Nele Van Kerrebroeck

Nele is the head of the firm’s Employment and Incentives practice in Belgium, which advises leading corporations and financial institutions, including ½ of the BEL20 index, on their most significant and strategic employment and incentives challenges. Nele guides her clients through major transformations. Her core expertise includes assisting clients in individual and collective dismissals, including representing clients in court, negotiations with unions, GDPR and HR data protection matters, and internal investigations.

Nele undertook a secondment in the firm’s Singapore office in 2014. She also holds an EMBA at Vlerick Business School.

Nele is a Board member of Women in Law and Leadership, a program which provides support for talented women in top law firms in Brussels. She is ranked by Chambers and recognised in the ‘Top 10 Most Influential Employment Lawyers in Belgium’ by Business Today.

Work highlights

Nele has guided her clients through a wide range of major employment law matters. Her recent transactions include advising on:

• Delhaize on its €28 billion merger with Ahold, one of the largest cross-border mergers in Europe and the largest Belgian deal completed in years
• INEOS on various international employment law topics related to Project One, the construction of an ethane cracker in the Port of Antwerp
• VBO/FEB (Federation for Belgian Enterprises) on the draft bill on Whistleblowing following the transposition of the EU Directive in Belgium
• clients on all the complex employment aspects of several reorganisation projects such as Generali, AXA Bank, Agfa Gevaert and Starwood/Marriott
• BEL20 listed companies on complex incentives work and executive remuneration. This also includes setting up, documenting and implementing incentive plans in Belgium and internationally
• Elia System Operator on all employment aspects related to its crucial internal reorganisation project aimed at isolating and ring-fencing the Belgian regulated activities of Elia from its non-regulated activities. Nele led the employment workstream, including communication to employees, drafting of global employment contracts and project management
• several large banks on sensitive matters such as termination of C-level employees / managers, change of status from employee to self-employed, etc.

Nele is often quoted in the media, and has been interviewed by De Tijd, L’Echo, and HR Square Magazine (amongst others), some recent examples include:

• Women are given weapons to close the pay gap | De Tijd (tijd.be)
• Thousands of companies must give whistleblowers a voice | De Tijd (tijd.be)

Nele is regularly requested to speak at seminars for Abilways, Legal Learning, Larcier, NCOI, etc.

She has been an active member in the HR Committee of American Chamber of Commerce and the “Vereniging voor Sociaal Recht”.

Nele has written a number of publications, including:

• The impact of the new civil code on Employment Law (Oriëntatie) – October 2022
• Corporate, Tax and Employment Aspects of a Cross-border Transfer of Business, Intersentia - Liber Amicorum Jean-Pierre Blumberg – January 2021
• Praktische Gids over het informeren en raadplegen van werknemers bij vennootschapstransacties en herstructureringen - Wolters Kluwer - January 2021
• “Informatie- en raadplegingsverplichtingen van werknemers en overlegorganen bij vennootschapstransacties (Deel I & II)”, in Oriëntatie 2018/2019, Wolters Kluwer, co-author
• “Outplacement, een stand van zaken”, Wolters Kluwer, 2015, 126p., co-author
• “De harmonisatie van het statuut arbeider en bediende. Een stand van zaken na de Wet Eenheidsstatuut”, Larcier, 2014, 300 p., co-author
• “Outplacement”, in Aanwerven, Tewerkstellen, Ontslaan, 2014, co-author