Trade team led by renowned partner Yves Melin joins Cattwyk's Brussels office
Cattwyk expands Brussels office to 10 lawyers
The international trade law firm Cattwyk is significantly expanding its presence in Brussels. On April 1, 2026, renowned international trade lawyer Yves Melin and his team of three counsels and two associates will join Cattwyk from the US law firm Cassidy Levy Kent (CLK). With this new addition, Cattwyk's Brussels office will grow to a total of ten lawyers.
The expansion strengthens Cattwyk’s European platform. The firm now advises companies from Brussels on all aspects of international trade and customs law, including all EU sustainability issues, with a high degree of specialization. With the arrival of this new team, Cattwyk will also be able to assist clients in complex Belgian customs investigations and litigation.
Yves Melin is one of Brussels' leading lawyers in international trade and customs investigations, litigation and policy. He has an extensive international network and is very well connected with the EU institutions. In addition, Yves is the vice-president of CONFIAD (the European association of customs representatives), the co-chair of the International Bar Association's International Trade and Customs Committee, and a founder and active member of the Customs & Trade Law academy of the University of Liège. He lectures at the Universities of Liège and Antwerp on international trade and customs.
Yves Melin joins Cattwyk together with three experienced counsels. Jesse de Bruyn is focusing on complex customs investigations and litigation in Belgium, including matters related to imports via the Port of Antwerp and cross-border e-commerce through Liège. Isabel Fressynet advises on export controls, sanctions and European security matters. Jin Woo Kim works on a broad arrays of regulatory, supply chain due diligence and border matters (including the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, CBAM) as well as trade defense investigations.
Last fall, Cattwyk’s Brussels office welcomed several notable additions: Counsel Dr. Julia Hörnig and Policy Advisor Sybila Galera Hauer were joined by Prof. Michael Hahn, Managing Director of the Institute for European and International Economic Law and Director at the World Trade Institute at the University of Bern, and Counsel Marie Pètre, a Belgian-qualified lawyer with deep expertise in EU regulatory and sustainability matters, and in standardization.
With this expansion, Cattwyk now counts 26 lawyers across Hamburg and Brussels, positioning itself as a leading European law firm for international trade, customs and sustainability matters.
“Yves Melin's experienced team perfectly complements and strengthens our focus in Brussels,” says Dr. Lothar Harings, partner and co-founder of Cattwyk. “With our significantly expanded Brussels office, we are now the go-to-firm at the European level for complex customs and international trade law matters.”
“The strength of Cattwyk’s Brussels office in sustainability, circularity and mandatory supply chain due diligence is highly complementary to our team’s expertise in complex customs and trade investigations,” explains Yves Melin. “The firm is also the strongest in Germany for customs and trade compliance. With all our work in Antwerp and Cattwyk’s strength in Hamburg, we are in a unique position to cover two of the three largest EU ports. This is what our clients need today. Going forward, we will be able to represent our clients in Belgium and across Europe together as part of a very strong, international team.”
Background
Cattwyk is a law firm specializing in trade compliance, economic security and sustainability with offices in Hamburg and Brussels.
Cattwyk was founded on January 1, 2025, as a spin-off from a larger German law firm and started with 12 lawyers. Since then, the firm has continued to develop dynamically and is listed in Tier 1 in all relevant rankings in the field of international trade law.
JUVE Publishing named Cattwyk “Law Firm of the Year for Foreign Trade Law 2025”. Legal500 recognized the firm as “Up-and-Coming Law Firm of the Year 2025”. Today, the team consists of 26 specialized lawyers.
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