Jan Willem leads Houthoff’s Litigation and Arbitration practice groups and is head of the firm’s International Board.
He is a highly experienced trial lawyer and was named “Netherlands Litigator of the Year” for 2025/2026. He specialises in corporate and commercial litigation, focusing on transaction-related disputes, post-public bid litigation, shareholder disputes, Enterprise Chamber proceedings, corporate arbitrations and liability claims. Jan Willem represents corporates, and national and international investment companies in complex proceedings often involving multiple jurisdictions. He has led Houthoff’s litigation teams in, among other cases, the multibillion-dollar takeover dispute Elliott/AkzoNobel, Sligro’s EUR 83 million takeover dispute with Jumbo, the large-scale Altice litigation regarding the majority shareholder’s public bid and the billion-dollar-plus Yildirim case.
Jan Willem has been top ranked in Chambers for many years (both for the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean), and Legal 500 has recognised him as a Leading Individual. He frequently teaches on corporate litigation and is co-editor of, and contributor to, a leading book on Dutch evidence law. He also sits on the board of the Law Firm School, an organisation responsible for the education of associates of the Netherlands’ largest law firms.
