Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance appoints 2 Senior Counsel and 9 Counsel in Amsterdam, including one lateral hire

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has appointed 2 Senior Counsel and 9 Counsel in Amsterdam, effective as of 1 May 2023. Juliette Luycks (Litigation & Dispute Resolution) and Nanette Rutgers (Global Financial Markets) are promoted to Senior Counsel. Tiemen Drenth (Litigation & Dispute Resolution), Pieter Leefers (Corporate), Laure Lusteau (Global Financial Markets), Andrei Mikes (Corporate), Serkan Özel (Corporate), Charlotte Spierings (Litigation & Dispute Resolution), Amin Tamaddoni (Global Financial Markets) and Philip Walsh (Global Financial Markets) are promoted to Counsel. In addition, Clifford Chance strengthens its Corporate M&A practice in Amsterdam with the hire of Ernst van der Touw as Counsel.

Titus de Vries, Amsterdam Managing Partner, comments: "The promotions of our Senior Counsel and Counsel and the hire of Ernst van der Touw as Counsel demonstrate our commitment to invest in top talent in order to achieve the best results for our clients. Their combined capabilities and expertise span across key areas for the firm and contribute to delivering outstanding services and solutions to our clients across practices".

Juliette Luycks heads the Amsterdam Arbitration practice. She specialises in national and international commercial arbitration and in investment treaty arbitration, representing companies, financial investors and states. She acts both as counsel and as arbitrator. She has extensive trial experience before the Dutch courts in arbitration related disputes and other complex cross-border disputes, including disputes involving Business & Human Rights. Juliette is also a CEDR accredited mediator and works from our Amsterdam and Madrid offices.

Nanette Rutgers is part of the Global Financial Markets practice and co-leads the Energy & Infrastructure group in Amsterdam. She specialises in project finance and has in-depth experience advising clients on renewable energy projects. In addition, she advises a broad client base on infrastructure projects, PPPs and other types of (project) financings.

Ernst van der Touw specialises in public and private mergers & acquisitions. He advises international and domestic private equity firms and corporates on a wide range of transactions, including public offers, buy-side acquisitions, sell-side divestments and joint ventures, as well as on general corporate governance matters. He joined Clifford Chance in 2021 on an interim basis, having previously worked at NautaDutilh for over nine years.

Tiemen Drenth specialises in corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration. As a litigator and as counsel in arbitration, he represents corporates, financial investors and banks in complex disputes, often with a cross-border element. He was previously seconded to Shell's Global Litigation group and has particular expertise in the energy sector, including in international arbitration and in disputes and risk management issues arising from climate change.

Pieter Leefers specialises in private M&A, private equity, management participation and corporate advisory work. He advises both international and domestic private equity firms and their portfolio companies, financial institutions and corporates on sell-side and buy-side M&A transactions, joint ventures, restructurings and various other corporate matters. Pieter is also experienced in transactions in the TMT, infrastructure, real estate, energy and renewables sector.

Laure Lusteau works in the Global Financial Markets practice in Amsterdam. She specialises in leveraged finance and has extensive experience acting for private equity funds and their portfolio companies, private credit funds and banks on cross-border transactions. Laure regularly advises on acquisition and secured financings with a particular focus on private debt. She also has experience in syndicated lending transactions and restructuring. She has previously worked in London, Singapore and Paris.

Andrei Mikes advises on a wide range of advisory and transactional matters in the Tech//Digital sector, particularly on issues concerning emerging technologies, data protection and privacy, cyber security, AI policy, carve-outs and commercial contracting. Andrei spent time on secondment in our London and New York offices.

Serkan Özel works in the Corporate practice in Amsterdam and focusses on corporate advisory and equity capital markets transactions. He advises both (listed) corporate enterprises and investors on corporate governance, transactions and reorganisations (including joint ventures and (cross border) mergers, demergers and migrations). He joined the firm in 2016 and undertook a secondment to our Paris office.

Charlotte Spierings specialises in litigation relating to commercial disputes, focusing on financial law and related regulatory enforcement, insolvency litigation, and commercial contracts. She also has experience in sanctions advice, corporate litigation and director's liability cases. Charlotte obtained a Ph.D from Radboud University Nijmegen and is a research fellow of the Business and Law Research Center of the same university.

Amin Tamaddoni is a Dutch law qualified lawyer part of the Global Financial Markets group, specialising in general corporate finance and acquisition finance. In addition, he regularly advises on real estate finance, commodity finance and export credit finance transactions. Amin acts for financial institutions, financial investors and corporate entities in relation to such transactions, and has undertaken secondments to clients ABN AMRO and Rabobank.

Philip Walsh specialises in projects and project finance in the energy and infrastructure sector, particularly on renewable energy and energy transition matters (including hydrogen, e-fuels and carbon capture storage projects). Philip regularly acts for commercial and multilateral lenders, development finance institutions, institutional investors, sponsors and developers on projects in the Netherlands and wider Europe, the Nordics, sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Philip advises both on finance documents and on commercial project documents, with a particular focus on offtake arrangements. Philip is qualified in England and Wales.

In total, Clifford Chance appointed 12 Senior Counsel and 39 Counsel across Continental Europe.

Steve Jacoby, Regional Managing Partner for Continental Europe adds: "By appointing these Senior Counsel and Counsel, we continue to invest in having the best team across the region to serve our clients wherever they operate".