De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek has appointed four counsel in a number of practices: Roos van der Poel (IP), Selmer Bergsma (IP), Sebastiaan Kool (RCE) and Rick van 't Wout (EEB). All newly appointed counsel have come up through the firm's ranks and established themselves as leading experts in their respective fields.
Anja Mutsaers, member of De Brauw's management board: "We are very proud and excited to welcome these four talented lawyers as counsel to our firm. They have each built an impressive track record in their areas of expertise and greatly contribute to the strength and commitment of our high-quality multidisciplinary teams."
The newly appointed counsel are:
Roos van der Poel – counsel in IP practice, with a focus on IP contracting and transactional IP
Roos manages cases in which the transactional aspects of intellectual property rights are a central element of the matter. She is a seasoned transactional lawyer and advises on, negotiates, and drafts IP-related agreements and structures. Roos is closely connected to De Brauw's corporate department, and forms part of multidisciplinary teams for M&A-related matters, financing and restructuring. Roos is often involved in matters in which intellectual property law, contract law and competition law intersect. She is top ranked by league tables in this area.
Selmer Bergsma – counsel in IP practice, with a focus on litigation
Selmer is an experienced litigator, with a particular focus on intellectual property and commercial disputes. He handles complex cases before the Dutch courts at all levels, arbitral institutions, and the European Court of Justice. Selmer acts for clients across industries including technology, pharma, energy and fast-moving consumer goods. Over the years, he was involved in several landmark cases. Selmer's practice is both national and international. He has worked from De Brauw's Singapore, London and Amsterdam offices. The league tables recognise Selmer as a rising star.
Sebastiaan Kool – counsel in regulatory & criminal enforcement practice
Sebastiaan specialises in regulatory and criminal enforcement. He focuses on corporate criminal law, including anti-bribery and anti-corruption regulation, as well as financial crime and regulation. He regularly carries out internal investigations and represents clients in criminal investigations and enforcement proceedings. Sebastiaan also has extensive experience in litigating complex commercial and corporate disputes, including in arbitration and in proceedings before the Dutch courts.
Rick van 't Wout – counsel in employment & employee benefits practice
Rick van 't Wout focuses on remuneration & incentives (R&I) and transaction-related employment matters.
Rick's appointment underscores De Brauw's focus on its R&I-practice, which provides services to a wide range of clients – from our private equity and venture capital clients to our listed corporate clients – on matters such as management incentive plans ("sweet equity" plans, SAR schemes and other equity or equity-like plans, bonus schemes and LTIPs), remuneration policies and executive compensation. Our R&I practice combines the broad experience and detailed knowledge available at our firm to guide our clients through these important matters. R&I is a cross-expertise focus that brings together experts from our Employment, M&A, Tax, Corporate Advisory and other practices. Clients will benefit from Rick's broad experience in private equity transactions and employment-related matters.
