Praktijkgebieden

The team works for the vast majority of Dutch and foreign investors, funds and lenders on asset finance and structured finance transactions both from a finance and real estate angle.

Legal 500: The team is ‘excellent in advising on real estate financings, and offers a team of lawyers specialised in banking, as well as a team of notaries specialised in real estate’.

The lawyers at the Automotive Industry Group have in-depth expertise and long running experience of the automotive industry and various players. Clients turn to the group with issues in various legal areas, knowing legal expertise goes coupled with a unique knowledge of the automotive business.
Legal 500: It is experienced in acting for a number of car manufacturers in cases over the use of their logos, this year handling one such case before the Amsterdam District Court.

The firm advises domestic and foreign banks, investors and other organisations on often complex banking, finance transactions, as well as litigation. With its thorough local knowledge of Dutch the market, its banking regulatory expertise and highly esteemed real estate practice, where property is involved, the Dutch banking specialists can cover all aspects of a transaction.

Legal 500: Houthoff Buruma is developing its finance practice and enters the tables in recognition of its work on matters stemming from the corporate arena and from financial institutions. Clients are “satisfied with this team’s quality service and attractive pricing.”

The capital markets team shows a strong performance in high profile Euronext Amsterdam listings by Dutch and non-Dutch issuers. In addition, the team has been instructed to advice on listings of investment funds and has been advising on high-profile large public M&A transactions (Legal 500, 2009).

Houthoff Buruma has a strong construction law practice which include, among others, onshore and offshore work, maritime-related issues, road building projects, utility-related construction, architect and engineer-related issues, combination agreements, turnkey contracts, Design & Build contracts, BOT contracts, settlement of complex conflicts, stagnation claims, hidden defects and litigation or arbitration services in case the dispute is unavoidable. There is a growing trend towards alternative forms of dispute settlement, such as mediation or Dispute Review Boards. Houthoff Buruma can assist you (as principal or as client) with these too.

Legal 500: Houthoff Buruma’s construction practice is exceptional, and the firm demonstrates particular strength in contentious work.

Houthoff Buruma’s clients have witnessed the increasingly international nature of the work carried out by our corporate & commercial lawyers.  The work is a mix of transactional, advisory & litigation work for mainly multinational clients while often acting as counsel to managing boards and supervisory board.

Houthoff Buruma has a team of lawyers with the expertise and experience to advise and represent our corporate clients and their directors in criminal matters. One of our primary goals is to assist our clients to avoid becoming involved in such matters in the first place. However, a business may become the target of criminal activity and may find itself the subject of an investigation by a prosecutor, whether Dutch or international. This investigation could relate to a regulatory or tax matter. Or it could be the result of actions taken by a director, manager, employee or the business itself. We guide and support clients that have become involved in criminal investigations, including representing the company, its directors and its employees in court. The team works together with our banking, competition and tax specialists.

Houthoff Buruma is offering specific support and advise for large and medium sized companies from emerging markets in all matters from market entry investigations to transaction assistance, as well as to support Dutch companies investing in or trading with an emerging market. The firm has a well established dedicated China desk which serves Chinese clients in Mandarin and Cantonese, as well as Dutch clients with Chinese contacts and support.

Our Energy Team brings together practitioners with expertise in finance, corporate law, contract law, industry regulations, real estate (environment and notarial law), and competition law. Houthoff Buruma continues to focus on: project finance; public procurement relating to energy infrastructures in the context of urban development; high profile litigation on stranded cost issues; and emission allowances and subsidiaries.
In addition, Houthoff Buruma has responded to the growing interest in sustainable projects from the traditional energy companies and venture capital parties by establishing a renewables group.

The firm's EU & competition specialists advise on all aspects of competition law, including cartel proceedings, notifications of concentration, starting up joint ventures and entering into licensing, distribution and other vertical agreements as well as provide litigation and dispute resolution advice. They also defend the interests of clients before the Dutch Competition Authority (NMa), the EU Commission, the European Court of Justice and other supervisory bodies and courts. 

Legal 500:  Houthoff Buruma is described by one market leader as ‘ a top domestic player’. One source states that they are ‘specialised in the media and regulated-markets field’, with ‘fast reaction time and the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team’.

Houthoff Buruma’s Health Care Practice Group provides assistance and advice to all the various players in the health care sector, including hospitals, care institutions, home care organisations, insurers, individual care providers (including partnerships), interest groups, pharmaceutical companies and other health care organisations. In addition, our lawyers in the Health Care Practice Group are advising the new players in the health care sector, such as banks, private equity houses, developers and service providers. The team further provides assistance in corporate and transactional issues, investments, financing and litigation as well.

