Aworks [Legal]
(May 2009 – June 2019)
Working freelance for various clients in the fields of Media, ICT (telecommunications and software), Internet Law (privacy policies, hosting, domains, IP issues, etc.) and the drafting and negotiating of a great variety of (international) agreements. In April 2018 I won a major lawsuit at the ‘Centrale Raad van Beroep’ against UWV, a Dutch government institution responsible for administering employee insurances.

Interim Legal Counsel S.W. Law Group, P.C.
(September 2016 – June 2017)
Assisting this American Law Firm (with offices in the US, Japan and Thailand) with US Immigration law cases for various Australian, Japanese and Indian corporate clients, such as the drafting and editing of support letters to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), handling of USCIS appeal cases as well as the drafting of various other legal documentation related to the company business.

Interim Legal Director Online Breedband
(May 2009 – April 2010)
Managing the legal department of Online Breedband B.V., various contract negotiations (ICT, marketing, KPN, regulatory) and various projects, such as privacy audits and corporate governance, as well as advice and assistance related to the T-Mobile merger.

Director Legal & Regulatory Affairs Orange / Wanadoo
(June 2002 – June 2007)
Managing the legal & regulatory department, member of the Management Team, major contract negotiations (KPN, Casema), various projects, such as the acquisition of MyWeb, introduction of VoIP services, building the Wanadoo network in the Netherlands and rebranding to Orange. In this period, Wanadoo also participated in the major court case against ‘Stichting Brein’, in which case it was decided that Internet Service Providers are not obliged to provide private data of their customers to Brein without prior approval of a judge.

Interim Company Lawyer VNU – Sanoma Uitgevers
(June 2000 – May 2002)
Press publication matters, management of the trademark portfolio, drafting of agreements and various major projects, such as the acquisition of Ilse and Startpagina, as well as the sale of VNU Tijdschriften (the magazine division of VNU) to Sanoma Uitgevers, after which I have worked on the start-up of the Sanoma Publishers legal department. During the assignment I specifically assisted some of the magazines of Sanoma Publishers with a variety of legal issues, such as Nieuwe Revu, Panorama, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Beau Monde, Donald Duck and Story.

Interim Company Lawyer Casema
(January – June 2000)
Drafting and evaluation of various ICT-contracts, including Media- en Telecommunication contracts, negotiations with national and international partners (such as Disney), as well as projects, such as the launch of the Cinenova movie channel and Filmtime.

Interim company lawyer KPN Telecom
(November – December 1999)
Assisting the KPN.com project-team (migration of all existing KPN-sites to one new Internet site), listing the legal issues and answers in relation to the project (topics: electronic commerce, General Conditions Internet, Privacy policy and competition law).

Lawyer
(1991-1999)
Before starting my career as interim legal consultant, I have been working as lawyer. I started at Korte & De Wit Advocaten in Bussum in October 1990, finishing my professional bar training in Amsterdam in June 1993. In September 1996 I moved to the Advocaten Alliantie in Utrecht, and from August 1998 until October 1999 I have been working for Van Diepen Van der Kroef Advocaten. Over the years, my main interests, fields of law have been Intellectual Property and ICT-law, Business Law and Sports Law. One of the cases that attracted the attention of the media was the summary proceedings before the Utrecht District Court, in which I pleaded in favour of the Arnhem Badminton Club Esca against the national badminton association.

Education
(1983-1990)
I studied Dutch Law at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, where I graduated in October 1989. During my final year at the University I specialised in Business Law, more specifically Intellectual Property, Media Law and Copyright. My thesis was titled ‘Het kabelregeling-arrest en het Nederlands Omroepbestel’ and was written under supervision of The Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Amsterdam. After my graduation I studied for several months at the University of Poitiers in France, where I graduated in European Law and International Relationships.