Clifford Chance hands Amsterdam management to capital markets partner

Visser’s appointment comes after the magic circle firm divided its Central and Eastern Europe and Russia managing partner role after incumbent Michael Cuthbert announced his retirement (16 September 2009).

Finance capital markets partner Visser has replaced Jan ter Haar, who relocated to Russia to lead the Moscow and Kiev offices last month. Clifford Chance is yet to elect a managing partner for the Bucharest, Prague and Warsaw offices.

Visser said: “The industry sector groups are very important to the way we’ll be working in the Amsterdam office. I’ll be looking at how we can structure and work with our clients along sector lines.”

Earlier this year The Lawyer reported that Clifford Chance created 13 different industry-focused sectors to sit across practice areas (3 August 2009).

Partners can select one or more sectors to specialise in while remaining in their current practice groups. Clifford Chance hopes the new sector focus will help it better serve clients by partners becoming experts in specific industries.

Visser has been a partner at Clifford Chance since 2003 in the Dutch capital markets group. Last year The Lawyer reported on Visser leading a team advising De Nederlandsche Bank (the Dutch Central Bank) working with the Netherlands Government and financial regulators on the sale of Benelux bank Fortis (6 October 2008).