Real estate, construction and energy law

Partner

Herman Verbist

Herman Verbist is a lawyer at the bars of Ghent and Brussels. Until 31 December 2020, he was chairman of the arbitrators of the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport (BCAS). Since 2021, he is chairman of the department training and documentation of the BCAS. He specialises mainly in arbitration and is registered on the list of arbitrators of several arbitration institutions (including CAS, VIAC, SIAC, HKIAC, AIAC, KCAB, ThAC and ICDR). He is also a member of the executive board of CEPANI.

Herman is also an accredited mediator and is registered on the list of mediators with institutions such as WIPO, the Energy Community, ICSID and the Energy Charter Treaty.

For 17 years, he was a visiting professor for the course on international commercial arbitration at the University of Ghent. Since 2020, he has been a professor for the course ‘Case Study Investment Mediation’ at the European Institute of the University of Saarland.

He has written and co-authored several books and articles on arbitration and mediation.

Partner

Frank Burssens

Frank Burssens graduated in 1990 with a master’s degree in law at the University of Ghent and in 1991 obtained an LL.M. in internatinal business law at London University (Queen Mary and Westfield College).

In 2007, Frank, together with some co-partners, founded the firm Burssens & Partners Ondernemingsadvocaten, which now operates under the name Everest. As a lawyer working in the Ghent office of Everest, Frank specialises in property law (legal assistance with the purchase and sale of land and buildings, share transactions of project companies and urban planning and environmental issues), construction law (both public contracts and private construction law) and energy law. He assists his clients in the areas of both contracts and judicial proceedings and arbitration.

Moreover, he also has an extensive track record in the area of general commercial and company law, especially as regards company takeovers. He has also been appointed as an arbiter with the Belgian Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Partner

Mario Van Santvoort

Mario Van Santvoort obtained his master’s degree in law with honours in 2000 at the Roman Catholic University of Leuven (1995-2000). He completed an EEP year in France at the University of Rennes (Brittany) and was sworn in as a lawyer at the Brussels bar on 6 November 2000. In 2002 and 2003, he further specialised in corporate law via an additional master’s degree in business law (GGS) at the University of Antwerp.

In 2004, he was registered at the Brussels bar (Dutch-speaking section). He has been a partner of the firm since 2007 and is a co-founder of Everest. Since 2018, he has also been registered at the Antwerp bar.

Mario is a managing partner of Everest Antwerp where his specialities include company law, arbitration and mediation and real estate, construction and energy law.

Partner

Kevin Bertouille

Kevin Bertouille graduated with distinction in 2001 at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve and in 2003 he obtained a master’s degree in business law (LL.M.) at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

After working for ten years in various banking institutions in Brussels, Paris and Luxembourg, he started to work at Everest in Brussels in 2012 where he became a partner in 2016.

Kevin works in banking law (disputes and legislation) and commercial law.

Managing associate

Ilse Renders

Ilse Renders obtained her master’s degree in law at the Free University of Brussels in 2008 and also studied for an additional master’s degree with great distinction in international and European law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. In addition, she obtained an advanced master’s degree in tax law at the University of Antwerp in 2013. In 2017, she was awarded the certificate for special training in cassation procedure in criminal matters.

She has been registered with the Brussels bar since 2008 and with the Antwerp bar since 2011.

She joined the Antwerp office of Everest in 2018 where she works mainly in (national, international, and European) corporate law, commercial and company law liability law, attachment law, contract law, arbitration proceedings (especially in the diamond sector), litigation and dispute resolution, property law.

Associate

Kim Taveirne

Kim Taveirne graduated with distinction in 2017 with a master’s degree in clinical psychology at the University of Ghent. During that course, she also started on a master’s degree in law, graduating in 2019.

Since 2019, she has been a lawyer at the Ghent bar and has joined the Everest office in Ghent.

Kim works in the real estate, construction and energy law department and specialises in family and juvenile law. She is therefore familiar with matters such as divorce proceedings and maintenance contributions for children. Thanks to her background in psychology, she looks at matters not just from a purely legal perspective, but also she will consider the psychological aspects which arise in each case.

Junior associate

Olivier Bottequin

Olivier Bottequin graduated magna cum laude as Master of Laws at Ghent University in 2022. During his studies, he also studied at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., where he immersed himself, among other things, in contract law and compensation law.

After previous summer internships at Everest Ghent, he has been registered at the Ghent Bar since 2022 and definitively joined our Real Estate and Construction Law team.