Janson

Commercial and company law White collar crime

Partner

Céline Masschelein joined Janson as a partner in March 2016, after having been Counsel in the Litigation & Arbitration department of Allen & Overy.

Céline has a special focus on white collar crime (such as imputations of fraud, forgery, corruption, money laundering, bankruptcy offences) on the one hand and all forms of corporate litigation on the other hand (such as post-acquisition disputes and all possible disputes between (and liabilities of) shareholders, board directors, auditors and other corporate actors).

Céline has more than 20 years of experience in dealing with complex national and international disputes in both business and financial criminal law, with specific expertise in the interaction between the two areas.

She has already assisted several international and Belgian companies involved in both civil and criminal proceedings. Céline also works within the framework of arbitration and mediation procedures (ADR) and also advises clients preventively. Her broad procedural experience provides added value in drawing up contracts, avoiding disputes and actively working towards amicable settlements. 

References

Counsel to a Fortis bank employee (risk manager) involved as an indicted party in the criminal and civil proceedings following the collapse of Fortis Part of the team that represented SAirGroup in Belgian civil and criminal proceedings following the Sabena bankruptcy for almost fifteen years. The criminal investigation file consisted of 45,000 pages and led to a definitive acquittal of SAirGroup in 2015 Treatment of a Belgian satellite file of Portuguese proceedings following the liquidation of a large Portuguese bank which ran into severe financing difficulties after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the ensuing severe crisis in the financial markets Representative of a Dutch public art funding organisation which was the victim of fraud and embezzlement by its former CFO Advisor on the risk associated with an asset acquisition of a virtually bankrupt company by the target company (including risk associated with the potential nullity of the transaction/shareholders’ decision (abuse of majority), actio pauliana and claim for gross negligence of the trustee and potential criminal liability)

03/2016 - …: Partner - Janson 1999 - 2016: Lawyer and Counsel - Allen & Overy

Dutch, French, English

2005: Master in Corporate law, Katholieke Universiteit Brussel 1994 - 1999: Law degree, Universiteit Gent (magna cum laude)