Thales Mertens
Partner
Brussels
Thales Mertens
Partner
Brussels
Contact details
Thales is head of our Belgian Litigation & Contracts practice. He specialises in insolvency-related matters (both contentious and non-contentious) and post-closing litigation, both local and international, in addition to more general contract-related advice.
He can draw on more than 15 years’ experience of advising both banks and corporate multinationals on complex reorganisations, restructurings and insolvency proceedings. He has also acted in a broad range of complex post-M&A, real estate and commercial disputes (both in court and in arbitration). In addition to this contentious experience, Thales advises both suppliers and customers on a wide variety of commercial contracts involving many different jurisdictions and sectors.
Thales is a regular lecturer, and has published on the Vienna Sales Convention, and on various insolvency-related topics.
Qualifications
Professional
Member of the Brussels bar, 2004
Academic
Degree, Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), 2003
LLM, Cornell University, 2004
Experience highlights
a multinational commodity trading company in a highly publicised multijurisdictional restructuring of a major player in the zinc production and mining industry.
a consortium of lenders on the restructuring of a major Belgian fashion group in one of the most publicised restructurings since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Belgian software company on a post-M&A dispute with one of its former shareholders relating to the conditions of the transfer of his shares.
The shareholders of a large super market chain on the sale of their participation, and ensuing corporate litigation (including arbitration) initiated by a minority shareholder, who seeks to prevent the sale of its participation to a third party.
Related articles
Publications: 07 October 2021
Qualifications
Professional
Member of the Brussels bar, 2004
Academic
Degree, Law, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), 2003
LLM, Cornell University, 2004
Published work
- B. DE BOCK, T. MERTENS, “Introduction of a pre-pack insolvency procedure in Belgium”, HERO - Herstructurering & Recovery Online, 12 April 2021.
Recognition
He knows what he's talking about, is knowledgeable on both the law and the strategy, and is resourceful and creative.
Chambers, 2021
Drive, work force, motivation, intellectual capacity, accessibility, quick reaction and response.
Legal 500, 2020
