Board Members: Erwin Rademakers (Managing Partner), Marc Wintgens, Mark Kater

Number of partners worldwide: 86

Number of other lawyers and notaries worldwide: 293

Languages: Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish

Firm Overview:

With 470 lawyers, tax advisers, civil-law notaries and business support staff in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, AKD is a leading Benelux law firm. For its clients, it is the gateway from, to and in the Benelux. For over a century now, the firm has combined a full-service approach and a broad sector focus to consider any question from a range of angles and provide quality solutions – anywhere in the world. Literally. From AKD’s own offices, of course, and also through its various country teams and its extensive, worldwide Friends Network.

Main Areas of Practice:

Banking & Finance:

AKD advises a wide range of clients, including national and international corporate clients, banks and other financial institutions, private equity and venture capital investors, and hedge funds, on banking, finance, company law, national and international structuring and restructuring, and legal opinions.

Responsible Partner: Vincent Bettonville

Commercial Contracting:

AKD’s expertise covers the international sale of goods and services, encompassing the structuring and optimisation of international commercial transactions: advising, contracting and dispute resolution.

Responsible Partner: Martijn Evers

Corporate/M&A:

AKD’s small and flexible teams in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg work successfully for domestic and foreign companies on strategic transactions, private equity deals, venture capital investments, restructurings and distressed M&A. the firm’s team’s expertise extends to other areas of law and supervisory regulations relating to mergers and acquisitions, such as employee co-determination, transfer of undertaking, financing, security and ancillary restrictions.

Responsible Partner: Carlos Pita Cao

Data Protection & Privacy:

Enforcement powers available to privacy authorities in the Benelux are being expanded. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) pertains to all processing of personal data by data controllers and imposes strict conditions on the processing, transfer and security of personal data. AKD’s data protection & privacy team is happy to advise you as to whether your company’s data processing is privacy compliant.

Responsible Partner: Martin Hemmer

Employment & Pensions:

AKD’s employment & pensions practice group encompasses a team of committed lawyers boasting comprehensive knowledge and experience. AKD’s lawyers advise on and litigate cases involving employment contracts, dismissals, competition, collective labour agreements and employee participation, transfer of undertaking, equal treatment, secondment, working conditions and other types of remuneration, holiday and leave, and more.

Responsible Partner: Pieter Huys

EU Law, Competition & Regulation:

From the firm’s Brussels office, AKD have been advising and litigating on all facets of competition law for over 25 years. The firm’s clients are medium and large companies, the central government and decentralised public authorities. AKD advises clients on all aspects of EU and Dutch competition law including cartels, merger control, abuse of dominance, compliance, state aid and private damages litigation. AKD assists clients before domestic and European courts. 

Responsible Partner: Pieter Kuypers

Government Liability:

Government liability is a complex field, a convergence of administrative law and compensation law. AKD sets itself apart through its unique combination of thorough knowledge of administrative law and special expertise in the field of (civil) compensation law.

Responsible Partner: Gerrit van der Veen

Healthcare:

The Dutch healthcare system is among the best in Europe. However, it is an increasingly complex environment continuously challenging those operating within it. Accessibility and affordability are factors requiring perpetual attention. AKD’s healthcare and life science teams are at home in the healthcare and life sciences sector, understand the market and its players, and know the law inside out.

Responsible Partner: Klaas Meersma

Intellectual Property & IT:

AKD’s intellectual property, ICT & privacy team is one of the largest and most specialized IP and IT teams in the Netherlands and Belgium. The firm’s lawyers enjoy an excellent reputation both nationally and internationally. They litigate complex infringement disputes before national courts and all the way up to the European Court of Justice. AKD also boasts a dedicated trademark and design registration team whose sole aim is to look after your IP portfolio.

Responsible Partner: Martin Hemmer

Litigation:

AKD boasts an extensive team comprising dozens of lawyers who excel at resolving business disputes. AKD advises and litigates on every possible dispute involving corporate law, including shareholders’ disputes, disputes between joint venture partners, inquiry procedures, corporate governance and participation disputes, group liability and directors’ and officers’ liability issues.

Responsible Partner: Patrick Haas

Private Wealth:

AKD provides advise to wealthy families, establish and manage family offices for the creation and management of their holding and operational companies and their charitable entities. The firm assist them for the taking of tailor-made and strategic decisions in close cooperation with their other specialist advisors in Belgium and abroad. This includes complex securities portfolios, art and real estate.

Responsible Partner: Philip van Hilten

Public Law:

AKD boasts one of the largest administrative law teams in the Benelux. The firm advises and litigate on behalf of the public sector and semi-public institutions as well as on behalf of companies. A full-service firm, AKD is able to muster all the expertise needed to tackle every administrative dispute imaginable, ranging from local and provincial government law to water authorities legislation, from tax law and administrative fines to obligations to tolerate, and from orders subject to penalties and administrative coercion to municipal measures in the social domain.

Responsible Partner: Jos van der Velden

Real Estate & Construction:

Boasting one of the largest real estate & construction teams in the Benelux, AKD is able to deploy specialist lawyers to address all key aspects of your business. You can trust AKD’s experts to be up to speed with all innovations in your market and aware of any legal and contractual implications.

Responsible Partner: Sven Billet

Restructuring & Insolvency:

AKD’s restructuring & insolvency team has time and again proven a reliable and experienced partner in complex situations. The firm has been involved in nearly all major insolvencies in the Netherlands, either as trustees (in the bankruptcy of Imtech, for example) or as advisors. The firm is equipped to assist companies in financial distress with restructuring and refinancing issues, issues related to selling off secured assets as well as cases of post-bankruptcy D&O liability.

Responsible Partner: Barend de Roy van Zuidewijn

Tax:

From the firm’s Benelux offices, AKD’s tax lawyers are faced with the job of ensuring that tax regulation changes have the least possible adverse impact on the commercial activities and asset management of their clients, businesses and high net worth individuals alike. AKD accomplishes this by developing in-depth knowledge of all tax matters, be it corporate tax, dividends tax, income and PAYE taxes or transfer tax.

Responsible Partner: Huub Laauwen

Transport & Trade:

AKD’s transport & trade team enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide for its risk management expertise and ability to come up with legal solutions. The firm’s specialists have a clear understanding of opportunity versus risk and have been involved in many groundbreaking cases.

Responsible Partner: Jos van der Meché

International Work:

With offices in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, AKD offers integrated, independent and international legal and tax services in stable jurisdictions. Business arrangements, financial structures and digitalisation readily transcend international boundaries. The firm’s specialists look across borders and beyond the confines of their own disciplines in order to ensure seamless end-to-end service. AKD is the exclusive member firm in the Netherlands for Interlaw, the premium international association of independent law firms with lawyers in nearly 80 jurisdictions and more than 130 cities worldwide (www.interlaw.org). AKD also has dedicated teams for China, Japan, Korea, Germany, Spain, Turkey and the USA that assist its clients in their global activities from start to finish.