Roderik van Hees

Roderik is a litigation attorney admitted to practice in the Netherlands and the Dutch Caribbean (Curaçao, Aruba, St. Maarten, Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba), who works from both our Amsterdam as well as our Curaçao office. He mostly works on high value, cross-border cases, often jointly with foreign lawyers.

Roderik has ample experience in commercial (trade) disputes, shareholder disputes, cases regarding the liability of managing directors and supervisory directors, inquiry proceedings, the levying and lifting of attachments and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards. His clients include local and international banks, multinational corporations and wealthy private individuals.

Roderik is ranked individually by Chambers Global as well as The Legal 500. According to their research, clients say about Roderik:

“He’s an excellent litigator and planner, extremely responsive. Great to work with.“

“Roderik van Hees is not only wise and sharp, he is better than anybody I have met before and has a deep understanding of both the technical legal aspects and, importantly, the moral/ethical and emotional reference of the judges and the court. In this way he is even more effective and his arguments are much better received.”

Roderik joined VANEPS in 2015 and became partner in 2019. Earlier, he worked for NautaDutilh and Lemstra Van der Korst in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He studied at Leiden University (LL.B. and LL.M.) and the Free University of Amsterdam (LL.M.) (with highest honors). He was the official representative for the Dutch Caribbean of AIJA, the International Association of Young Lawyers, and the Vice President and Treasurer of the Amsterdam Young Bar Association.

Roderik regularly publishes in well-known legal journals, mainly in the fields of international private law and procedural law.

Work highlights include:

• Succesfully reversing a USD 550 million verdict in appeal in the largest directors’ liability case in the Dutch Caribbean ever;
• Acting for a major US private equity firm before the Amsterdam District Court and Court of Appeal in a EUR 300 million+ takeover dispute;
• Acting as lead counsel in Curaçao for the defendants in the USD 100 million+ dispute between, amongst others, BNP Paribas and Princess Camilla;
• Representation of the former director of housing association Vestia in the largest directors’ liability case in the Netherlands ever (EUR 2 billion; in Dutch courts and in the parliamentary inquiry);
• Recovering tens of millions of dollars for various clients from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA and representation of the Government of Curaçao in its efforts to partially lift the much-discussed conservatory attachments of ConocoPhillips on PDVSA assets in order to secure local oil supply.

The Netherlands Bar Registry

Netherlands Bar Registry notice: Roderik has registered the following principal legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister): Corporate Law & Litigation.

Based on this registration, Roderik is required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in each registered principal legal practice area in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar Association.