Marcel Willems

I am a Contracting and Dispute Resolution lawyer working mostly on cross border cases and having a special focus on insolvency and restructuring related matters. In this area of the law, I have achieved several groundbreaking Supreme Court decisions. Besides being a lawyer I have been a substitute judge at one of the four Courts of Appeal in the Netherlands for more than 25 years, dealing with a wide variety of civil law matters. Also, I have 25 years of experience as an insolvency trustee.
 
My work is centred around three pillars. The first one is litigating and mediating contractual, corporate and liability matters. This concerns, among others, shareholders disputes, breach of contract and actions in tort, such as directors' and officers' liability. The commercial contracting side of my practice involves drafting and negotiating all sorts of contracts aa well as general terms and conditions. The third pillar consists of restructuring all sorts of businesses in a variety of sectors, from start-ups to multinationals, both high-tech and bricks and mortar companies, but also acquiring assets or entire businesses out of insolvency and litigating against insolvency trustees.
 
I love complexity and am renowned for my creative, out-of-the-box thinking and solutions. Each case is unique and deserves a tailored approach, whereby the client's interests always come first.
I have registered the following principal (and secondary) legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister): Insolvency Law (Insolventierecht) as principal area, with Bankruptcy (Faillissement) and Suspension of payment (Surseance van betaling) as secondary practice areas.

Based on this registration, I am required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in Insolvency Law in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.