Brechje van der Velden
Senior Partner
Amsterdam
Brechje van der Velden
Senior Partner
Amsterdam
Contact details
Brechje is the senior partner (office head) of Allen & Overy Netherlands and a member of the global Executive Committee of Allen & Overy. She has over 25 years of experience in corporate restructurings, litigation and insolvency matters. She acts as trusted advisor at board room level on governance and strategic issues, with a focus on reputational management.
Her practice covers a wide range of impact litigation (climate litigation and other issues where the reputation of the client is at stake), commercial, financial and securities dispute resolution, class actions and collective settlements, restructuring and insolvency matters and directors' liability issues. Her clients include funds, corporates and financial institutions and she is a member of various boards.
Hall of Fame - The legal 500: Dispute Resolution: Commercial Litigation (2023).
The 2023 edition of Chambers Global quotes that Brechje ''sees through complex matters in a quite remarkable way and explaining the various variables in an understandable manner”. - Chambers global 2023
The 2022 edition of Chambers Global describes Brechje as "an excellent litigator" and quotes that she "is a very credible and focused lawyer who truly understands the court's questions and immediately sees through the opponents' manoeuvres"'. Legal 500 described Brechje as "fantastic" and quotes that she is an "outstanding litigator".
Qualifications
Professional
Admitted as advocaat, Netherlands, 1996
Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2021
Listed in the register of legal practice areas of the Dutch Bar Association for Burgerlijk procesrecht (Litigation)
Academic
Related articles
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Publications: 29 March 2023
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Experience highlights
The Vroon Group in relation to the restructuring of its 22 bilateral financing arrangement, of up to EUR 1.5 bn in various jurisdictions. Contingency planning (including chapter 11, scheme, WHOA), cocom discussions and operational restructuring and litigation, which resulted in the first ever parallel use of the new Dutch WHOA and an English scheme of arrangement.
Successfully representing a global financial institution in legal proceedings initiated by the former shareholder of the Partner Logistics Group, claiming damages from the bank for an amount of EUR223m, alleging that the bank wilfully caused the bankruptcy of the Partner Logistics Group in order to acquire all the shares and to be able to sell the company at a profit. The court dismissed all claims and ruled in favour of the institution.
Advising various companies with respect on their conduct and strategy on ESG.
Qualifications
Professional
Admitted as advocaat, Netherlands, 1996
Registered Foreign Lawyer, England and Wales, 2021
Listed in the register of legal practice areas of the Dutch Bar Association for Burgerlijk procesrecht (Litigation)
Academic
Published work
- Non-US Class Actions by Allen & Overy in: Jonathan N. Eisenberg (ed.), Litigation secutities class actions, LexisNexis 2016.
- Rondom het nieuws - Activeren: een nieuwe gedragsnorm voor levensverzekeraars, in Tijdschrift voor Financieel Recht, 4 april 2015, Brechje van der Velden
- Non-US Class Actions by Allen & Overy in: Jonathan N. Eisenberg (ed.), Litigation secutities class actions, LexisNexis 2015.
- Grenzen van collectieve afdoening in zicht, in TOP mei 2014, 38, Brechje van der Velden en Anouk Raaijmakers.
- Dillema’s van de bank in insolventiesituaties, artikel in de IFR bundel Aansprakelijkheid in de financiële sector, september 2013, Brechje van der Velden, Sigrid Jansen
- Breuk in vertrouwen te lijmen? [discussion table headed by Brechje van der Velden with Paul Medendorp, Jan Maarten Slagter en Theodor Kockelkoren]. In: Management Scope nr 10/2011
- Juridische afwikkeling van massaschade nu (bijna) perfect, in: Tijdschrift voor de Ondernemingrechtpraktijk, September 2011
- Massaclaims zijn te vermijden, in: Management Scope, nr. 08-09, 2011
- Bestuurderspensioenfondsen in de vuurlinie, in: het Pensioenmagazine, January 2011, together with Bas Jennen
- Shell-shocked? Het internationale debuut van de Wet Collectieve Afwikkeling Massaschade, in Tijdschrift voor de Ondernemingrechtpraktijk, November 2009, together with Arnold Croiset van Uchelen
- Meer internationaal toezicht helpt niet, in: NRC, 3 April 2009, together with Hendrik Jan Biemond
- Minister gokt op de financiële sector, Tijdschrift voor financieel recht, July 2008, together with Bas Jennen
Recognition
She is very pragmatic and solution-oriented.
Chambers Global, 2018
excels in the courtroom
Legal 500, 2017
to reduce a highly complex legal matter to its basic elements" and to "think ahead to solutions.
Chambers Global, 2017
