Four and Five Law BV — Corporate & M&A in Belgium
Legal 500 ranks Four and Five Law BV in Tier 5 for Belgium in Corporate & M&A. This page sums up what that tier establishes, what it does not, and what you still need to check.
Legal 500 ranking
The tier shown here comes from the Legal 500 “Commercial, corporate and M&A” table for Belgium. We reproduce it unmodified: we do not yet run practitioner interviews, so we produce no hierarchy of our own. Within a tier, Legal 500 does not rank firms against each other; the display order there is ours, by number of Belgian areas recognised.
Beyond this area, Legal 500 lists Four and Five Law BV in 3 Belgian practice areas: Commercial, corporate and M&A, Dispute resolution, Industry focus: IT and telecoms. Within the seven-area scope of this directory, the firm appears in 3.
- Tier
- Tier 5
- Source table
- Commercial, corporate and M&A
- Belgian areas recognised
- 3
What to check before instructing a firm in Corporate & M&A
Calibrate to the actual size of the deal
Ask who, by name, will work the file day to day: the partner who pitches is not always the one who drafts. On a mid-market deal, an experienced senior associate supervised by an available partner beats a prestigious but absent name. Also ask how many comparable deals the team has closed in the last twenty-four months.
Check the adjacent regulatory skills
A Belgian deal often triggers other regimes: merger control before the Belgian Competition Authority, the foreign investment screening mechanism in force since July 2023, works council information and consultation, sector licences. Check that the firm covers these in-house or works with named correspondents.
Settle the budget before the engagement
An hourly rate alone tells you nothing. Ask for an estimate per phase (due diligence, SPA negotiation, signing, closing, conditions precedent), what is included, what triggers an overrun, and whether a cap or fixed fee is possible on due diligence. A firm that will not price a standard phase is telling you something.
Look at the working language
In Belgium language is not a comfort detail: it determines which court has jurisdiction, the language of the deeds and of the negotiation with the counterparty. A genuinely bilingual FR/NL team that can switch to English with a foreign buyer avoids expensive friction late in the process.
Frequently asked questions
Is Four and Five Law BV a recognised Corporate & M&A firm in Belgium?
Yes. Legal 500 ranks Four and Five Law BV in Tier 5 for Belgium in its “Commercial, corporate and M&A” table, which feeds the Corporate & M&A area of this directory. That tier is Legal 500's, not ours: we reproduce it unmodified and we do not yet run our own interviews. It tells you the firm is recognised across a whole area; it does not tell you it is the right one for your matter, nor what it costs — we publish no rates and no verified client references.
Which other areas does Four and Five Law BV appear in?
Four and Five Law BV also appears in: ICT, digital & technology, Dispute resolution. A firm ranked in several areas can handle a matter that spans two, which is common — an acquisition that triggers an employment workstream, a dispute that touches intellectual property. Its tier may differ from one area to another.