The European Class Actions Forum 2025

Ianika is a co-founder of Rubicon and a full professor of Global Dispute Resolution and Mass Disputes at Tilburg University. She combines her academic activities with litigation project management and strategic and legal advisory work for internationally operating law firms and clients dealing with complex and multi party disputes and transnational litigation related to financial services, torts and competition law violations. In addition, she acts as an independant consultant for legal finance providers and companies making use of those. Prior to starting her independent consultancy practice Ianika was a litigation partner with a Dutch litigation boutique firm and a senior advisor to two publicly listed litigation finance companies.

Michele Carpagnano is a partner in Dentons' Rome office and the head of the Italian Competition and Antitrust practice.

He teaches Competition Law at Trento University Faculty of Law (Italy).

Michele provides national and multinational companies with legal advice and judicial assistance in all aspects of Italian, Spanish and EU Competition Law, Foreign Investment Screening Laws, Consumer Law, State aid Law, Merger Control, antitrust issues related to tender procedures (bid rigging) and markets regulations.

He represents national and multinational companies as well as public institutions in administrative proceedings before the Italian Competition Authority and Administrative Courts.

He also represents clients in Competition / Consumer laws litigation - both single and class actions claims - before Italian Courts.

Michele assists clients in the design and implementation of tailored Antitrust and Consumer Law compliance programs.

He advised local, national and EU Institutions on legislative / regulatory proposals related to Competition and Consumer laws.

Practicing in the area of commercial litigation and international arbitration, Ozan Akyurek assists large French and international companies in disputes related to product liability, industrial risks, post-acquisition disputes, and business torts. Ozan also has substantive experience in insurance, aviation, and information technology (IT) law.

Ozan is active in diverse industry sectors, including energy, aviation, automotive, IT, transportation, and logistics, as well as steel and retail. He is particularly involved in the aviation and airline industries and has represented major manufacturers and airline companies in aviation litigation.

Ozan also has substantial internal investigation and compliance experience. He recently acted on behalf of a leading chemical company and a U.S. pharmaceutical company in Turkey in conducting investigations focused on anticorruption matters. His experience also includes a criminal investigation related to alleged credit card fraud committed by the employees of a leading U.S. company in Morocco.

In 2012, Ozan was seconded to the Firm's Pittsburgh Office. During his secondment, he acquired substantial experience in product liability, insurance, and aviation law. In particular, he was part of the team representing The Sherwin-Williams Company in lead paint and pigment cases.

Ozan has authored articles on litigation and regulatory matters, such as product liability and aviation law. His articles are published in French economic and legal publications. He also is a lecturer in international business law at the University of Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense.

Vikram Kumar analyzes economic and statistical issues arising in antitrust and competition, product liability, and life sciences matters. He has developed theoretical and numerical models to analyze large, complex datasets in a variety of contexts, and has designed and implemented large-scale market surveys. Dr. Kumar leads teams to support clients and testifying experts in all stages of litigation and regulatory matters. He has consulted on matters before the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, the European Commission, the Competition Commission of South Africa, and several U.S. courts.

Director General of The Arbitration Court at the Polish Chamber of Commerce long-time practitioner in the field of business support. Jagiellonian University Master of law, completed postgraduate studies at the Warsaw School of Economics in Human Resource Management. She developed her first professional experience as the right hand of the director of one of the largest hospitals in Warsaw, where she learned the ins and outs of the challenges of managing an organisation in a way that required reconciling opposing interest groups. For many years, she has represented the entrepreneurs’ self-government as an expert in business and legal topics concerning the establishment and operation of a business, labour law and social security. She has worked her way up through the various levels of a large organisation such as the Polish Chamber of Commerce – from expert, through project-manager, Press Officer, Director of the President’s Office, to Director General of the Court of Arbitration at the Polish Chamber of Commerce. She actively participates in the law-making processes in Poland – in the parliament, ministries, public administration bodies. She has successfully prepared and implemented projects financed by EU funds. She advises entrepreneurs and is a guest of various media in advocating the interests of entrepreneurs. She is a co-author of a number of publications on, inter alia, business advocacy, business conduct and corruption prevention.

