History

The seeds of Lydian were sown in the early 2000s, a period when international players were beginning to take over Belgian law firms at a rapid rate. In those turbulent times, a number of young lawyers found themselves working at a brand new office set up in 2001 but still affiliated with consultancy firm KPMG. That enterprising group, including Alexander Vandenbergen, Hugo Keulers, Jan Hofkens and Wouter Neven, shared a strong business instinct and a preference for the Anglo-Saxon way of working. Their entrepreneurial drive and ambition laid the foundations for what would later become Lydian.

From day one, our youthful team of lawyers worked hard to forge strong ties with law firms in cities like London and Paris. This, they hoped, would give them the in-depth knowledge of the international market required to offer a premium service. They spotted that the many acquisitions taking place had created a gap in the market for international referrals. Our firm gutsily set about filling that gap and immediately managed to make its mark on the international scene. From the word go, Lydian also organised a host of client seminars and events, which quickly boosted the firm's profile and grew its business in the Belgian market too. Its 'lunch and learn' formula soon became a buzzword in the sector.

In 2005, we decided to move to the Tour & Taxis site outside central Brussels, to underscore our independence and build our future. At the time, the growing divide between legal advice and audit work was triggering widespread changes internationally, creating space in which an independent, full-service law firm such as Lydian could grow.

Opting to base ourselves at Tour & Taxis seemed like a leap in the dark. Yet in hindsight the decision actually represented a kind of 'homecoming', both location-wise and in terms of our strategy and vision. Working out of a brand new building in an up-and-coming neighbourhood perfectly matched our appetite for growth. The new location showcased our independence, while serving as a springboard for developing the firm's character and approach. Being based at Tour & Taxis gave us the opportunity to fulfil the firm's potential and grow it into the kind of company we had wanted to build from the start.

Continued growth at Tour & Taxis enabled us to further hone our vision and strategy. By 2007, the time had come to mark this new identity with a new name: Lydian. The term is derived from jazz theory, referring to the tonal system that forms the 'touchstone' or 'backbone' of the jazz musician's art, something they can always fall back on when improvising. We felt this concept resonated with our own values of customer focus and flexibility, making 'Lydian' the perfect embodiment of our DNA.

Every day, our clients enable us to move forward and seek out fresh opportunities, like those we duly seized when they arose in Antwerp and Hasselt. Our Antwerp office opened in 2008. Putting down roots in Flanders' largest city helped strengthen our ties with the port and Belgium's next-door neighbour, the Netherlands. In 2015, we followed this expansion by opening another new office, in the historic 'Oud Gasthuis' building in Hasselt. Both workplaces clearly reflect our desire to continue growing.

Full service thanks to new partners and steady growth

Over the years, Lydian has not only set up new offices, but also welcomed new team members, including such talented professionals as Peter De Ryck (2007) and Bastiaan Bruyndonckx (2016). Their arrival has enabled us to expand our Corporate, M&A, Litigation, Intellectual Property and Data Protection practices, among others. So Lydian can now proudly call itself a full-service, fully-fledged business law firm, currently employing 120 staff, including 98 lawyers.

Over the past 20 years, every Lydian employee has contributed to the firm's growth in his or her own way. Thanks to our emphasis on a professional management structure, lawyers are given the space they need to do good work. As a result, everyone at Lydian can steadily progress. Over the years, for example, Sandra Lodewijckx, Yves Lenders, Jens Debievre and Tom Geudens have all been promoted from the rank of associate and/or counsel to partner.

Various internal courses at the Lydian Academy also give everybody a chance to develop, whether that be training our assistants to use Word or improving our lawyers' presentation and social media skills. If our people lacked the ambition to make themselves and the firm a little better every day, Lydian would simply not be what it has proudly become.

As the icing on the cake for two decades of hard work, Lydian was named the 'Best Belgian Law Firm' at the Trends Legal Awards in 2018, becoming the first independent law firm ever to receive this accolade. Today, in 2021, we are known in Belgium and beyond for our customer focus and professional approach. 

In the year of adversity and learning, Lydian continued to strive for the best for our clients, while we navigate a new world shaped and characterized by a pandemic. Our strong business instincts and agile ability to quickly adapt allowed us to not only stay on our feet, but continue to make big leaps forward. 2020 thus saw us welcome our newest partner in the Corporate and Finance department, Maxime Colle. His experience as a corporate lawyer further broadens the growing Corporate and M&A practice at Lydian.

In 2021, Lydian turned 20! Looking back, we have had 20 years of incredible people and partnerships, important milestones and successes, and continuous growth. This would not have been possible without you, our clients, who are the driving force behind everything we do. Looking towards the future, we are very proud and excited to officially be ISO 27001 certified, as the first full-service Belgian independent law firm. With this Information Security certification, we can not only better serve our clients at an unrivalled level of service, but you are fully assured your information is safeguarded at all times because you are key to us.

But this isn’t the be-all and end-all. We stay as eager as before. Lydian will continue to innovate to ensure that we always offer our clients the best possible service in a secure and professional environment. And we work closely together with you to make sure that happens.

In other words, Lydian's story is far from over. Tomorrow we start our next chapter. How about helping us write it?