Mr. Frank Wijckmans (University of Virginia, 1985-86), partner in the Belgian firm Contrast, received the ILO Client Choice Award 2011 as the best competition lawyer in the European Union. The firm also received the Client Choice Award as the best Belgian law firm of 2011.

Law firms and partners can only be nominated for the ILO Client Choice awards by corporate counsel. The winners for 2011 were chosen on the basis of more than 2,000 individual assessments worldwide. ILO’s criteria focus on ability to add real value to a client’s business above and beyond other players in the market, and the Awards recognize those law firms and partners that stand apart for their excellent client care and the quality of their service. Please refer to http://www.internationallawoffice.com/awards/CC/2011/ for more information about the awards.

At the same time as receiving the ILO Client Choice Awards, another prominent independent organization, The Legal 500, recommends Contrast’s EU and competition law team for its particular expertise in this practice area in its new 2011 edition.

Contrast offers independent and specialized EU, competition, corporate and business law advice while providing full litigation support in these practice areas. Their team currently consists of 19 lawyers, including three partners (Frank Wijckmans, Filip Tuytschaever and Bart Bellen) and one senior counsel (Luc Demeyere), as well as a dedicated support team.

On May 22, a sunny Sunday, Chapter Limburg welcomed the Fulbright Alumni and some of the 2010-11 American grantees, in total 24 people, for the National Event 2011. The theme of the day was the coal-mining business.  The discovery of coal in As in 1901 changed Limburg drastically and even though the mining stopped in 1992, its impact is still very much alive in our province today. It was a good reason to choose this topic for the National Event.

We started the tour in C-Mine (Genk) which is on the former coal mine site in Winterslag. C-Mine is a beautiful example of industrial heritage: nowadays, it’s  home to a brand new cultural center, the atelier of Piet Stockman and the Media, Arts and Design faculty of KHLim (associated with KUL – the university of Leuven). Our guide, a coal miner’s son, tried to do his best in English. He then took us to the ‘Mine depot’ on the former coal mine site in Waterschei where we learned a lot about daily life in the mines. The participants showed a lot of interest and asked plenty of questions. Afterwards we drove through the cité (quarter) of Waterschei to see the prestigious mine infrastructure, the dwellings and cultural facilities of the miners - in the past but still in use today.

We had lunch in ‘Casa Papa Giovanni:’ an authentic meeting place for the Italian immigrant community in Genk. Italians celebrate their weddings there, language lessons and classes on pure Italian cuisine are held there as well as lots of other activities. Our lunch started with a promising first course (a delicious salad), but the main one (pasta with tomato sauce) was very simple and a bit disappointing, dessert (tiramisu) was small but tasty.

The coal mine business didn’t only bring Italians to Genk; it attracted 85 different nationalities; most of them brought along their culture and religion. During the visit at the Ukrainian-Orthodox Church we admired the icons and listened to an entertaining and very enthusiastic guide who told us a lot about their rituals and beliefs.

After a small detour to Ford Genk by bus we then set off for the mine in Beringen. Unfortunately we lost some of the group as the meeting place for cars and the bus in Lummen hadn’t been very clear. The warm afternoon sun and the tempting cosy outdoor café discouraged some of us to visit the simulation of a‘deep down’ coal mine setting in the dark.

At about 5 pm the bus driver really wanted to get home. There was therefore not enough time for a final drink for all of us.

As Limburg has always been considered as an ‘emerging area,’ we are very happy to have been able to show the participants some part of our history which is still so important for us as it still has a clear mark on present life in our province. We thank you for your interest and hope you’ll be able to come back! Limburg is known for its hospitality, its good restaurants (Hasselt is called ‘the city of taste’), its bicycle paths and… there’s the National Park Hoge Kempen (a 50 km² nature reserve of forests and heaths) and a lot more to experience!

Renilde Reynders, Chapter Leuven-Limburg

Thanks to your generosity via the annual THANKSGIVING FUND DRIVE, the Fulbright Alumni Association awarded grants this year to these Belgian students for 2011-12:

• Mr. Julien Beurms, a graduate of the Mons Conservatory, is going to the New England Conservatory of Music for a diploma in piano performance;
• Ms. Laura Cools, a graduate of Sciences Po in Lille, will go to Columbia University to study human rights; Ms. Laura Cools also received the Deflandre Award
• Ms. Melissa Gotlieb, a graduate of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, is also at Columbia for a Master’s degree in law;
• Mr. Wouter Vanderheere, who  studied at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, went to Northwestern University for a Master’s degree in law;  and
• Mr. Olivier Verschelden, a graduate of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, will also be at Northwestern for a 12-month  Master’s program in business administration

The Fulbright Alumni Association in Belgium (FAAB) maintains the Fulbright Alumni Loan Fund, which is a small fund aimed at making limited loans to Fulbright grantees under specific conditions. It is basically meant to help them in case of unexpected financial emergency while in the U.S.A., or, more and more often, to complement their financial resources in case of continuation of their studies in the U.S.A. beyond their original plans, thereby constituting an alternative to grants in helping Fulbrighters to achieve their educational and professional objectives.

This fund is financed by voluntary contributions from former Fulbright grantees. The funds contributed by the alumni are therefore being used on a revolving basis in the form of interest‑free loans, each of them being granted for a duration of three years maximum.

One FAAB loan, in the amount of € 6,000, was reimbursed in September 2011.

One FAAB loan is still currently outstanding, in the amount of  € 4,338,14,  and has been overdue for 8 years.

No new loans were granted in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

The fund currently amounts to €25,000, for the most part on a savings account.

Mr. Michel Kohner, Co-Chairman, Scholarship Committee