As regulated professionals, it is our duty to disclose the below information. Please note that these notices are also meant to be incorporated by reference to any applicable terms or letter of engagement governing our relationship with you as a client.
Regulation
Osborne Clarke BV/SRL is a limited liability partnership registered in Belgium (Crossroads for Enterprises number 0525.998.534) whose registered office is at Marsveldplein 5, 1050 Brussels. Any advice given by any individual member, employee, or consultant is the responsibility of Osborne Clarke BV/SRL and not the individual. Lawyers of Osborne Clarke practising in Belgium are members of Ordre français des avocats du Barreau de Bruxelles or De Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten bij de balie te Brussel and are registered on either their “A” list (Belgian lawyers) or their “E” list (European Community lawyers).
Osborne Clarke BV/SRL is a member entity of Osborne Clarke Verein, a Swiss verein. When we refer to "Osborne Clarke" we are referring to one or more of the member entities of Osborne Clarke Verein, a Swiss Verein which does not itself provide legal or other client services. A list of the other member entities can be found at http://www.osborneclarke.com/verein/ along with our relationship with those entities. Each member of the Verein is solely legally responsible for the services and advice its professionals provide. This means that any liability to you rests with that member and not with the Verein as a whole. Even if third parties are involved in your case are involved, we are not liable for their contributions.
Members of Osborne Clarke practising in Belgium are members of Ordre français des avocats du Barreau de Bruxelles or De Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten bij de balie te Brussel and are registered on either their “A” list (Belgian lawyers) or their “E” list (European Community lawyers).
Details of the professional regulations that apply may be viewed on https://barreaubruxelles.be/ or https://www.baliebrussel.be/.
Professional liability insurance
The following insurance policies cover our professional liability in Belgium and are taken out with the following insurance companies:
Insurance subscribed by the Association of French and German-Speaking Bars (1st rank):
Ethias SA
Rue des Croisiers, 24
4000 LiègeInsurance subscribed by the Flemish Bar Association (1st rank):
MS Amlin Insurance SE
Koning Albert II-laan 37
1030 Brussels- Insurance subscribed by Osborne Clarke BV/SRL (2nd rank):
Allianz Benelux NV
Koning Albert II-laan 32
1000 Brussel
Mutual information duty
When instructed by you, we promptly inform you about the execution of our assignment and the progress of the handling of the case. You will provide us with all useful information and documents promptly and throughout the assignment, if necessary at our request. If you do not provide the expected information or documents, we cannot and will not commence our assignment. If we have already acted provisionally, we will terminate our further intervention.
Third-party account
When instructed by you, we will transfer all amounts received on your behalf to you within the shortest possible time. If we are unable to transfer an amount immediately, we will notify you of receipt of the amount and inform you of the reason for non-transfer.
We may deduct from the amounts received on your behalf sums to cover outstanding advances or statements of expenses and fees. We will notify you of this in writing. This provision does not affect your right to dispute our statements of fees and expenses and to claim payment of these withheld amounts.
We will immediately transfer all amounts received from you on behalf of third parties to those third parties.
Financial Information and VAT no.
Our Belgian VAT registration number is BE 0525 998 534.
Our third party account number is
IBAN BE49 6304 2270 7871
BIC GKCCBEBB
Complaints
Osborne Clarke is committed to high quality professional advice and client care. We encourage our clients to maintain full and frank communication with the professional responsible for their work and to raise promptly any questions which you may have during the course of the matter.
If you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service, or about the bill, we want you to tell us so that we can sort out the problem quickly and efficiently. Complaints should be raised with the person responsible for your work and will be handled by a named Investigating Partner.
A copy of our written complaints procedure is available on request from the person responsible for your work.
If we are unable to resolve a problem through internal channels, you may refer the matter to the disciplinary board of the local Bar, details of which are accessible at www.advocaat.be and www.advocat.be.
Privacy
The scope of our obligations to our clients in relation to confidentiality and disclosure, including how we share information with other Osborne Clarke Verein Members, is set out in our Privacy and Confidentiality Policy on our website at www.osborneclarke.com/privacy
Communication
If we are instructed by you then we normally communicate by a combination of email, telephone, post and fax. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will assume that you are happy with these means of communication, even though we cannot guarantee that they are secure or capable of maintaining confidentiality.
Documents
We will normally keep our file of your papers for up to 5 years after the matter has finished. We will not destroy documents you ask us to place in safe custody. You understand that you should safeguard any documents which you retain which are likely to be required for disclosure.
Consumer Cancellation Rights
If you are acting for purposes outside your trade, business, craft or profession, and your instructions have not been given to us at a face to face meeting at one of our offices, you have the right to cancel your instructions within 14 days from the day you enter into a contract with us to provide services based on those instructions. You will lose this right to cancel if you've expressly requested we provide services during the cancellation period and they have been fully performed before you then want to cancel. If you wish to cancel your instructions you may use the form on our website or contact the person who is detailed in your Engagement Letter as being responsible for the overall supervision of the work.
Diversity
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity in all of our dealings with clients, third parties and employees subject to compliance with the laws of England and Wales. Please contact us if you would like a copy of our Equality and Diversity Policy.
