Meet the VUB Fellows: Helga Van Peer, lawyer, mediator and independent director

In 2020, you put an end to a career at the renowned international law firm A&O Shearman. What made you do it?
Helga Van Peer (laughs) “I realise it: giving up a partnership, many people find that a little crazy. It was also a great job. I was able to lead fascinating public-private projects all over the world, work with intelligent, driven people and build bridges between legal and non-legal fields. It was also wonderful to experience the cultural differences. But after more than twenty years, I had made the rounds. I was curious about other perspectives and did not want to become a caricature of myself.”

What do you mean by that?
“A partnership is a bit like a family, in which everyone plays their role. The loud uncle, the cool brother, the difficult sister-in-law,… I had joined at the age of 22 with a grunge-inspired clothing style and a fairly un-Belgian view of hierarchy and participation. After a few days, I was already enthusiastically explaining how we could organise things even better there. The rebellious daughter, something like that.”

Yet you wrote a fine story there?
“Public law still had a somewhat dusty reputation at the time, but I loved building a transactional public law practice in a top firm. Inspiring clients, exceptional colleagues and top cases in Belgium and elsewhere: wonderful.”

So why did you decide to leave after all?
“At some point, as a partner, you become part of the establishment. I wanted to see what happens in a different role, outside that framework that you become intertwined with after more than twenty years, and without the comfort of such a well-paid and prestigious job. I was curious about other perspectives and felt like taking a big leap.”

What did you want to do instead?
“Take a sabbatical and start with a blank sheet of paper. That plan failed somewhat. I was soon contacted by people from my network who wanted to continue working together in all sorts of different ways. LINK (see bio) That happened much faster than expected.”

Anything but a void, then.
“The blank sheet was quickly full! Perhaps one of the most beautiful insights that year: the power, appreciation and warmth of ‘business’ relationships turned out to be enormous. I am very grateful to clients, fellow lawyers and other contacts for that. I still work as a lawyer on wonderful, groundbreaking cases with impressive clients and advisers, but now in my own firm.”

“I am always struck by how Belgians avoid confrontations”

Your CV is rich and highly varied. Do you get bored quickly? A curious person?
“Both. That may have something to do with my past. As a child in an expat family, I grew up in Nigeria and South Korea, among other places, went to school in Westmalle, studied in Leuven and Rome and also worked for a while in Malaysia and London. I must have moved about twenty times. In Brussels, I lived for a long time in the Marolles and Matonge neighbourhoods. Now I combine ‘home’ in my favourite seaside resort of Sint-Idesbald – the residents call it ‘Baaltje’ – with a home in Wemmel and time in London, where my British partner works.”

That makes it difficult to put down roots.
“You float a little, that’s true. That is precisely why I am so attached to my friends and family, even though my brother lives in Switzerland and his daughter in Norway. I have to admit: I don’t know more than three street names anywhere. The advantage is that you quickly learn to make new friends.”

It also gives you the perspective of an outsider.
“Yes! Very interesting. For example, I am always struck by how Belgians avoid confrontations. Addressing the neighbour about an overhanging branch or loud music is difficult. They remain silent and bottle it up until it explodes. And then their lawyer has to plead in court what they themselves do not dare to say. You see that in the business world too.”

This brings us seamlessly to another passion of yours: you are a certified mediator.
“It gives me pleasure that people are increasingly open to it, both for private matters and for conflicts between larger organisations. The system is gaining enormous strength. During my training as a mediator, I got to know Professor Michel Maus, by the way. He later asked me, together with Professor Elvira Haezendonck, to become a VUB fellow. I know Elvira from when we were both directors at the investment company TINC.”

How does mediation work?
“A good example is my first case as a certified mediator, the large-scale tram works in Liège, a ‘PPP’, a public-private partnership. I can talk about it because the story appeared in the newspapers. That public-private project had suffered delays and relations between the various contractual parties – the public client TEC and the private companies – were very tense. Through mediation, we managed to resolve it together. An intensive process. I have enormous respect for everyone who sat around that table and spent months working to find solutions together. Class!”

“The magic of mediation is that the parties involved want to find a solution themselves”

A mediator must never take sides. That sounds difficult.
“You may have an opinion, but you must indeed ensure and convey that you are neutral and independent. Otherwise, you are better off refusing the case.”

What are the characteristics of a good mediator?
“You have to be a good listener and ask further questions when necessary. And you have to be humble. You do not impose your brilliant idea. The intention is for them to solve it themselves. The strength of mediation is that it is voluntary: each party can throw in the towel and walk away at any moment. That is precisely what creates a kind of magic, whereby the parties themselves genuinely want to resolve the matter. They tolerate a solution they find themselves much better than a solution imposed from outside.”

Surely you have to be more than just a listening ear?
“Occasionally, it is indeed necessary to push and press on. And you have to be able to think in parallel very well: trying to stay one step ahead in terms of possible options. Essentially, you are looking for what the parties really want. They themselves cannot always immediately put that clearly into words. In addition, you have to dare to safeguard the bigger picture. Mediation is not a carte blanche.”

