Coen Drion Leaves Kennedy Van der Laan to Become Justice of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands
AMSTERDAM, 13 September 2010 - Coen Drion, partner and
co-founder of Kennedy Van der Laan, has been appointed justice of
the Supreme Court of the Netherlands. "We regret that he is
leaving our firm, but at the same time we are very proud that a
partner of Kennedy Van der Laan has been appointed justice of the
Supreme Court", says Joost Linnemann, managing partner of
Kennedy Van der Laan.
Coen Drion is the second partner of Kennedy Van der Laan who is
leaving the firm within a short period to take up a leading public
office. At the end of 2008 Eberhard van der Laan left Kennedy Van
der Laan to become Minister of Housing, Communities and
Integration. Currently, he is the mayor of Amsterdam.
Kennedy Van der Laan attends to the interests of a large number
of multinationals, leading national businesses, starting
businesses, government organizations, institutions and private
clients. The Amsterdam-based office of Kennedy Van der Laan
consists of ninety attorneys. In 1992, Coen Drion and ten of his
colleague-attorneys founded Kennedy Van der Laan.
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Top Level
The people working at Kennedy Van der Laan are not surprised
that Drion was asked to join the Supreme Court. "In his
practice area Coen's level of legal knowledge is such that an
appointment to the Supreme Court was in line with
expectations", says Linnemann. "We are looking forward to
his first judgments of the Supreme Court in which we will be able
to recognize Coen's legal qualities."
Coen Drion (1956) graduated in Law from the University of
Groningen in 1988. After having worked for four years at the (then)
law firm Van Doorne & Sjollema, he and ten colleague-attorneys
founded a law firm of their own. During his years at Kennedy Van
der Laan Drion has evolved into a specialist in the field of
(international) contract and liability law, as well as ICT law.
Drion has extensive experience in the legal coordination of large
projects. As an attorney he often assisted clients by leading
complex projects through difficult phases. He regularly acted as an
arbitrator and mediator. Drion has published dozens of articles,
has written books and given hundreds of post-graduate courses to
lawyers.
Drion is known as a socially involved person who is not afraid
to hold a dissenting opinion if in his view the situation so
demands. According to Linnemann, "Coen has a refreshing
approach and is not afraid to stir things up a bit". This was
a role he played within Kennedy Van der Laan, but also within the
legal profession. For instance, during the past years Drion has
devoted himself to making law firms adopt a socially responsible
attitude. He began a debate about the hourly rates of attorneys,
because in his view these rates are often too high for private
clients and small and medium-sized businesses. He therefore
advocated a code by which commercial law firms can contribute to
keeping justice accessible for all. In the legal profession this
code is now known as the 'Drion code'.
Drion's appointment to the Supreme Court has been pending
for some time already. He is succeeding Oscar de Savornin Lohman,
who resigned his position as of 1 September.
Publication date
:
13 September 2010
Coen Drion
About Kennedy Van der Laan
Kennedy Van der Laan, founded in 1992, is one of the top-20 law
firms in the Netherlands. The firm defends the legal interests of
multinationals, businesses operating nationally, start-up companies
and government and semi-government bodies. The mission of Kennedy
Van der Laan is to provide the best possible legal services and
expertise to our clients while living our commitment to personal
and social responsibility.
For more information, please contact:
Kennedy Van der Laan
Joost Linnemann
Telephone: +31 20 5506 636
E-mail:
joost.linnemann@kvdl.nl