Houthoff Buruma has a prominent market presence when it comes to the handling of all Netherlands law aspects of the international corporate and financial restructuring of companies, usually companies in a state of financial distress. These aspects not only include general corporate law issues, but also banking and finance matters, regulatory work and the application of securities laws. The team advises companies and their directors, banks, bondholders and other creditors on all issues relating to corporate and financial restructuring, recovery and insolvency. Our lawyers also receive court appointments as administrators in moratorium-on-payment proceedings and as trustees particularly in large national and international insolvency proceedings.

Chambers Europe: This team continues to win a large volume of business off the back of its wider reputation and notable expertise in the financial field.

Houthoff Buruma is widely recognised as the leading law firm in the Netherlands when it comes to insurance and insurance related matters. Whereas litigation remains a corner stone of the insurance practice, an ever increasing number of clients call for advice relating to, among others, transactions, corporate and regulatory work, reinsurance issues and product development.
Chambers Europe: "Widely held to be one of the leaders in the field, Houthoff Buruma has an enviable knowledge of insurance law and is recognised by market sources for the outstanding quality of its work. Its broad focus takes in insurance advice, liability, banking, monitoring and class action-related matters, and the firm handles a number of high-profile cases and international coverage disputes."
ACQ Finance award "Insurance and reinsurance law firm of the year 2009 for the Netherlands".

Our investment management team combines tax, fund structuring, asset management and financial regulatory expertise. Houthoff Buruma is one of the few Dutch law firms which can offer legal, tax and notarial services in this area. The team advises on, among others, setting up and restructuring investment funds, asset management, asset pooling, capital markets transactions involving private equity, hedge and real estate funds or other domestic and foreign investment funds, and (financial markets) regulatory matters. Chambers: Its client-centred approach, excellent technical skills and creative problem solving have drawn a large loyal client base of notable big players.

The firm advises on privacy, database protection, outsourcing of IT, procurement and the formation of strategic alliances and partnership agreements with large clients. It handles the review of software licences, maintenance agreements, service level agreements and project agreements. Houthoff Buruma represents telecom companies, government authorities and the market regulator on complicated regulatory issues.

Chambers: The group is known for its particularly good work in the information and communication technology and media industries, and has had a busy year advising on the IP elements in corporate transactions brought to the firm’s M&A department.

The practice group advises a wide variety of Dutch and foreign clients. The practice group handles employment contracts, collective labour agreements, management agreements, employment conditions, employee share options and other employment law matters. The team also advises on terminations, lay-offs, reorganisations and the setting up of redundancy arrangements and social plans.
Chambers: Houthoff Buruma has one of the larger employment teams in the Netherlands. Prominent Dutch clients include national broadcaster NOS and Koninklijke Volker Wessels Stevin.

Houthoff Buruma has one of the largest and most reputable litigation and arbitration practices in the Netherlands, and is one of the few Dutch law firms with a dedicated corporate and commercial Supreme Court litigation practice.

Legal 500: With a large number of litigation and arbitration specialists, the firm is well placed to offer high quality mediation services.

Chambers: “Besides being great lawyers, they are all accessible and down-to-earth,” say clients, and it is clear that the firm is making bold attempts to sell itself as a realistic alternative to the bigger names in the market. Further praise is given about the “immensely proactive office – you don’t need a dozen e-mails to get them to understand what you want,” say sources.

The firm's corporate and M&A practitioners, recognised as leading in the Dutch market, are highly active in (domestic and international) M&A, private equity and corporate restructurings, and work closely with their clients' team members to understand their business needs and reach the end goal, supported by industry sector specialists where appropriate. The size of the practice group enables it to respond instantly and to form teams focused on getting the deal through.

Chambers: Traditionally known for its solid reputation in the domestic market, this firm has staked out even more ground for itself on an international scale of late and has been involved increasingly in cross-border transactions, particularly in relation to private equity. This large team brings a diverse range of expertise to the table but is noted for specialising in private equity and public deals.

 

Houthoff Buruma is assisting its clients on manufacturing and distribution in a wide range of areas and, notwithstanding in these times, on strategic acquisitions, partnerships and risk management. Houthoff Buruma is further often called upon to conduct litigation on behalf of manufacturers and importers on a wide range of issues, including non-conformity, warranty, product-safety and liability, and product recalls.

Chambers: Highly regarded for its expertise in real estate matters, the group is favoured by a number of domestic private equity houses and has developed an effective corporate division that has acquired fully independent status.

Our lawyers provide advice to clients in many contexts, including:
(i)  advising on the setting up and restructuring investment funds in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba;
(ii)  assisting in finance transactions involving the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, including rendering legal opinions in this respect;
(iii)  advising asset managers and institutional investors on discretionary, fiduciary and other types of asset management services involving the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba;
(iv)  providing general Netherlands Antilles and Aruban financial markets regulatory advice; and
(v)  advice on general Antilles and Aruban corporate matters. 

