bureau Brandeis

Partner

Frank Peters is partner and allround litigator. He is a seasoned corporate and securities litigator – experienced in (international) litigation and collective redress. He is a member of the post-doc legal programm ‘Climate and Law’ of Radboud University’s CPO.

Frank Peters is a member of the International Bar Association (IBA). He speaks Dutch, English and (conversational) Russian. Frank Peters studied European Studies (management, economics and French) at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, London University, and civil and tax law at the University of Groningen.

In 1997, Frank Peters was admitted to the bar. After working as a tax and corporate attorney at Loeff Claeys Verbeke, he moved to De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, again combining the field of both corporate and tax law. As of 2001, Frank Peters has practiced as a corporate and securities litigator with Spigt Litigators and next with bureau Brandeis.

As a litigator, Frank has particular expertise in the following areas:

Corporate & Securities: disputes relating to (corporate) governance of companies or NGOs, management and board liability, minority shareholder positions in respect of listed companies or private equity parties, litigation before the enterprise chamber (enquiry proceedings), supporting international class actions and other disputes as local counsel Commercial: post M&A disputes, distribution agreements, joint ventures and other major contractual relations, follow-on litigation for breaches of competition law; Climate Change: disputes relating to the dangerous effects of climate change, including seeking compensation, in particular in horizontal relations.

Group litigation, be it on assignment basis or opt-out basis, plays a major role in each of these areas.

Recent work Frank Peters: On June 25, 2021, Frank will participate as speaker at the conference ‘The Climate Aware Lawyer’ in the series Climate and Law of the CPO, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen; Frank Peters acts for Foundations The Privacy Collective against Oracle and Salesforce, in an opt-out class actions relating to GDPR breaches; On April 2, 2021 Frank Peters was a guest on BNR Nieuwsradio speaking on activist hedge fund campaigns to further a financial or ESG agenda; In 2020, Frank Peters acted for Greenpeace against the Dutch State, in respect of the EUR 3.4 billion state aid given to KLM without substantial climate conditions In 2020, Frank Peters acted for several minority shareholders against the Dutch foundations of Yukos (paywall) in respect of overspending by the boards of the assets held; Frank Peters, together with Grant & Eisenhofer and KTMC, acts for South-Africa’s civil servants pension fund and largest asset manager of Afrika, The Public Investment Corporation, and approx. 45 other institutional investors in respect of the bookkeeping fraud with South-African company Steinhoff; 2017: acting as legal counsel in high stakes international arbitration proceedings, relating to online businesses; 2017: representing as co-counsel a US based international media conglomerate in a dispute over broadcasting rights of Dutch operators; 2017: representing US and UK based hedge funds in respect of activist matters relating to several Dutch blue chip companies and engaging with certain mid-cap companies; 2016: representing Taiwanese financial conglomerate FUBON in Enterprise Chamber proceedings commenced by Highfields against Delta Lloyd, in relation to Solvency II matters and a rights issue; 2014 and 2015: Frank Peters spoke at the DRRT conference on ‘Global Investor Protection – Developments and Trends for Institutional Investors’ in Miami and Frankfurt, on Dutch law aspects of class actions and financial markets manipulation in respect of EURIBOR and LIBOR rates; Representing defendants in post take-over litigation relating to Dockwise’ public offer on Fairstar; Representing interested parties in several inquiry proceedings (enquête procedure) before the Enterprise Chamber, such as those relating to KPNQwest, Fortis, Leaderland, Quintel, and E-Traction; Representing hedge funds in several activist investments such as ABN Amro (2007), Philips (2009), TNT (2011) and TNT Express (2012) and other instances which have not been disclosed; Representing several financial institutions in squeeze-out proceedings such as those relating to ABN Amro, Hagemeijer and Corporate Express; Representing several wind energy development companies, in disputes (in and out of court) with Vestas Wind Systems A/S and other wind turbine construction companies.

Dutch, English