Ex-head of DLA Piper Amsterdam sets up white collar crime firm

Ivy Advocaten has been set up by Robert Broekhuijsen and Jacqueline van de Bosch. Broekhuijsen was managing partner of SchutGrosheide, which merged with DLA Piper in 2004.

In 2005 Broekhuijsen joined the Dutch Prosecution Service as a special prosecutor in the fraud division, where he ran large cases such as the Rotterdam Port Fraud, and a case against oiltrader John Deuss and the First Curacao International Bank for carousel fraud in the UK.

Most recently Broekhuijsen has been working on the Netherlands’ largest-ever fraud case involving allegations of corruption by directors of electronic company Philips’ pension fund and Bouwfonds ABNAmro. Judgment is expected at the end of this month.

Van de Bosch was previously a counsel at Dutch firm Houthoff, where she was a member of the corporate crime team.

Broekhuijsen predicted a big increase in white collar crime work in the coming years in the Netherlands.

“The Dutch market is five years behind the UK and US,” he told The Lawyer. “No doubt the work will come as there’s much more regulation now.”

He and van de Bosch pointed to the increasing amount of work generated by the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act as examples.

Ivy Advocaten will advise corporates, banks and insurers on fraud, corruption, corporate governance and similar issues. Broekhuijsen said he hoped the firm would be able to employ eight to 10 people by the end of the year. An associate is set to join the founding partners in February.

A spokesperson for Houthoff wished van de Bosch and Broekhuijsen “all the best”.