Bram Marcus was recently appointed President of Eurojuris Nederland. This specialist, in both civil and business law, is partner at Van Dam & Kruidenier, a well known firm established in Rotterdam a century ago.
We asked him a few questions on his job, his vision for the Dutch network and about his country he dearly loves.
• Tell us about yourself…
“After studying applied physics at Delft Technical University, I switched to studying law in Leiden. I received my degree, both in civil and business law, in 1995. Because of my family background, I wanted to work for a maritime firm, so I started as a trainee lawyer at Van Dam & Kruidenier; after my traineeship, I became an associate and I have been one of five partners since 2005. Many of my Eurojuris International colleagues know, I very much like to dance salsa, bachata and other Latin stuff. Other hobbies are my motorcycles and, of course, Feyenoord football club”.
• How about your firm, what kind of cases do you handle ?
“Our clients are small and medium sized businesses for whom we act in all areas of law, ranging from M&A to labour law, criminal law etc. Of course the firm is best known for its inland shipping practice and from those roots we have developed a large international trade practice, which is one of the reasons why we are a long standing member of both Eurojuris Netherlands and Eurojuris International”.
• What could you tell us about our Dutch network ?
“The Dutch network, Eurojuris Nederland, consists of around 20 firms and a lot of those have been with the network from the start. In the past few years, some new firms joined the network, which, in my opinion, has given a new positive momentum to the network. Every year, we organise our General Assembly in springtime and in the fall; we have our joint colloquium with Eurojuris Belgium as well. The location of the colloquium is traditionally alternated each year between Belgium and The Netherlands. The 2016 colloquium will be held in Genk, Belgium in November and ,as always, we hope to attract a lot of attendants with an interesting programme and speakers”.
• What will be the blueprint of your Presidency
“As President I do not work alone but in close cooperation with my board members Jean van Zinnicq Bergman and Sjoerd Tilman. The goals of the Dutch board are to further professionalise the service to our members, we are currently reorganising the administrative support of the network with the valuable help of Jan Goemans and his staff. The challenge for the near future will be to keep Eurojuris Nederland interesting to its members, not only as a mean of entry to Eurojuris International, but also for its own merits”.
• How would you describe The Netherlands and its legal system ?
“The Netherlands is a small but beautiful country. The Dutch are, overall, kind and open-minded people. They can be pretty straightforward which can be perceived as being blunt by foreigners. The legal system is originally based on the French Code Civil but was thoroughly modernised in 1992. Since then the “new” Dutch Civil Code has been used as a template in other countries to restructure their legal systems. More recently Dutch corporate law has been amended, making it even more flexible and attractive for especially foreign companies. It is also worth to mention here that since 1 January 2016 the District Court of Rotterdam started a pilot project: cases in the field of shipping and transport law as well as international trade can be conducted in English. The Court has also started publishing summaries of its most relevant decisions in these fields in English”.
• What piece of advice would you give to a lawyer wanting to 'set up shop' in your country ?
“Being a lawyer in The Netherlands, especially when you’re working for business clients, means that you have to maintain a high level quality of service. Additionally, it doesn’t hurt if you speak (or at least understand) several languages. There are only about 25 million people speaking Dutch and the rest of the world has another language”.
• Where do you see yourself in 10 years ?
“Ten years from now, I hope to still be a partner at Van Dam & Kruidenier, enjoying working for my clients and with my international colleagues”.
