Member Profiles

Marc specialises in corporate / commercial law and is partner at KIENHUISHOVING, a reliable mid-sized law firm in the Netherlands which is well-known for its commercial and business law practice. Marc assists his clients in various M&A transactions, drafting share and purchase agreements (SPA´s), conducting legal due diligences, advises on the incorporation of legal entities and formalization of legal cooperation (including the drafting of shareholder´s agreements), legal opinions on (group) loan & security agreements, joint ventures, cooperation agreements, commercial agreements, etc.

Jacqueline Schaap has been an intellectual property and media lawyer since 1988. She is one of the founders and partner of the firm. She works particularly in the areas of unlawful press publications and reputation damage, copyright, design, format protection, (authors’) contract law, film law, trademark law and advertising law. She has very broad litigation experience. Jacqueline advises, drafts contracts and litigates for national and international clients, including publishers, TV and film producers, broadcasters, designers, advertisers and brand owners. Clients appreciate her ability to get to the point quickly, to formulate concisely and clearly and her eye for detail. Jacqueline is always accurate, likable and sincerely concerned with all the cases she is involved in. Jacqueline is (co-)dean of the Amsterdam Bar Association, member of the Disciplinary Council for Financial Services and of the Supervisory Board of the Benelux Association for Trademark and Design Agents (BMM). She is a member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), the European Communities Trademark Association (ECTA), Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle (AIPPI), Marques, the Benelux Association for Trademark and Design Law (BMM) and several Dutch Associations. Jacqueline regularly lectures in the field of intellectual property and unlawful press publications. Jacqueline Schaap has been designated a ‘key individual’ by Chambers for 11 years and has also been a ‘leading individual’ in media and entertainment in Legal 500 for many years. She has received the ‘Client Choice Award’ for copyright lawyer several times and has been designated ‘Media lawyer of the year’ and ‘Copyright lawyer of the year’ several times by Best Lawyer. Some recommendations for Jacqueline: Legal 500 (2022) calls her “a giant in media entertainment. The kind of lawyer you want on your side in times of crisis.” Chambers (2022) says of her “she knows the business, the market and the players and she is very easy to access and responds very quickly” and “she manages difficult cases well“. Jacqueline has registered “Intellectual property law” as her main area of law in the register of areas of law of the Dutch Bar Association. Pursuant to this registration, she is obliged to obtain ten training points in this area of law each calendar year according to the standards of the Dutch Bar Association. Representative work Action against Facebook for keeping removed misleading bitcoin ads featuring the portrait of a Dutch celebrity; Proceedings against Thierry Baudet over regarding several tweets in which he compared the corona measures to the Holocaust; Various proceedings for TV producers, broadcasters and publishers on the legality of TV broadcasts and press publications in which portrait rights, use of hidden cameras and broadcast/publication bans, among others, were addressed; Various proceedings on the format of TV programmes; Advice on advertising, price displays and promotional campaigns to a large supermarket chain; Litigation on copyright and design rights to a chair where the issue was whether a chair based on the 1940s-1960s “sprite chair” infringed Homefashion Group’s Liverno chair.

Expertise Neill specializes in advising large to mid-size internationally operating enterprises, private equity firms, as well as high net worth individuals on mainly corporate matters, with a special focus on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, business expansions, and leveraged transactions.  In addition, Neill often assumes the role of strategic advisor for clients and guides them through complex transactions and commercial ventures. Given his U.S. background, Neill assists U.S. based clients on outbound investments in Europe and beyond with use of Dutch bases entities with full substance. Throughout his long standing career, Neill has advised a wide range of privately and/or publicly held enterprises in a variety of industries including medical cannabis, medical implants, automotive and automotive appliances, fashion, the music industry, consumer electronics retailing, energy, including carbon related products and mercury handling, satellite procurement, and oil terminaling business. Career Neill started his career with one of the top tier firms in the Netherlands (notarial department) and continued his practice with such firm at its New York office. Thereafter, Neill joined a boutique law firm with offices in New York as partner. After practising over 10 years in New York, Neill moved back to the Netherlands and joined  the same U.S. law firm as Richard and Hans in the Amsterdam office, after a four year spell at a law firm associated with the ‘big four’ in the Netherlands. Neill serves as opinion committee chairman and regularly renders legal opinions to financial institutions for borrowing to Dutch based enterprises. He has served on a number of not for profit boards, including the Netherlands-America Foundation and Julia's Kids Foundation, a foundation supporting foster children in Vietnam, and several other not for profit committees. Education Admitted to practice since 1991 in The Netherlands and as of 1993 in New York, N.Y.  Master of Laws (LLM), S.M.U., 1988 Dallas, Texas, Leiden University, the Netherlands (Juris Doctor, JD 1987). Neill is fluent and a native speaker in English, Dutch and speaks proficient French. Netherlands Bar/Specialization: Neill has registered the following principal legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas: Corporate Law : Mergers and acquisitions Finance transactions Joint- ventures Legal opinion practice Based on this registration, he is required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in each registered principal legal practice area in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.

Anna specialises in corporate and commercial law and leads Lane Neave’s competition law team. She routinely advises on the Commerce Act, Fair Trading Act and all aspects of competition and consumer law. Anna is also the principal contact for Lane Neave’s intellectual property practice and acts on a wide range of trade mark, copyright and other intellectual property matters. Anna holds a Masters Degree from the University of Melbourne in Competition and Consumer Protection Law, and Chairs the Advisory Board of the Competition Law and Policy Institute of New Zealand. She also Chairs the Board of the Canterbury Society of Arts, which operates CoCA, Christchurch’s Contemporary Art Gallery. In  2023, Anna was recognised as an Elite Woman in NZ Lawyer’s annual rankings, and shortlisted for Antitrust/Competition Lawyer of the Year at the 2023 APAC Women in Business Law Awards.

Since starting practice representing refugees in the mid-1990s, Simon Laurent has developed a strong reputation as a leader in the Immigration field. Over the years he has mentored a number of lawyers through the firm, in order to refine their legal skills and their ability to think inventively to solve real-world problems.  He has chaired and presented seminars for both lawyers and immigration advisers, and has been called upon to provide industry comment for the media including a number of recent radio and television interviews.  For several years Simon sat on the Council of the Auckland District Law Society. He was a founding member of the Society's Immigration and Refugee Committee, and was Convenor in 2006, 2007 and 2014. He has been a member of the New Zealand Law Society Immigration Committee. From 2010 to 2012 he was Chairman of the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment, and is now an Honorary Life Member for his services to NZAMI.  Involvement in these professional bodies gives Simon insight into developing trends and issues in the New Zealand immigration space. It also provides the opportunity to influence change for the benefit of both clients and colleagues.