Starting out
You have a project, a name, maybe a first client, no company yet or only just. You want to know what to do, in what order, and what can wait.
What keeps you busy
- Choosing a name someone has already registered
- Signing platform or supplier terms without understanding them
- Spending on a lawyer money that is needed elsewhere
Where to start
The budget
The free first contact is often enough to sort things out. Then the €120 scoping call, the €390 risk note, the €890 filing plus the official fee: count on around €1,650 for the first year if you register your trade mark.
Self-employed or freelance
Consultant, developer, designer, content creator: you sell your time or your creations, often to clients bigger than you.
What keeps you busy
- Client terms that make you assign all your rights
- An invoice three months overdue
- Who owns what you produce: the code, the design, the texts
Where to start
The budget
Usually between €290 and €1,400: most freelance matters fit in a single range.
Startup or scale-up
You are building a product, often software, with co-founders, soon investors, and contracts piling up faster than you can read them.
What keeps you busy
- A contract pack that does not hold when the first big client negotiates
- GDPR and the AI Act at the time of the funding round or the client's audit
- A trade mark and code that do not clearly belong to the company
Where to start
The budget
Between €2,000 and €8,000 to lay the foundations, then a retainer if the pace of contracts justifies it.
Established SME
Ten to two hundred and fifty people, a director or a manager who handles legal on top of everything else, contracts, data, sometimes a dispute.
What keeps you busy
- A commercial dispute that costs more than the debt
- A complaint or an inspection about personal data
- Terms and contracts not reviewed in years
Where to start
The budget
Fixed fees, and for the long run a retainer from €290 to €1,190 a month depending on the hours.
Large company, legal department, foreign law firm
You already have lawyers. You are looking for a correspondent in Brussels for Belgian and EU law, or support on a specific matter, at a readable price.
What keeps you busy
- A correspondent who bills by the hour with no cap and no visibility
- EU representation (GDPR, AI Act, DSA) to set up quickly and properly
- Deadlines and deliverables that do not meet your standards
Where to start
The budget
Written quote per matter, estimate and cap, monthly interim statements. Day rate for interim assignments.
An individual
You are not a company, but you create, you publish, you have been copied, or you are in a dispute with a service provider or a platform.
What keeps you busy
- A photo, a text, a piece of music used without your consent
- An account or content removed by a platform without explanation
- A dispute with a provider who did not deliver
Where to start
The budget
The €120 scoping call, then a fixed fee or a formal notice. Check your legal expenses insurance: it often covers these costs.
What I do not do
I do not handle family law, criminal law, residential leases or consumer law on the consumer side. Write to me anyway: I give you the name of a colleague who practises them every day.
