Bird & Bird

Arnoud Knijnenburg

Arnoud is a partner in the Tax Practice of Bird & Bird in The Hague and his in-depth knowledge and expertise in tax matters complements Bird & Bird’s key focus on innovation and energy. With more than 16 years of experience, Arnoud advises on a broad array of international tax matters with a specialized focus on international structuring and restructurings, tax control and compliance matters and tax litigation, all with a particular focus on innovation, technology and energy matters. Over the years he specialised in the structuring of corporate foundations, not-for-profit organisations as well as Dutch and international charitable funds and social impact investments. Furthermore, he regularly advises our sector clients on energy taxes, tax incentives, VAT on services and on betting and gaming taxes. For more than a decade he regularly visiting South Africa on business trips to meet longstanding existing clients and contracts and get acquainted with new ones. Arnoud is a member of the Dutch Association of Tax Advisers, the International Fiscal Association, the International Chamber of Commerce, the Southern African Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and the Dutch Association of Tax Science.

Feyo Sickinghe

Feyo is a Principal Regulatory Counsel in the Regulatory & Public Affairs practice of Bird & Bird in the Netherlands and Brussels with a focus on tech and comms and digital markets regulation. He combines in-depth business knowledge with legal and regulatory expertise. Feyo has a broad network in Brussels, the Dutch Parliament, the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets ("ACM") and the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Climate. His practice involves developing and presenting strategic, regulatory and policy views in legislative procedures and lobbying at a national and EU level on digital services, data regulation, telecoms regulation in fixed and mobile markets, infrastructure, end user protection, cybersecurity, rights of way, market analysis and the transposition of European legislation into national law.

Janneke Kohlen

Janneke is partner in our Competition & EU Law practice and is based in The Hague. Janneke specialises in competition law and public procurement law and advises a wide variety of clients, both contentious and non-contentious. She has substantial experience in merger control, cartel cases and abuse of dominance. Janneke has broad expertise in advising on distribution agreements and frequently provides in-house competition compliance programs and trainings to clients. Additionally, she has extensive experience in drafting Codes of Conducts and compliance manuals for companies with a focus on competition law. In addition, she advises a wide variety of clients on public procurement issues throughout the process from reviewing tender documents and advising clients on which questions should be asked of the procuring entities and representing companies in court, if necessary. Her practice areas are primarily focused on the postal and telecommunications, consumer products as well as food and beverages sectors. She is also a member of our Tech & Comms Group. Janneke also publishes regularly and is co-editor for the European and Economic chapter of the Dutch journal 'Juridisch Up To Date'.Testimonials - The Legal 500 EMEA 2021 ‘Janneke Kohlen, together with her strong team, is able to answer questions quickly and thoroughly.’ ‘Janneke Kohlen is always well prepared for any meeting, as is her strong team. She combines her incredible legal knowledge with deep industry knowledge and is able to answer questions quickly and thoroughly. A great thing about Janneke is that she does not present the rules of law, but that she thinks along with the organisation and comes up with practical, step-by-step and easy to implement tools for every situation.’

Jeroen van der Lee

Jeroen co-heads the Tech & Comms Group of Bird & Bird in the Netherlands. He is also a member of the Commercial Group. He advises on complex commercial transactions, particularly in the communications and IT sector. Jeroen is particularly experienced in advising on cross-border outsourcings and other services arrangements; ICT procurement agreements; complex software licensing transactions; and B2B e-commerce projects. His client base includes innovative internet start-ups and listed companies, both Dutch companies and multinationals. Jeroen's extensive experience in large scale projects means that he understands the issues that arise in such projects and can provide the solutions to resolve these issues.

Manon Rieger-Jansen

Manon is a partner in Bird & Bird’s Intellectual Property Group and she leads the brand management team in the Netherlands. As an experienced litigator, Manon specialises in trademark, design, copyright and advertising, and has a particular focus on cases involving product design. She handles cases in front of the courts as well as many proceedings at the Benelux trademark office and EUIPO.Many of the contentious matters Manon is working on have an international angle and over the years, she has developed a particular experience in pan-European enforcement strategies of trademarks and designs, including customs and parallel import enforcement strategies. Apart from contentious work, Manon’s practice also provides global strategic advice on IP rights, and the protection and registration of trademark and design portfolios. Manon and her team offer cradle-to grave trademark services, thereby combining the experience in both contentious and non-contentious matters.Manon assists many businesses in the retail sector, including the world's best known brands. Working in the sector and heading the Dutch retail group and the international luxury, fashion and retail team gives her a good understanding of the industry and the issues impacting it. Manon has been included in the top 250 women in IP (2020, MIP), won the Best in Trade Marks award by Women in Business Law Awards 2020 and was shortlisted for their Best in Copyright award in 2020.

