History

Belgium is one of the founding fathers of CMS, which was established on July 1, 1999 with the objective to create a large multi-jurisdictional legal and tax service organisation, headquartered in Europe.

On 1 January 2005, the Belgian branch of CMS at the time, CMS Lexcelis, merged with another leading Belgian firm, DeBacker, which was founded in 1987 and reputed for commercially astute advice to clients. CMS DeBacker continued to grow as a leading firm specialised in Mergers and Acquisitions, Litigation, European and Competition Law, Banking and Insurance Law, Public and Administrative Law, Employment Law, Real Estate Law and Intellectual Property. CMS DeBacker has grown into a full service firm with more than 100 lawyers and offices in Brussels, Antwerp and Luxembourg, further strengthened by a merger with Olswang in 2017.