Houthoff is a popular choice for insurers and their insureds facing class action suits, with the firm handling several such cases over the past year, including those tied to the alleged mis-selling of unit-linked insurance products. The practice also assists with regulatory matters, focusing on prudential insurance and business conduct, as well as the launches of new insurance products, while also providing transactional support. Berry van Wijk leads the team, with a regulatory practice that covers both life and non-life insurance products and issues tied to M&As. Huib Lebbing specialises in contentious insurance matters, with a particular focus on health and safety-related incidents. Former practice co-head Hans Londonck Sluijk co-founded his own firm, insurance boutique Londonck & Kos, in January 2023.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'Huib Lebbing is a great lawyer, who uses efficiently his legal knowledge, human skills and humour to get things done. For large claims with public exposure that also need case management, he is the go-to person in the Netherlands.'

  • 'Houthoff's team focuses on the more complex cases. When dealing with such matters, the team not only has a clear added value legally, but also strategically. Attention is not only paid to substantiating the legal position, but also to achieving solutions.'

  • 'In their mutual cooperation, they draw up procedural documents, which impress with their completeness and good factual substantiation. In this process, all potentially relevant angles are analysed and weighed.'

Key clients

  • AIG
  • a.s.r.
  • Achmea/Centraal Beheer
  • Allianz
  • Aon
  • Atradius Credit Insurance
  • AXA XL
  • CNA
  • De Goudse
  • Generali
  • HDI-Gerling
  • Lifetri
  • Marsh
  • MS Amlin
  • NN Group
  • Onderlinge 's Gragenhage
  • Soderberg & Partners
  • Swiss Re
  • The Ardonagh Group
  • Tokio Marine
  • Yarden

Work highlights

  • Acted for AIG and its insured Lincoln Electric BV in relation to litigation following allegedly unsafe working conditions in the latter's Dutch steel cable welding factory.
  • Represented Tate & Lyle and its insurer AXA XL in the aftermath of a global product recall concerning animal feed supplied to hundreds of businesses in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Belgium.
  • Advised Onderlinge 's-Gravenhage on the sale of its entire second pillar pension portfolio to Zwitserleven.

Lawyers

Leading partners
The strongest partners in their field, leading on market-leading deals and endorsed by peers and clients alike.
Berry van Wijk
Houthoff
Berry van Wijk specialises in insurance law and liability issues. She advises and litigates in the fields of regulatory law, reinsurance, life and non-life insurance, distribution of insurance, the transfer of portfolios and the liability of insurers for their products. Berry has been a key voice in the nationwide discussions about unit-linked insurance since the debate began in 2006. This discussion has led and still leads to a variety of claims from different consumer organisations and individual policy holders. She advises a vast number of insurers, including Nationale Nederlanden, in such matters. Berry advises on the development of new life and non-life insurance products as well as new distribution forms. She helps clients in their contacts with the main Dutch regulators, the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) and the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), and assists them with the implementation of regulatory requirements in the Netherlands. Berry further advises on the regulatory component of M&A transactions in the insurance industry. Berry is a trusted adviser to the legal counsel and board members of several insurance companies. She is a daily board member of the Association for Insurance Sciences (Vereniging voor Verzekeringswetenschap) and member of the Advisory Committee on Insurance of the Dutch Bar Association (Orde van Advocaten). She is also a member of the Advisory Council of the Albert Schweitzer hospital and of the VNAB (Dutch Insurance Exchange Association). Berry is an editor of the journal 'Liability, Insurance and Damage' (Aansprakelijkheid, Verzekering & Schade), writes a regular column in de Beursbengel and publishes in other trade journals. She is a lecturer on the post-academic Financial Law programme at the Eggens Institute of the University of Amsterdam and the Co-Insurance course (Leergang Co-Assurantie) at Erasmus University.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Berry van Wijk

Other key lawyers

Huib Lebbing, Lucas Dröge, Gijs Hamelijnck