What do you mean?
“The context is important: the legal framework, public order, sufficient realism about what third parties and stakeholders such as financiers or local residents will accept. As a mediator, you create a framework that connects people and enables them to find realistic solutions. That requires discipline, honesty and ownership from everyone. And sometimes a lot of patience.”

Could our society use more mediation?
“Certainly! Our courts are massively overloaded. Many cases are not about a purely legal question, but about emotional issues, inadequate project management or the desire to put things off for a very long time. With mediation, many disputes could be resolved more quickly and cheaply. The Belgian legislator also encourages this.”

In what way?
“As soon as one party involved wants mediation, for example, the judge can order mediation through an interlocutory judgment and thus strongly encourage giving that approach at least a chance. After the first meeting, most people continue with it.”

That we didn’t think of that earlier…
“Yet mediation techniques have existed for thousands of years. The system is more holistic than the court because it allows you to work on the relationship and on non-legal aspects. During mediation, you can quickly make adjustments and conclude interim agreements. Take two people arguing over an orange. It is quite possible that one wants to use the fruit pulp to make juice and the other only needs the zest of the peel for a cake. Those kinds of things emerge during mediation.”

Applied to the tram works in Liège?
“Without going into confidential details: the parties involved had different views, including on the planning of the works. During the mediation, they got to know each other’s views and understood what was most urgent and most feasible for each party. That is how they managed to resolve it together. For a judge, it would be impossible to work all that out alone. A mediator may also speak separately with each party and thus explore confidential avenues. We call such a separate conversation a ‘caucus’. A judge may not do that.”

“Leaders know the motorways, but they forget the side roads and paths along the way”

For your first ‘job’ as a VUB fellow, you spoke about mediation and leadership.
“That was for the VUB Masterclass Series chair in Ostend. Elvira Haezendonck and Michel Maus are the chairholder and co-chairholder there. A great initiative. That first edition was about Future-proof Leadership & Strategy, aimed at today’s and tomorrow’s leaders. Exciting, because the lectures were given by ten people: nine professors and myself. It was an honour to be able to think and share ideas with an engaging group.”

How did you approach it?
“I started with the question: ‘do you enjoy a good fight?’ To climb to a high position, you need certain qualities that can hinder you once you are in that position. People in leadership positions do sometimes explode.”

How can they prevent that?
“By knowing themselves. You need to know what style you have, what you want to project, what conflict does to you and how you recover from it.”

Seeing your own less attractive sides, that is not easy?
“In our heads, we are on a motorway. In principle, we know our professional field and know how to achieve a particular result as quickly as possible. Only that is not always the best result. Because we do not explore the side roads and paths along the way. I have always found that a shame. That effect is reinforced in our culture because few people dare to contradict their boss. Reversed mentoring, we do not really know that here yet. We tell leaders what they want to hear. That means they only find out later what is going wrong.”

Group pressure can be incredibly heavy.
“In a group of twenty, you usually have one leader, one rebel and eighteen followers. If you are unlucky, there is a toxic type among them. As a leader, you cannot always stop that, if only because you are not always there yourself. The solution is to make those other seventeen a little less compliant. That they do not laugh along at a crude joke or say: mate, what are you talking about? That can change an incredible amount.”

The silent majority needs to become a little more rebellious?
“That’s it. Not always say afterwards that your boss should have intervened, but dare to intervene yourself.”

“Artificial intelligence helps, but the most enjoyable legal work remains people work”

You also teach occasionally. What would you tell law students about the rise of AI?
“Comparing judgments, searching case law, conducting thorough preliminary research: looking things up goes much faster with AI. But it is more like applied statistics than genuine artificial intelligence. The legal profession remains people work. You have to listen carefully to your client and be a trusted adviser. AI tells people what they want to hear. A lawyer must dare to contradict their client and say: there is no point taking this to court. You also need people for creative applications of the law and transversal applications between law, economics and other fields. In fact, the most enjoyable work remains people work.”

What is your advice to anyone who wants to study law?
“Go for it. Even if you later do nothing legal. It is a very useful education, whether you become a lawyer, diplomat, business leader or something completely different. Because you learn to read and write. By that I mean that you do not merely read what you think is written or write what you want to be written, but that you learn to think about how someone else would read or write it. At best, lawyers are the engineers of our society. That is why there are so many of them in politics. Our legal system is the skeleton of how society and interaction between citizens work, nationally and internationally.”

“Being able to translate words is not the same as mastering a language”

You are fluent in five languages. Despite AI, language skills remain an important asset?
“Oh yes! Recently I had a mediation between Flemish people and Britons. The former felt that the latter had been stringing them along. I asked why they thought that. Their answer: during the last three board meetings, those Britons confirmed that we indeed had a very interesting idea, but they did nothing with it. I then explained to the Flemish people that a very interesting idea means for Britons: we think your idea is rubbish, but we are too polite to say so literally. All the Britons had understood it that way too. We Flemish people think we know English, but being able to translate words in your head into another language is not the same as mastering that language. I then told the Britons that they were simply allowed to say no to that idea. They found that very difficult too…”