Maurits J.F. Lugard

MAURITS LUGARD leads Sidley’s Chambers ranked Band 1 Life Sciences team in Brussels, a part of Sidley’s premier Global Life Sciences group. Maurits has an uncommon wealth of experience in EU law, drawing on his tenure within the European Commission and on years of private practice in the regulatory capitals of Brussels and Washington, D.C.

Maurits’ practice focuses on helping clients navigate the complex web of EU and Member State rules and procedures with an emphasis on food, drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, and biotechnology. He helps corporate clients and trade associations shape future legislation and advises on the complex legal issues of current regulations in areas such as pharmacovigilance (drug safety), clinical trials, marketing authorizations, advertising and promotional issues, labeling, and the application of the precautionary principle.

Maurits also advises clients on a broad range of market access and product safety issues, such as GMP compliance, life-cycle management, product recall procedures, adverse events, health claims, in-vitro diagnostics, implantable medical devices, food additives, parallel trade, and supply chain management. He also advises on pharmaceutical contractual issues, including distribution, supply, manufacturing, R&D, and other cooperation agreements in Europe. He has represented clients in matters before the European Commission, the European Medicines Agency, the European Food Safety Authority, and Member State authorities.

He assists a range of multinational pharmaceutical clients with product commercialization and marketing, as well as clinical trials and product recalls.

Maurits is widely recognized as a leader in the EU regulatory sphere. Year after year, he and the firm’s EU Life Sciences team feature prominently in the rankings of the leading bar publications, such as Chambers, Legal 500 EMEA, Best Lawyers in Belgium, and Who’s Who Legal.

• Chambers Europe 2025 — Ranked for Life Sciences: EU – Belgium where clients state “Maurits Lugard is an amazing lawyer and has been for a very long time,” and that “Maurits Lugard is always there when I need him.”
• Legal 500 EMEA (Belgium) 2024–2025 — Ranked in EU Regulatory: Pharma, Medical Devices and Biotech.
• Chambers Europe Belgium 2024 — A client noted that “Maurits communicates in a coherent way and can put you in contact with the right people. On a human level and in terms of expertise, it’s a pleasure to work with him.”
• Chambers Europe 2023 — Clients stated that Maurits “has a strategic, pragmatic, multi-stakeholder approach that brings lots of value to the discussions and risk management.”
• Recommended for Who’s Who Legal 2022–2024.

In addition to EU life sciences regulatory issues, Maurits also advises on EU regulatory issues involving chemicals and the environment. He helps clients conduct risk assessments and advises on anti-corruption compliance and government enforcement, including FCPA investigations.

Prior to entering private practice, Maurits gained nine years of regulatory and legal experience at the European Commission. During a three-year term at the European Commission’s Legal Service, Maurits advised on health and safety-related trade barriers. In particular, he dealt with sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT). He was responsible for analyzing draft legislation prepared by the Directorate-General for Environment and the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection (DG Santé), including amendments to the EU Cosmetics Directive. He was also the European Commission’s legal counsel on its Communication on the precautionary principle. Maurits also spent six years at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Enterprise.

Life Sciences Benchmarking Groups

Sidley’s EU Life Sciences team advises and organizes four life sciences benchmarking groups. These networks provide an opportunity for in-house counsel at member companies to benchmark, discuss and learn about particular topics, as follows:

• pvlegal: a network for in-house counsel working on issues of pharmacovigilance (drug safety). Founded in 2007, the group now includes 17 member companies.
• ctlegal: a network for in-house counsel working on issues of clinical trials. Founded in 2010, the group now includes 22 member companies.
• aclegal: a network for in-house counsel working on issues of anti-corruption. Founded in 2012, the group now includes 16 member companies.
• dplegal: a network for in-house counsel and personnel responsible for data privacy was launched in November 2012.

Maurits is involved in the firm’s Emerging Enterprises Pro Bono Program, which provides free legal support to eligible small and medium-sized for-profit enterprises and market-focused NGOs and non-profits that have a clear social impact in developing countries across Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.