Notarial services are an essential component of the legal services provided by Houthoff Buruma. This area of practice is fully integrated with the firm's legal practice as a whole and is particularly active in corporate law and real estate.

With the largest pension and benefits team in the Netherlands, Houthoff Buruma offers full legal services in employee benefits and pension related matters including tax and supervisory issues. The team advises large pension funds, participants’ boards of pension funds, employers and employees on, among others, legal issues relating to the establishment and operation of second pillar pension schemes, on establishing and liquidating pension funds and pension aspects of commercial transactions.  The Team also advices clients on pension scheme design, set up, administration, mergers and winding ups, pension aspects of mergers and acquisitions and on all regulatory and compliance aspects of pension scheme administration.

The firm's Privacy and Data Protection specialists advise and litigate on all aspects of privacy law and are known for their thorough understanding of the Dutch Data Protection Act ("Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens"). They combine in-depth knowledge and experience with a pragmatic customer-oriented approach. They serve clients from almost all sectors and represent them before the Dutch Data Protection Authority ("College Bescherming Persoonsgegevens").

Houthoff Buruma’s market share of Dutch private equity transactions places the firm in the top league in this area.  The team has been involved in the majority of private equity transactions during the last few years while advising a number of domestic as well as international parties. Every client receives a full-service advice due to a balanced cooperation with other practice groups such as energie, telecom, tax, banking & finance en media.

Legal 500:  Houthoff Buruma has built up a solid private equity practice that claims a strong position in the market.

Houthoff Buruma's Procurement Law Group is one of the largest procurement law departments in the Netherlands. The Procurement Law Group consists of nine specialists in Dutch and European procurement law. Each specialist combines his or her procurement law practice with practice in another area of law, such as construction law, property development law, healthcare law, etc. They advise clients from the private sector and the public sector on any issue (whether complicated or routine) relating to tendering, government contracting, procurement, and so on. They also assist their clients in disputes and, where necessary, with the appeal and litigation processes. The members of the Procurement Law Group are well known within the sector. Their articles are regularly published in legal periodicals, trade journals and the press. They are members of the Dutch Procurement Law Association (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Aanbestedingsrecht) and are often called upon to lecture and provide training on procurement and tendering.

The Project Financing practice group brings together several legal disciplines: lawyers work together in the financing, company law, competition law, energy, telecom and utility law, contract law, construction law, procurement law, environment law and arbitration sectors. They combine in-depth knowledge and experience with a pragmatic, customer-oriented approach aimed at a speedy and cost effective completion of the project. Among our clients are banks and other financial institutions, developers and government bodies.

Legal 500: The project finance team pools experts from corporate, finance, tax, real estate and regulatory teams.

Houthoff Buruma continues to hold its top position for real estate in the Netherlands. The entire spectrum of real estate aspects can be handled by the large number of lawyers who work in integrated teams advising on major (domestic and cross-border) real estate projects, transactions and on the real estate aspects of corporate and finance deals. The breadth of specialisms within the practice include transactions (corporate, finance and real estate driven), leasing, project finance, construction law, procurement, planning, environmental and property development projects.

Chambers: Recognised for its “strong footprint in the Netherlands,” this firm is “always top of the league” and fields impressive lawyers who handle lots of high-profile cases and are skilled across the board.

 

Houthoff Buruma's regulatory experts are integrated in various practice areas, including banking, capital markets, investment management, pension funds, insurance, energy, telecom, EU & competition as well as health care. Houthoff Buruma has strong connections with governmental authorities and provides its private clients with an in-depth knowledge in all areas relevant.

The firm advises on domestic and international taxation on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and finance structures as well as tax planning techniques. The tax specialists work closely with other practice groups to ensure transactions are managed effectively but are also engaged by clients for their specialist tax expertise.

The team is specialised in the telecoms, cable and media sectors. An important part of the practice consists of regulatory work, which draws on the expertise of the firm's Regulatory Markets and Competition Department. The lawyers in this practice area in Amsterdam supervise projects involving the Dutch telecoms watchdog (OPTA) and the Dutch competition authority (NMa). They keep abreast of developments in the sector and advise on new legislation and policy in the field.

Chambers: The group is known for its particularly good work in the information and communication technology and media industries, and has had a busy year advising on the IP elements in corporate transactions brought to the firm’s M&A department.

The lawyers specialised in this field are familiar with all legal aspects of transport, both national and international, whether by rail, by road, by air or by sea or inland shipping route. Liability claims, arrests, damage claims, cargo damage, trade disputes, shipbuilding, distribution, agencies, storage and transhipment, transport contracts and transport insurance - these are just a selection of the many issues that may be involved.
Houthoff Buruma's transport and logistic lawyers advise and assist national and international clients in negotiations, legal procedures and arbitrations.