Clifford Chance raids Dutch firm

Tom de Waard and Hector de Beaufort - both mergers and acquisitions specialists - were voted in as partners of Clifford Chance on Monday.

Clifford Chance opened in Amsterdam in 1998 and now has a 16-partner office there, with 104 lawyers.

The departure of De Waard and De Beaufort comes just a year after Stibbe - the seventh biggest law firm in Holland - lost three heavyweight partners to Freshfields, another UK law firm which recently opened an Amsterdam office.

De Waard was reportedly described by the managing partner of a rival firm as "the face of Stibbe