Maria is an Associate Professor at  Paris-Saclay University, lecturer at Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University and participates in trainings for judges and lawyers. She holds a PhD on Collective actions in Comparative law under a comparative perspective and is the author of hundreds of publications written in English, French and Spanish. 

Maria José founded the Observatory of group actions and other forms of collective redress and is a qualified lawyer at the Bars of Paris and of Buenos Aires. As an expert in collective redress, she advices third party funders and a major claim administrator. 

​Anette Bordes was in-house counsel to TNT Post Group and served as general counsel to Dutch telecom company KPN. In 2012, she was elevated to ​the bench in The Hague District Court’s civil and commercial division, and has worked in that division since that time, currently serving as a Senior Judge in that Court.

Bart-Adriaan de Ruijter is Partner Corporate Litigation at CMS. Bart-Adriaan specialises in corporate and commercial litigation. 

Bart-Adriaan focuses on the representation and advice of companies and/or its management board, supervisory board or shareholder(s) in complex litigation and crisis situations (often involving multiple jurisdictions). His expertise entails (M&A)transaction-related disputes, Enterprise Chamber proceedings, shareholder & joint-venture disputes/activism, (director’s)liability claims, international attachment/execution disputes and conflicts in relation to insolvency/restructuring. Bart-Adriaan is also passionate about and experienced in ESG and climate change & energy related disputes. He is member of the global ESG Task Force of CMS.

Pepijn is a partner at Brinkhof and specializes in competition law, EU law and regulated markets. He represents national and international clients before the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), the European Commission and Dutch and European judges. Pepijn has litigated and argued in a large number of cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Marc Barennes is a partner with Geradin Partners. 

Marc benefits from a unique 360-degree experience in competition litigation and counseling. Over the past 20plus years, he has been a European Commission official (DG COMP), a référendaire (Senior Court Advisor) with the General Court of the European Union, the executive director of a European competition claim aggregator based in Luxembourg, as well as a competition lawyer based in Paris and Brussels. 

As a case and policy officer with DG Competition (2001 and 2003 to 2006), Marc led dawn raids, largely contributed to the development of leniency applications, carried out investigations (RFI and interviews), drafted a Statement of Objections and a fining decision. He also contributed to the drafting of several Commission policy instruments and internal guidelines. 

Charlotte Spierings specialises in litigation relating to commercial disputes, focusing on financial law and related regulatory enforcement, insolvency litigation, and commercial contracts. She also has experience in sanctions advice, corporate litigation and director's liability cases. Charlotte obtained a Ph.D from Radboud University Nijmegen and is a research fellow of the Business and Law Research Center of the same university.

Mr. De Jong is a partner in the Firm’s Amsterdam office. He focuses on collective redress and securities class actions in particular. He has extensive experience in successfully coordinating and resolving international mass claims.

Koen Rutten is one of the founding partners of Finch Dispute Resolution. He is a corporate and financial litigation specialist. Koen has extensive practical experience acting in class actions and collective claims before the Dutch courts. He acts mainly on the plaintiff side. Koen specializes in securities litigation and is acting on behalf of investors in high-profile cases including class actions. He specializes in antitrust cases, but also in consumer related matter. His work covers all industries, but mainly his focus is on banking, telecom and the energy. He advises litigation funders worldwide on the funding of class actions in the Netherlands and is involved in setting up foundation structures to facilitate such class actions or collective claims.

Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., chair of Duane Morris’ Workplace Class Action group, has nearly four decades’ experience of practicing law and has defended some of the most significant bet-the-company cases ever filed against corporate America. Mr. Maatman has represented companies, executive teams and boards across the country in class action litigation, ranging in size from thousands to hundreds of thousands of claims by employees. Among his accomplishments, he defended and defeated the largest systemic enforcement action ever brought in the history of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the first Attorney General prosecution of a Wall Street company for workplace discrimination and harassment, and the largest wage & hour class and collective actions ever brought in Florida and New York. While he is known to be a fierce litigator, he also helps his clients anticipate large-scale litigations risks before they happen to prevent issues that could turn into litigation. Mr. Maatman pioneered the process of conducting employment-practices audits to assist employers in structuring effective and practical personnel policies and protocols. Profiled in The Wall Street Journal, these audits are designed to minimize the incidence of employment-related class action litigation and to maximize management discretion and workplace productivity. He has served as a legal commentator on PBS, NPR, MSNBC, CNBC and U.S. talk radio, and his comments have appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Insurance, USA Today, Fortune and Forbes.

Rita is a partner and co-head of the Dispute Resolution practice, specialising in corporate and financial litigation. She has 20 years’ experience, focusing primarily on advising clients, mainly banks, in legal actions relating to financial instruments issued or sold through financial intermediation, civil liability of directors and corporate disputes.

Rita has worked on cases of great significance and complexity, representing leading Portuguese and international banks.

She has a law degree from the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon.

Marie-Hélène is a commercial litigation partner with special interest in insolvency law, the energy sector and arbitration.

Marie-Hélène has a broad background in commercial litigation. She handles complex civil disputes, often in an international context. Marie-Hélène has particular expertise in specialist areas such as securities and insolvency law and the associated liabilities, such as directors' and auditors' liability. In 2013 she completed the postgraduate Grotius specialization course Financing, Securities and Insolvency Law cum laude. Marie-Hélène publishes and teaches in these areas of law. She was the principal teacher for the course Financing, Securities and Insolvency Law at the Netherlands Bar Association.

Ben is a Partner in the Competition group in the Innovation department.

He specialises in competition litigation, commercial litigation, international arbitration and other dispute resolution procedures, and has a wealth of experience acting for major multinational businesses across a broad range of sectors. He is particularly experienced in advising clients on third party funding arrangements and how to manage the financial risks of litigation.

At SÉRVULO since 2015, Alberto Saavedra is partner in the European and Competition department. 

He has vast experience in representing and advising international and domestic companies and public authorities in the areas of merger control, restrictive practices, market dominance, State aid and services of general economic interest, both at national and EU level. He also advises clients on EU law, in particular the Internal Market rules,  foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign subsidies. He also represents clients in Competition / Consumer laws litigation such as class actions claims before Portuguese Courts.

He has experience in a wide range of industries, such as banking, trade and distribution, construction and real estate, energy pharmaceutical, telecommunications and transports.

As an aide to the Secretary of State for the Treasury of the XIX Constitutional Government, he was responsible for matters related with privatisations, concessions, State-owned companies and implementation of the Economic and Financial Assistance Programme in close interaction with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (“troika”).

He concluded the LL.M – Master of Laws in European and Competition Law at University College London (UCL), in 2009; and obtained a graduate qualification in competition law from King's College London (University of London), in 2006.

Paul Karlsgodt serves as the leader of BakerHostetler’s Privacy and Digital Risk Class Action and Litigation team. He is an international thought leader in class action defense with more than 20 years of experience defending hundreds of consumer class actions.

Paul has significant experience defending class actions in the complex and cutting-edge area of data privacy on behalf of companies and organizations in a variety of industries. He has served as lead counsel for defendants in class action litigation arising out of data breach incidents of all sizes, and affecting numerous industries and governmental entities. He also defends clients in other privacy class actions arising out of corporate digital advertising and customer data collection practices, as well as class actions seeking the recovery of statutory damages.

Esther de Félix specializes in civil and commercial litigation.

She has extensive experience in leading court and arbitration proceedings, and has represented large companies in sectors such as distribution, automotive, energy, infrastructure, life sciences and healthcare.

She currently focuses on damages claims due to breach of competition law, collective actions and on mass litigation.

Tilly Alberga-Smits specializes in commercial litigation, arbitration and mass claims. She regularly represents national and international corporations in complex high profile corporate and commercial disputes.

As an expert in mass claims procedures, she litigates and advises on collective settlements (WCAM) and proceedings regarding collective action claims (WAMCA) and she is an expert in follow-on damages litigation.

