologne, Rome, Milan, Hong Kong and Beijing.