Marcus Huisman

Marcus has been managing partner of Bird & Bird in The Hague since 2015. He is a partner in the International HR Services Practice. He advises and litigates on the full spectrum of employment-related matters and focuses particularly on corporate employment law. With over 20 years of experience, Marcus often provides strategic advice on corporate restructurings, disciplinary procedures and management issues, such as the dismissal and reward of board members and executives. In addition, Marcus is particularly experienced in advising on complex employees' representation issues and litigation, including litigation at the Amsterdam Entrepreneurial Chamber. Marcus' client base includes multinationals, educational institutions and health care institutions, as well as works councils and board members.

Pauline Kuipers

Pauline leads our Competition and Public Procurement Practices and co-heads our Media Group in the Netherlands. With almost 20 years of experience, Pauline specialises in EU and Dutch competition law in regulated markets. Her team deals with cartel procedures, abuse of dominance matters, merger notifications to the Dutch competition authority and European Commission as well as coordination of multiple merger filings, private enforcement actions, competition regulation of network industries as well as the media sector and competition rules on undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by the state including state aid. Her practice also includes public procurement law. Her previous experience in intellectual property law has given her specific expertise to advise in matters on the verge between competition law and intellectual property, such as licensing arrangements and other technology transfer agreements, standardisation discussions, refusal to license, FRAND licensing, abuse of IP rights etc. She is also a member of the Communications and Life Sciences Groups of Bird & Bird.

Pauline Vos

Pauline is a partner and heads the Corporate Law practice group of Bird & Bird in the Netherlands. She has broad experience in (national and cross-border) mergers & acquisitions and private equity transactions, with a particular focus on the Communications, Media and Life Sciences sectors. With particular experience in cross-border M&A transactions, Pauline has acted on behalf of national and international clients on numerous multi-jurisdiction share and asset transactions. Pauline also advises clients on a broad range of general corporate matters and is also regularly involved in private equity deals, advising investors as well as target companies.

Pieter Camps

As an Of Counsel in our Tax Practice in The Hague Pieter combines specialist experience with a pragmatic approach to counselling and negotiations, both nationally and internationally. He has a focus on Canada and works most of his time from Vancouver. He also works on behalf of a substantial number of US West Coast clients. His practice covers a broad range of tax matters, both in the Netherlands and abroad, with a particular focus on international tax planning. He advises regularly on acquisitions, restructurings, real estate funds and investment and mergers. In addition, he has substantial experience in real estate transactions including transfer tax issues and telecoms infrastructure, as well as in the tax planning and international structuring of patents and trademarks, including the use of the Dutch ‘innovation box’. He is a capable negotiator with an excellent track record of solving disputes with the Dutch tax authorities.

Sophie Dingenen

Sophie has been advising the energy sector since 1999 on all corporate, projects and contract matters. After being involved in all the major energy transactions and regulatory changes during the privatisation of the Dutch energy market, her practice now mostly focuses on the structuring and, more specifically, the development and construction of national and international energy projects. Sophie has vast experience in drafting and negotiating key project agreements - for both conventional and renewable energy projects - which are often the basis for securing project financing. With a corporate background, Sophie also advises national and international (energy) companies on privatisations, cross border mergers and acquisitions, and restructurings. In addition, Sophie has advised energy companies and financial institutions on the contractual and corporate issues related to legal consequences of the regulatory changes. She regularly advises on innovative structures such as Corporate PPAs enabling acceleration of the renewable energy transition. She was Nominated Euromoney's European Women in Business Law award 'Best in Energy' in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Before joining us, Sophie worked both for other international law firms and in house where she led the legal aspects of the development of projects. She has extensive experience in providing strategic & boardroom advice. Sophie is dual qualified in the Netherlands and in the UK. She is a member of a number of professional associations, including the Dutch Energy Law Association (NeVER), the International Bar Association (IBA) and the UK Society of Construction Law. Sophie speaks regularly on conferences and her numerous articles on energy-related subjects are published in both legal and industry magazines.

Tialda Beetstra

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