Before joining Lemstra Van der Korst, Tilly was part of the dispute resolution team at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek.

Tilly is a member of the Dutch Association for Procedural Law and the Dutch Arbitration Association.

Maximilian‘s practice covers a broad spectrum of complex commercial litigation, arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. He focuses on securities litigation as well as contract and corporate law disputes. Large cases where Maximilian is currently advising include the defence of two listed companies against damage claims based on allegedly false capital market information and the defence of claims raised in connection with a public takeover. Furthermore, Maximilian represents national and international clients in Post-M&A-disputes before courts and arbitral tribunals.

Lea Stegemann defends companies against private enforcement of European law, such as antitrust law or data protection law. She represents companies in court proceedings against individual claims and class actions brought by associations and private legal service providers. Her doctoral thesis focussed on the interpretation and enforcement of new European regulations in the digital sector (in particular non-material claims for damages in data protection law). She continues to research and publish on this topic and is a lecturer in civil procedure law at the Business & Law School Berlin.

Prof. Dr. Andreas Ruster is a German-qualified attorney (Rechtsanwalt) in our Hamburg office. Andreas has extensive expertise in solving high-stakes disputes for clients across a range of sectors. He combines academic excellence (doctorate summa cum laude; ranked #1 in both legal state exams) and almost a decade of practical experience with an intrinsic motivation to achieve the best possible outcome, a strong business sense, and a solution-driven, pragmatic outlook.

Sarah-Jane Dobson is a partner in the London office - dual qualified in England and Wales and Australia. She is an international products lawyer.

Sarah-Jane acts on regulatory, litigious and policy matters across the full product life cycle in respect of product safety, compliance and product liability issues. 

Her practice is focused on multi-jurisdictional matters for corporate clients across a range of sectors including automotive products, chemicals, consumer goods, cosmetics, food (including novel foods) and beverages, industrial and life sciences products (including in respect of clinical trials, pharmaceuticals and medical devices).

In product safety, she advises on global product launches and market entry due diligence, regulatory challenges and enforcement, regulatory compliance and global product recalls. She has been involved in some of the most prominent international product safety matters, including handling the largest global product recalls (190+ jurisdictions), product compliance queries (for 193+ jurisdictions), product launches (50+ countries), acting in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and representing a company in respect of a prominent unprecedented criminal investigation under product safety laws in the EU.

Machteld is a partner at the law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. She specialises in litigation and has particular expertise in mass claims and follow-on damages litigation.

Machteld publishes and lectures on Dutch procedural law and is chairwoman of the editorial board of the international journal Mass Claims. Machteld is also the founder and board member of the Dutch association for mass claims and collective actions. She is noted by, amongst others, Chambers and Legal500 and named ‘Legal Woman of the Year, 2018’ by Legal Women. Machteld also heads De Brauw’s Pro Bono Practice.

Gian Paolo specializes in litigation and ADR for clients across various industries, ranging from traditional sectors like industrial plants and infrastructure construction to ones like sports, new media, tech, and AI. Among his areas of expertise are corporate law, business contracting, and consumer relations.

Gian Paolo has been and is involved in litigation and arbitration procedures concerning M&A, corporate bodies and auditors’ liability, as well as unfair competition and international contracting.

He is qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales, with extensive experience in domestic and international litigation and arbitration, including as an arbitrator.

Partner in the Competition and European Union department at SRS, Sara Estima Martins has extensive knowledge in Portugal and Spain, having worked in a well-known law firm in Madrid.

With over 20 years of experience, she covers all competition law matters, including merger operations, cartels and other horizontal practices, vertical agreements and abuses of dominant position. She frequently assists clients in implementing internal competition law compliance programmes, as well as provides provides advice to several companies in matters of European Union law, particularly on issues of freedom of movement, structural funds, the common agricultural policy and access to documents of the EU institutions. Sara has often represented these clients before the European Commission and the European Court of Justice.

