Dispute resolution: Commercial litigation

Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn NV

Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn NV represents a wide array of clients from multinationals to the Dutch state, major Dutch municipalities, and financial supervisory authorities. The team has a wealth of experience in cases before the Supreme Court, including corporate, commercial and financial litigation. The team is jointly led by dispute resolution specialists Hans van Wijk, Willem Heemskerk, and Wemmeke Wisman. Heemskerk leads on cases with international aspects and acts for largely corporate clients in liability and compensation cases. Van Wijk is a go-to for Supreme Court litigation related to corporate, public sector, and liability disputes. Leading litigator Wisman is often instructed on high-stakes civil proceedings. Sikke Kingma assists public authorities and listed and non-listed companies in Supreme Court cases alongside Gijsbrecht Nieuwland, who regularly acts for the Dutch state before the highest courts. Peter van Kippersluis focuses on financial sector and professional liability cases. Newly promoted partner Raimond Dufour specialises in cross-border civil disputes and class actions.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

‘The strength of this team lies in their understanding of the dilemmas that we may face and their capability to easily and quickly connect us with their colleagues in the public law team and provide sound advice that considers the perspective of both specialties. This sets them apart from other law firms.’
‘Peter van Kippersluis is intelligent, accessible and available. Always a pleasure to work with. He combines an intelligent and creative legal mind with an ability to understand complex financial problems and concepts. Capable of thinking outside of the box and of looking further than the legal framework and considering how to best weigh the interests at hand. His memos and pleadings in court are high quality.’
‘The unique feature of Pels Rijcken is its dedicated corporate and commercial Supreme Court litigation practice. We often engage them and they have delivered very good results over the years.’
‘Our main contact is Hans van Wijk, who we have always found very responsive, very knowledgeable and very sensible, and always available to give some quick high-level advice before going into more detail.’
‘Pels Rijcken’s team has unique expertise in acting for the state and other governmental institutions, and has an impressive track record. But there’s more: the team also has a comprehensive portfolio of commercial clients. Their level of technical skill, experience, and strategic ability makes Pels Rijcken’s litigation practice one of the top teams in the Netherlands.’
‘Hans van Wijk remains one of the best Supreme Court litigators in the Netherlands. Wemmeke Wisman is a seasoned and acclaimed trial litigator. Her strategic vision and ability to read judges is second to none, and I doubt there is anyone else in the market with so much courtroom experience. Furthermore, I am impressed by the work of Jerre de Jong and Paul Tanja from the team.’
‘Willem Heemskerk is one of the best for litigation. He wins cases because of his knowledge and strategies, but always with respect for others and he would never undermine them. Therefore he is a very mature lawyer, who handles cases with humour and respect.’
'Gijsbrecht Nieuwland is very accessible and has a quick mind. He is able to clearly explain highly complex legal subject matters.'

Key clients

Royal Dutch Shell
Mercedes-Benz Group AG
ArcelorMittal
Porsche AG
BNP Paribas
Scandinavian Airlines
UBS
KPN
Nationale-Nederlanden
Philips Pensioenfonds
Total
Dutch Central Bank

Work highlights

Assisted Shell with a landmark case on human rights before the Court of Appeal of The Hague, after extensive litigation that took place in the US.
Representing Mercedes-Benz in more than 60 different cartel follow-on proceedings, mostly initiated by claim vehicles with a constituency of thousands of truck owners, relating to the alleged truck cartel.
Assisted the Dutch state in Supreme Court proceedings relating to the expropriation of SNS Bank, after a judgment of the Enterprise Division of the Amsterdam Court of Appeal in which compensation of more than EUR 1 billion was granted.

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