Dr. Michael DE BOECK

Michael De Boeck is the founding managing partner of BOEX. 

With a decade of experience as law partner in international practices, and as former professor of EU law, he specializes in EU sanctions, export controls and commercial and investment dispute resolution before national and international courts and tribunals, often with impact to international sanctions .

Michael has a thorough expertise and academic background in international litigation and arbitration of commercial disputes, often involving a sanctions impact. He pioneers arguments in cases at the forefront of sanctions and arbitration developments. He advises and represents clients on investment and commercial disputes before EU courts and in international arbitrations related to banking & finance, M&A’s and corporate disputes, shipping and distribution, agency and franchising, international sale and purchase of goods (CISG), construction and steel, and energy, oil and gas sectors. He has a particular focus on banking and finance, distribution and energy projects, having advised widely on EU sanctions and export controls for financial institutions. He acts as arbitration counsel, and is listed as arbitrator at several arbitral institutions across the globe.

He advises clients across many sectors on all aspects of EU sanctions compliance and enforcement. His regulatory sanctions practice advises companies on the auditing and development of internal compliance programmes, risk assessments, transactional due diligence and export controls, divestment operations and M&A’s, and derogation licensing under EU sanctions regimes. He assists individuals and financial institutions with recovery of frozen assets, including in EUROCLEAR and CLEARSTREAM, and sanctions derogation licence requests.

He regularly speaks at events and conferences on developments of EU sanctions and in arbitration. Michael also teaches sanctions compliance for financial institutions at Febelfin Academy in Brussels. He is executive member of the European Dispute Resolution Society (EDRS), and a former professor of EU law.

Michael is a dual-qualified lawyer at the Bar of Brussels and New York.

He holds a dual PhD from Ghent and Luxembourg University, a Master of Laws from Ghent University (2013 – magna cum laude) and an LLM from Vanderbilt University (2014 – Dean’s List honors).

He is fluent in Dutch, French and English, with basics in German and notions of Mandarin.