Catherine Erkelens

Catherine Erkelens is the founder of Erkelens Law, a specialist legal practice based in Brussels, Belgium, that has been named Aviation Law Firm of the Year in Belgium at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025. The award recognises a boutique built around deep sector knowledge in one of the most technical and internationally regulated areas of commercial law.

Erkelens Law is highly focused on aviation, a concentration that defines the firm's identity and its value to clients. The practice acts across the breadth of the sector, advising airlines, airline associations, groundhandling providers, airport operators, aircraft maintenance services, leasing companies, manufacturers and authorities. Its work spans commercial and regulatory advice, the negotiation and review of contracts, compliance guidance and representation in litigation, giving aviation clients a single adviser able to move between transactional, regulatory and contentious matters.

Complementing the aviation practice is a second pillar in technology and data protection, encompassing data protection, e-commerce and new technologies. This pairing is a natural one: aviation is an increasingly data-driven and technology-dependent industry, and the firm's ability to address privacy and technology questions alongside sector-specific regulation allows it to serve clients whose legal needs cross those boundaries.

The firm's specialisation has drawn external recognition, with Legal 500 EMEA noting that it is highly specialised in aviation law and that this shows in how it approaches a new case. That reputation for genuine subject-matter depth is central to the boutique proposition Catherine Erkelens has created: clients come to Erkelens Law precisely because aviation is not one practice area among many but the firm's core discipline.

Operating from the heart of Brussels, a city closely tied to European regulation and institutions, the firm is well placed to advise on the cross-border and regulatory dimensions that characterise aviation work. Its recognition as Aviation Law Firm of the Year in Belgium at the Corporate INTL Global Awards 2025 affirms the standing that Catherine Erkelens and her team have established as trusted, specialist advisers to the industry, combining focused expertise with the responsiveness of a dedicated boutique.