Area of specialisation
Bar admission
Experience with legal system
Professional experience
Michael has practiced in commercial disputes and international arbitration since 2014.After graduating magna cum laude from law school at Ghent University (Belgium), he started his career in 2014 at a premier Belgian independent law firm in a commercial and arbitration practice. From 2014 to mid-2023 he there developed his expertise in commercial disputes and in arbitrations under several institutional rules in a broad range of sectors, including distribution agreements, agency and franchising, international sale and purchase of goods (CISG).
Michael joined ACQUIS, a boutique law firm in Brussels specialising in US/EU sanctions work, in March 2023, where he continues his practice of EU regulatory and dispute resolution with a particular focus on commercial transactions and disputes involving US and EU sanctions.
Notable recent experiences include involvement in a pending investment arbitration (UNCITRAL, ad hoc) as part of an investors' team of counsel; an ICC arbitration involving export controls and DAP incoterms and an ICC arbitration involving a post-M&A SPA dispute.
Michael is a Member of the bar of Brussels and New York.
He holds a Master of Laws from Ghent University (magna cum laude, 2013), an LLM from Vanderbilt University, USA (Dean's list honors, 2014) and a PHD on the interaction between EU law and ISDS in EU trade agreements from Ghent and Luxembourg University (2020). Michael is also a part-time lecturer of EU law at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, where he teaches EU law & Institutions, EU Business Law and a module on advocacy and conflict management.
He is available to act as arbitrator and counsel in commercial and investment arbitrations.