People
Tom Schoors
Biography
Tom is the first EU Chair of A&O Shearman, Managing Partner of our Belgium offices, and Belgium Cross-Practice Insurance Lead. He has extensive court litigation and (national and international) arbitration experience.
His commercial litigation practice covers a broad range of complex commercial and contractual disputes.
In addition, Tom can draw on more than 25 years’ experience of international business transactions, advising on a wide variety of commercial contracts and projects involving many different sectors and jurisdictions. Tom has developed particular expertise in both construction disputes and insurance litigation, and co-heads our cross-practice insurance sector team and our ENRI (Energy, Natural Resources and Infrastructure) sector team. Having a specific interest in the energy markets, Tom regularly assists clients on energy projects and energy disputes. Next to his client work, Tom has also lectured on energy contracts at the KU Leuven. Tom has won plaudits from leading independent legal directories such as Chambers and Legal 500 for his ability to combine his commercial understanding with his legal expertise to provide practical, solution-oriented advice which focuses on getting the best result for his clients.
Practice areas
- Finance
- Complex commercial transactions
- Cybersecurity
- Insurance
- Insurance regulation
- Antitrust litigation
- Financial services litigation
- Project development and finance
- Disputes
- White-collar defense and global investigations
Sectors
- Energy
- Oil and gas
- Downstream
- Liquefied natural gas
- Midstream
- Upstream
- Power
- Carbon capture and storage
Selected experience
- Various energy companies on the development of new onshore and offshore energy projects, as well as on a variety of regulatory issues (including advising on the new regulatory framework for future tenders for offshore wind energy production installations in the Princess Elisabeth Zone in the Belgian North Sea).
- Various offshore wind farms on contract and related insurance disputes regarding (serial) defects affecting the wind turbines (both in arbitration and in court), inter-array cables and generators.
- Leading chemicals companies in ICC arbitration and court proceedings in relation to disputes with contractors in the context of the construction of a chemical plant in the port of Antwerp-Bruges.
- A leading insurance company as defendant in various misselling proceedings initiated by groups of claimants that are claiming compensation for their lost investment.
- An international chemicals company in relation to a major construction dispute with its contractors.
- An industrial company on the construction and project financing of a new gas fired combined cycle power plant, under the Belgian CRM regime.
- An insurance company in a post-M&A arbitration regarding the sale of a portfolio of insurance policies.
- A financial institution on the restructuring of its agency network, and related litigation.
- A global financial services provider on a multimillion cyber-attack.
Education
- Post Graduate Degree, Energy Law, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, 2001 Post Graduate Degree, Corporate Finance, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, 1998 LLM, European Law, University of Saarbrücken (Europa-Institut), Germany, 1998 Degree, Law, University of Namur and University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium, 1996
Admissions
- Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2011
- Admitted as “advocaat” (Belgium), 1996
Languages
- Dutch
- English
- French