Stéphanie (1989) is a member of the Loyens & Loeff Litigation & Risk Management Practice Group in Belgium.
Stéphanie specialises in general commercial law (with a focus on e-commerce), intellectual property law (including technology transfers, trademark and copyright licensing and counterfeit litigation), and ICT law (including privacy and data protection). She advises clients in the Technologies, Automotive, and Fashion & Retail sectors. She also represents clients in court and in alternative dispute resolution proceedings.
Stéphanie is a guest lecturer at the Universiteit Antwerpen (IP law course).
She has been a member of the Brussels Bar since 2012.
Education
Stéphanie obtained her Master’s degree at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) in 2011 and holds a LL.M. degree in European Competition and Intellectual Property law from the Université de Liège (Belgium, 2012). She also attended a summer school in international business at the Haas Business School, University of California (Berkeley, United States, 2010).
Languages
Dutch, English, French
Practice
Commercial Law
Data Protection & Privacy
Information, Communication & Technology
Intellectual Property
Litigation & Risk Management
Commercial litigation
IP/ICT/Telecom litigation
Publications
Back to school: Brushing up on your data protection lessons
Data Protection & Privacy brochure
Additional cybersecurity requirements for “Operators of Essential Services” and “Digital Service Providers” as from May 2018
Ground-breaking CJEU judgment on reimbursement of lawyers’ fees in IP litigation
Data Protection Alert: European Commission adopts EU-US
Marga is a member of Loyens & Loeff Employment law, Compensation & Benefits and Pensions Practice Group in Belgium.
Her practice focuses on workplace pensions and employment matters. Marga heads the Pensions team and keeps a particular focus on certain more specialised aspects, such as data protection legislation.
In the field of workplace pensions, Marga advises clients on the implementation and modification of pension plans managed by group insurers or pension funds. She also has considerable experience in transactional work and its impact on workplace pension schemes, where she has guided several clients in their exit from multi-employer pension funds. She also regularly advises on discrimination matters and represents clients in pension litigation cases.
In employment law, she advises on individual and collective employment issues and she has been actively involved in a number of national and international restructurings, as well as individual dismissal cases, on both sides of the table. She has a special focus on data privacy.
She represents clients both in the private and the public sector, in Belgium and across Europe as well as in the United States. Marga is a regular speaker at seminars on statutory and workplace pensions, as well as on employment matters.
She is a member of the Belgian Pension Lawyers Association (BePLA) and the Belgian Association of Pension Institutions (BVPI).
Marga has been registered at the Antwerp Bar since 2004 and then the Brussels Bar since 2007.
Education
Marga holds a Law degree from the KU Leuven (Belgium, 2003) and a degree in Employment Law from the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium, 2004). She attended a class on Pension law at the KU Leuven (2013-2014).
Languages
Dutch, English, French
Jochen (1988) is a member of the VAT, Customs and International Trade Practice Group and the Automotive Team of Loyens & Loeff in Belgium.
Jochen advises clients on indirect tax matters as well as on compliance issues related to the international movement and provision of goods and services, including trade controls and sanctions. Jochen is also particularly experienced in dealing with the EU institutions and advisory committees on customs, VAT and international trade issues.
He joined Loyens & Loeff in 2013.
Jochen has been a member of the Brussels Bar since 2013.
Education: He holds a Master’s Degree in law from the KU Leuven (Belgium, 2012) and an additional Master's degree in tax law from the University of Antwerp (Belgium, 2015)
Languages: Dutch, English, French
Julie has joined the International Chamber of Commerce in Belgium (ICC Belgium) since 2014.
Olivier joined Loyens & Loeff’s VAT, Customs & International Trade Practice Group as an associate in 2016.
He advises clients on indirect tax matters, as well as on different issues of international trade, in particular export control and trade sanctions. Prior to joining Loyens & Loeff, Olivier worked for an international law firm located in Brussels.
He is a member of the Brussels Bar since 2014.
Education
LL.M Degree, University of Cambridge, UK, 2014
Master’s Degree in law, Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, 2013
Languages
Dutch, English, French, Spanish
Megan Gajewski Barnhill is a member of the International Trade practice at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. Ms. Barnhill counsels foreign and domestic clients on regulatory matters related to international business transactions. Specifically, Ms. Barnhill advises clients on regulatory issues related to international trade, including U.S. export controls, trade sanctions, anti-boycott, and registration and reporting under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
Ms. Barnhill regularly advises clients on issues related to U.S. export controls administered by the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, and the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security. Ms. Barnhill has experience conducting due diligence reviews and compliance audits; developing compliance programs; preparing registrations, commodity jurisdiction and classification requests, notifications, and license applications; responding to government requests for information and administrative subpoenas; and assisting in day-to-day compliance on matters involving the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR).
