Duet advocaten B.V.

Construction and public procurement

Ria has over 35 years of experience as a lawyer and is a leading specialist in construction and procurement law. In this, she has built up specific knowledge in the infrastructure, non-residential construction, healthcare and social domain sectors.

Ria assists various (semi-)government organisations in tenders and construction projects. She supports these organisations in every step of the tendering process, from preparation to award. Among other things, Ria advises on the choice of the type of tendering procedure and the form of contract. In construction projects, she has extensive experience with various contract forms, such as UAV, UAV-GC, construction team, alliance, two-phase contracts and Cost+.

Ria is member of the dedicated Cost+ team within the office and co-author of a new Cost+ contract model for the Dutch construction practice, launched in June 2025 via kostplus.nl. Other recent accomplishments of Ria are:

• advising the Central Government Real Estate Agency regarding the large-scale renovation of the eight-century-old monumental “Binnenhof” complex in the centre of The Hague, the oldest parliamentary complex in Europe;
• advising Nederlandse Gasunie N.V. on longterm framework agreements;
• serving as a trusted legal advisor to hospital “Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis Assen”, providing ongoing support on the hospital’s most critical construction projects.

Ria has an extensive and successful track record of litigating before the civil courts, the Arbitration Council for the Construction Industry and the Netherlands Arbitration Institute.

Furthermore, Ria has been a deputy justice at the Arnhem-Leeuwarden Court of Appeal since 2013.

Before Ria became counsel at Duet advocaten in 2024, she was a construction and procurement law lawyer at Croon advocaten (2019-2023). Ria also worked as a senior policy advisor business operations at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) (2018).

Before that she was a construction and procurement law lawyer at Pels Rijcken & Droogleever Fortuijn (2001-2018) and a lawyer at Nederlandse Spoorwegen N.V. (1998-2001) and Boonstra Rademakers advocaten en notaris (1990-1998).

Dutch and English

Ria is a member of the  Dutch Association for Procurement Law (Nederlandse Vereniging voor Aanbestedingsrecht) and the Association of Construction Lawyers (Vereniging voor Bouwrecht Advocaten).

Ria has a Dutch Law degree. In addition to her law studies, Ria studied English language and literature.