VVP Law — Vance, Virtanen & Poirier LLP

The Firm

One firm. Three jurisdictions.

VVP Law — Vance, Virtanen & Poirier LLP — was founded on a simple observation: modern businesses do not stop at borders, but their legal advice usually does. From offices in Brussels, New York and Toronto, our lawyers practise as a single integrated team, advising clients whose contracts, data, employees and disputes span the European Union, the United States and Canada.

Rather than referring cross-border questions out to correspondent firms, we staff every engagement with counsel qualified in each affected jurisdiction. The result is advice that is consistent, sequenced correctly across regulators, and delivered by one accountable team.

Practice Areas

What we do

Cross-Border M&A

Acquisitions, joint ventures and reorganisations spanning EU, US and Canadian entities — including merger control filings before the European Commission, the FTC/DOJ and the Canadian Competition Bureau.

Data Protection & Privacy

Unified compliance programmes across the GDPR, US state privacy statutes such as the CCPA, and Canada's PIPEDA — plus cross-border data transfer frameworks, breach response and regulator engagement.

International Arbitration

Commercial and investor-state disputes under ICC, ICSID, LCIA and UNCITRAL rules, with seats and enforcement strategy on both sides of the Atlantic.

Trade, Customs & Sanctions

Tariff classification, rules of origin under CETA and USMCA, export controls and parallel EU/US/Canadian sanctions regimes — keeping goods, services and payments moving lawfully.

Employment & Global Mobility

Executive transfers, secondments and workforce reorganisations across three very different labour-law traditions, from EU works councils to North American at-will and common-law employment.

Intellectual Property

Coordinated brand, patent and trade-secret strategy — EUIPO, USPTO and CIPO portfolios managed as one, with litigation support in national courts.

Offices

Where we work

Brussels

European Union

Square de Meeûs 21
1050 Brussels, Belgium
Our EU regulatory and competition practice, steps from the European institutions.

New York

United States

485 Lexington Avenue, 23rd Floor
New York, NY 10017
Transactions, disputes and US regulatory counsel for inbound and outbound clients.

Toronto

Canada

120 Adelaide Street West, Suite 2100
Toronto, ON M5H 1T1
Canadian corporate, privacy and trade practice, and gateway to provincial counsel nationwide.

Barcelona

European Union

Avinguda Diagonal 640
08017 Barcelona, Spain
Iberian and Latin American gateway — commercial contracts, technology ventures and arbitration under Spanish and EU law.

People

Founding partners

Eleanor Vance

Managing Partner — New York

Cross-border M&A and securities. Admitted in New York; twenty years advising European and Canadian issuers entering US markets.

Mikko Virtanen

Partner — Brussels

EU competition, data protection and regulatory affairs. Member of the Brussels and Helsinki bars; former référendaire at the Court of Justice of the EU.

Camille Poirier

Partner — Toronto

International arbitration and trade. Called to the bars of Ontario and Québec; counsel in ICSID and ICC proceedings seated across three continents.

Counsel without borders.