De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek

We are glad to announce that Jacqueline Clement will join our Corporate M&A practice. Jacqueline has a strong track-record in private M&A, with a particular focus on the FIG sector. She has advised many financial institutions, corporate clients and financial sponsors on their M&A transactions, joint ventures and minority investments. Jacqueline will start at De Brauw in October, initially as Counsel. We look forward to welcoming her to the team.

On Tuesday, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek's Financial Litigation team hosted a lively roundtable on mediation in the Dutch financial sector. Our boardroom was filled with clients from banks, insurers and investment managers, supervisors, and experienced mediators, all bringing perspectives from across the industry.   Together with Eelco Meerdink as moderator and Pieter van Slobbe as co-presenter, we explored questions that don't yet have easy answers: why has mediation in the Dutch financial sector not yet reached its full potential? What are the most relevant use cases at B2C, B2B and B2S (supervisor) level? And what does it really take to make mediation work as a dispute resolution toolkit for financial institutions?   The roundtable brought sharp, diverse perspectives, and Cati Langendijk - Autoriteit Financiële Markten, Kate Jackson - Independent Mediators Ltd, and Matthijs Bierman - ReulingSchutte) made for a genuinely energising discussion. Thank you to everyone who joined us. The conversation is just getting started.

Last Thursday, we hosted our annual Alumni Event, bringing together former colleagues of the firm to reconnect on shared memories. Many thanks to all who joined us.

Congratulations to associate Jacob van de Kerkhof on successfully defending his PhD thesis on the Digital Services Act and freedom of expression. To mark the occasion, Jacob added a copy of his thesis to our collection of academic publications in our heritage collection on the second floor.

How One Independent Firm Became Big Tech's Go-To Counsel in the Netherlands

Yesterday, 16 associates received their offer to become senior associates. Congratulations to Louise, Stan, Remi, Alex, Jelmer, Darnell, Sophia, Anjalie, Vildan, Eva, Florine, Valentine, Isabel, Zihe, Marloes and Mart.

Congratulations to Robert van Hattum on his appointment as counsel in our IP practice, effective 1 June. Robert joined De Brauw in January 2016. After several years in the firm's commercial litigation practice, he moved to the IP group where he has built a strong reputation as a litigator in complex IP disputes. His practice includes soft IP cross-border litigation, trade secrets litigation and evidence collection. Dennis Horeman, managing partner of De Brauw, said: "Clients are facing increasingly complex IP disputes, often spanning multiple jurisdictions and raising issues that sit at the intersection of IP law and broader commercial strategy. Robert has shown strong litigation judgment and a clear ability to cut through complexity in some of the most demanding matters we handle, whether in contentious proceedings or on the advisory side. We are pleased to appoint him as counsel." Tobias Cohen Jehoram, partner in De Brauw's IP practice, said: "Robert is as comfortable in a trademark, copyright or trade secret dispute as he is on IP-intensive contractual matters. It is impressive how soon he has made a name for himself in the IP community. That versatility, grounded in a strong litigation background, is genuinely valuable to our clients. We are thrilled to see him take this next step." Congratulations, Robert!

This morning, Rick van 't Wout, David Mees, Marit van Zandvoort and I started off the week with a panel discussion on the adopted relaxation of the bonus cap and certain other arrangements covering variable remuneration under the Financial Markets Supervision Act. Key takeaways are the following: • The concept of identified staff will become (even more) leading under the applicable framework, as only persons in-scope of this definition will be subject to the strictest remuneration requirements including the 20% bonus cap. • Institutions will need to prepare by (1) qualifying the scope of identified staff or reassessing their current pool as needed and (2) revise their remuneration policies and procedures to get to a two-tiered system for identified staff and non-identified staff. • Whilst a welcome step forward to align the Dutch framework with the European remuneration framework and get to a more competitive Dutch financial sector, challenges remain. Prominently, exceptions to the 20% cap will effectively become less available for identified staff as the pooled average constraint will become harder to manage. This may lead to a required revision of existing or future incentive packages for key management staff, including forms of equity and equity-like incentives.

Yesterday, at the Chambers and Partners Europe Awards 2026 in Madrid, De Brauw was named Law Firm of the Year – Netherlands. The award recognises the work of colleagues across the firm, advising clients on complex transactions, disputes and regulatory matters. Machteld de Monchy-Jansen and Casilda Aguilar accepted the award on behalf of the firm.

De Brauw has been listed as one of the 30 leading international arbitration practices worldwide in the Global Arbitration Review ranking, the GAR 30. The result was announced at Pavillon Gabriel in Paris during the GAR Awards ceremony on 26 March. As part of the GAR 30's selection process, practices are assessed on the basis of case load, practitioner expertise, peer reputation and client feedback. Being included in this list reflects how our team works day to day to support clients through complex cross-border disputes. We are grateful to our clients for the trust they place in us and we are proud of the practice we've built over the past decades and the international recognition it receives. Congratulations to the team, and thank you to all our clients for the continued collaboration.  On behalf of the Arbitration practice: Marnix Leijten, Bommel van der Bend, Eelco Meerdink, Albert Marsman, Matthias Kuscher, Davine Roessingh, Irina Buga, Tes Flapper, Matthew Blome and Jonas Hinrichsen.