In addition, Ms. Barnhill counsels clients on issues related to trade sanctions administered by the Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), including sanctions programs related to countries (e.g., Iran, Syria and Cuba) and against individuals and entities. Ms. Barnhill has assisted clients in preparing license applications and in responding to administrative subpoenas related to trade sanctions issues. She also advises clients on compliance with the anti-boycott provisions administered by the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Treasury and on companies’ and individuals’ registration and reporting obligations under the FARA.
Megan was admitted to the Virginia bar in 2008 and the District of Columbia bar in 2009.
Education: Megan holds a J.D. from American University, Washington College of Law (Washington, DC, United States, 2008).
Susan Kovarovics is a partner in the International Trade group of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. She counsels foreign and domestic parties regarding international business regulatory matters. Specifically, her practice focuses on providing practical legal advice that can be readily applied by in-house legal and business personnel in matters involving the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. anti-boycott laws, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Ms. Kovarovics designs and implements compliance programs and provides training sessions on export and defense trade controls, trade sanctions, customs, anti-corruption and anti-boycott matters. She also designs and leads internal audits and reviews to assess compliance in these areas.
Ms. Kovarovics assists clients with all aspects of the export license and agreement approvals processes at the Department of Commerce, State and Treasury. In addition, she guides clients through commodity jurisdictions and commodity classification requests for exports and ruling requests related to import matters. She also conducts due diligence reviews related to export controls, trade sanctions and anti-corruption matters.
Routinely, Ms. Kovarovics conducts internal investigations and advises clients on future actions based on results of investigations, including appropriate disciplinary and other corrective measures in response to violations of corporate policies and trade regulations. Moreover, she counsels clients on voluntary disclosure matters and represents clients in enforcement proceedings before federal authorities.
Susan’s Bar Admissions include the states of Virginia and the District of Columbia in the U.S.
Education: Susan earned her law degree from Georgetown University, cum laude (1996) and her undergraduate degree from Drew University, summa cum laude (1993).
Gerard co-heads the Loyens & Loeff International Trade Team . He specializes in public international law, with a particular focus on sanctions and export controls, the law of foreign investment, and anti-bribery and corruption issues. With respect to sanctions and export controls he advises companies active in e-commerce, aircraft manufacturing, the defense industry, the shipping and logistics sector, software development, and the renewables sector.
Gerard is a regular speaker at international trade conferences and a guest lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and the Radboud University. He has published two treatises on international law, State, Sovereignty, and International Governance (Oxford University Press, 2002) and State Failure, Sovereignty, and Effectiveness. Legal Lessons from the Decolonization of Sub-Saharan Africa (Brill Academic Publishers - Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2004).
Gerard took a PhD in international law (with honours) from the University of Leiden (2003). He was educated at the University of Edinburgh (European law and legal theory) and the University of Leiden (Dutch law and public international law).
Bert is a partner of the Brussels office, he heads the Loyens & Loeff Indirect tax group in Brussels and co-chairs the firm’s International Trade Group. He advises clients on matters related to international and domestic exchange of goods and services. Matters such as export controls and sanctions, FTA's, customs valuation, origin, classification, excise duties and VAT are familiar parts of my practice. He is also co-heading the Food & Beverages team and he is a core member of the firm's Corporate Investigation Team.
Bert assists clients by drafting compliance programmes, giving trainings, as well as in performing internal scans and audits. He also represent clients before the Belgian and Dutch authorities and courts as well as before the European Commission, its advisory committees and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He has ample experience in counselling clients involved in (criminal) investigations on suspected tax and trade law violations.
He is a member of the Brussels Bar since 2000, the current President of the Global Legal Customs Association, a global network of trade-lawyers, a correspondent for the international VAT Club, a member of the ICC section on Customs and trade facilitation and the sub-committee on indirect taxes and a member of the steering committee of the ABA International Law Section on sanctions and export controls.
He is the co-founder and scientific coordinator of the blog http://www.worldtradecontrols.com in cooperation with ICC Belgium, VBO/FEB and Bryan Cave LLP where he comments the recent developments in sanctions and export controls.