Henner Schläfke specialises in disputes in connection with antitrust damages claims and heads Noerr’s class action and mass claims practice. Henner has extensive litigation experience both in antitrust matters and in other highly contentious proceedings. Henner has been pleading antitrust cases in specialized courts and Courts of Appeal and has extensive knowledge of all relevant forums. Henner defends companies against follow-on claims in leading cases and has set up structured projects for companies claiming damages. Henner regularly publishes on private enforcement of European law and collective redress. He is the editor of a chapter on international private enforcement of the Digital Markets Act in a leading handbook for practitioners.

Stefan Tuinenga is a founding partner of the firm. He has more than fifteen years of antitrust litigation experience. He primarily focuses on international antitrust litigation and collective actions.

Matthew Amey is the director of specialist litigation insurance broker, TheJudge, and a co-founder of litigation fund, Erso Capital. Recognised as a top industry expert and innovator in the area of litigation finance, Matthew has been at the cutting edge of developments in litigation insurance and funding for nearly 25 years. He began his career as a litigation insurance underwriter before moving on to lead the team at TheJudge in 2005, going on to co-found Erso Capital in 2020. He is recognised by both clients and other industry professionals for his innovative thinking and creativity in arranging complex insurance and funding deals. Matthew has brokered some of the largest litigation insurance policies ever written for some of the most complex commercial disputes. He has a wealth of experience arranging insurance and funding for multi-claimant and group actions, which frequently involve tailoring the solutions to meet the needs of potentially diverse subgroups of claimants. In addition to regularly appearing at conferences and on panels to discuss litigation finance, Matthew has authored dozens of articles for legal publications and is regularly called upon by the legal and national press for expert commentary.

Damiën Berkhout is a founding partner and the managing partner of the firm. He has extensive experience in coordinating and resolving complex litigation, with a focus on class actions, antitrust litigation, commercial disputes and mismanagement cases.

Cristina Ayo is a member of the Litigation Practice Area of Uria Menéndez’s Barcelona office. She joined the firm in September 2000.

She focuses her practise on advising on contentious and pre-contentious civil and commercial issues. Cristina specialises in judicial proceedings before the Spanish courts and tribunals and national and international arbitration proceedings relating to contractual liability, non-contractual liability and product liability, as well as contractual, corporate, lease agreements, banking, financial, and private party disputes.

Ronnie Barnes heads Cornerstone Research’s international arbitration and litigation practice. Dr. Barnes is an expert in accounting, damages, and valuation. He specializes in cases that raise complex valuation issues, including the estimation of the cost of capital, the determination of country risk premia, and the valuation of complex financial instruments such as derivatives and structured finance products. Who’s Who Legal has recognized Dr. Barnes as a leading expert witness in legal arbitration and a Global Leader in assessing the quantum of damages in the financial advisory and valuation field.

Greg Leonard coheads Cornerstone Research’s finance practices. He also heads the firm’s London office. Dr. Leonard has nearly two decades of experience consulting for clients in complex litigation and regulatory proceedings. On behalf of clients, he has led regulatory investigations on both sides of the Atlantic, managing teams and simultaneously supporting experts across multiple related matters. Dr. Leonard has substantial experience directing analyses of large and complex high-frequency financial data sets, from both private entities and trading exchanges.

Liam Colley heads Cornerstone Research’s European competition practice. Mr. Colley is a testifying economics expert specializing in competition, antitrust damages, and economic regulation issues. He has more than twenty-five years of experience as a consultant and testifying expert. His experience includes multiple high-profile matters before U.K. and European Union courts and competition regulators. Citing the “unassailable quality of his work,” Who’s Who Legal has named Mr. Colley a leading competition economist, as well as a Thought Leader and Global Leader in the competition field.

Christian advises international companies and financial institutions in cross-border litigation and arbitration proceedings. Christian is particularly focussed on complex technical and financial disputes and has frequently advised his clients both in relation to high-profile technology projects and complex financial transactions. Having advised the defendants in various large scale mass litigation cases in Germany, Christian has extensive experience in the field of mass actions, both in the financial services and automotive sectors.