Belgian independent Lydian has bulked up its Brussels practice with the hire of a four-strong corporate team and an alliance with the Belgian arm of an international tax firm.

Corporate partner Patrick della Faille and a team of three associates joined Lydian this month from Liedekerke Wolters Waelbroeck & Kirkpatrick, with della Faille becoming the third partner in the corporate department at Lydian.

Prior to joining Liederkerke, della Faille worked at Belgian firm NautaDutilh and legacy firm Loeff Claeys Verbeke, which split in 2000 to form Loyens & Loeff through a merger with Loyens & Volkmaars.

Lydian has also signed an exclusive partnership agreement with the Belgium office of tax firm Taxand, which is led by partner Geert De Neef.

Lydian managing partner Jan Hofkens said: "We needed to strengthen our corporate capability in the firm because it did not correlate with our size and, by adding another partner, we can now develop the practice further.

"Patrick is fully entrenched in the Belgium market and also French speaking, which allows us to cement our position in the French-speaking market. Meanwhile the hires from Taxand give us the tax arm that we have been looking for and as a whole take us closer to the total size that we want the firm to be."

The hires take Lydian up to a total of 67 lawyers including 15 partners across two offices in Brussels and Antwerp.