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.

Maria José Azar-Baud is Associate Professor at University of Paris-Saclay and lecturer at several international Universities teaching Class actions, Consumer law, Procedural law and Comparative law. In 2017, she founded the Observatory of Group Actions and other forms of Collective Redress an international platform spreading information about collective actions.

She is also qualified lawyer at the Bars of Paris and of Buenos Aires acting Internationally as an Expert in Comparative Collective Redress; MJ advises major actors in the field (i.e. European institutions, NGOs, Claims administrators, Third-party funders). 

She seats at the Board of a Dutch foundation and is the former President of Ius Omnibus, a consumer association designated as a Qualified Entity within the European Unio seeking to grant access to justice on a collective scale. 

Maria José holds a double PhD from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the University of Buenos Aires focusing on Collective actions in Consumer law under a Comparative Law perspective (published by Dalloz in 2013) and is the author of more than 150 contributions in French, English and Spanish related to class actions, representative and group actions in the fields of procedural law, torts and liability, consumer, environmental and discrimination law. 

She has been heard by the French Senate and Parliament, international agencies and various ministries (Japan, , the Commission and the European Parliament as one of the main authors of the Study on Collective redress in the EU Member States it requested (http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/608829/IPOL_STU(2018)608829_EN.pdf.

​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 25 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 and class action lawyer based in Paris and Brussels. He has also been a pioneer in France in the collective action field, running multiple large funded class and individual damages actions. Geradin Partners is involved in more than a dozen collective actions brought before the French, Dutch, and English courts.   

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.

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.

Andreas Ruster is a Partner in Willkie’s Litigation Department. He practices in Hamburg and is based in the Firm’s Frankfurt office. 

Andreas advises clients on high-stakes disputes across a range of sectors. He regularly advises and represents clients throughout the entire lifecycle of a dispute, from developing a (national or international) strategy to out-of-court discussions, court and arbitration proceedings, settlement negotiations and execution. Andreas has taken hundreds of cases to trial, appearing in many German courts and in the European Court of Justice.

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.

Greg Haber is Verita’s Vice President of International Class Actions and directs Verita’s International Matters Team.  Greg is a sought-after and trusted advisor to clients frequently assisting law firms, corporations, automotive OEMs, and financial institutions to structure and design every aspect of their class action notice, administration, payments, and remediation plans.  As the former VP and Head of Business Development for two leading US class action settlement administrators, in a career spanning over 16 years, Greg has been involved in some of the largest and most complex class action settlements of all time, involving hundreds of millions of class members and billions of dollars in the areas of data breach and privacy, antitrust, consumer protection, product liability and financial services.  Greg is also a former commercial litigator, having practiced law in New York.

Emma Morales is a distinguished partner in the Dispute Resolution group at our Madrid office, bringing over two decades of expertise to her role. Specializing in complex disputes, Emma represents financial institutions, hedge and litigation funds, and publicly traded companies in both domestic and international contexts. Her practice focuses on contract and corporate law disputes, including breach of contract, directors' liability, and indemnities, as well as competition law, banking litigation, construction, and energy matters.

Jeremy is the Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of Winward Litigation Finance, a dispute resolution funding company he launched in conjunction with a US asset manager in 2024. Winward is currently investing in cases in the UK and Europe. Jeremy has been involved in every facet of litigation funding for over 15 years. Whilst in private practice, his cases were funded by the likes of Therium, Vannin and Woodsford. He has been a Senior Investment Manager with Omni Bridgeway and a director of its UK business. He has also been the Chief Investment Officer of Bentham Europe Limited (now Innsworth Advisors) which was a joint venture between IMF Bentham Limited and Elliott Management. 

Independent, critical and strategic thinker. Expert Mass damages and collective actions. Justice and sustainability are of paramount importance. Decisive and results-oriented. Loyal, innovative and socially involved. Contributes to meaningful solutions, has strong communication skills and quickly gets to the core. Advocate par excellence. 

Paul joined IVO Capital Partners in October 2018 as a legal analyst in the Litigation Finance team. Paul focuses primarily on analyzing and monitoring litigation finance transactions. He is appointed managing partner in September 2021.
Paul has been admitted to the New York bar since July 2018 (No. 5613385). He also holds a Master's degree in French and English business law, and a Master's degree in comparative business law from Université Paris X. He also holds an LLM from the University of California at Berkeley.

John A. Yanchunis leads the Class Action Department of Morgan & Morgan. Mr. Yanchunis’ practice— which began after completing a two-year clerkship with United States District Judge Carl O. Bue, Jr., Southern District of Texas—has concentrated on complex litigation and spans over 40 years, including class actions for over two-thirds of that time. Mr. Yanchunis served also as lead counsel for the insurance regulator for the state of Florida during the state’s investigation of the insurance industry for bidding rigging , price fixing and undisclosed compensation in the sale of insurance in the state. He has been   continuously recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer for the past 20

Years .  His work in the area of privacy began in 1999 with the filing of the Doubleclick class action , and since that time , he has held leadership  positions in most of the largest data privacy  cases to date, including Yahoo, Equifax, Capital One , Google, Home Depot and Target.  He has repeatedly  been recognized by Law360 as an MVP , most recently in 2024 , in the cybersecurity practice area, and in 2020 he was awarded  the Daily Business Review’s  Attorney of the Year award for the state of Florida for his work in the privacy and cybersecurity. He is a frequent lecturer nationally and internationally on the topics of privacy and cybersecurity

Over the past 15 years, Loree Kovach has established herself a strategic problem solver who partners with clients to assess complex matters and develop solutions for critical administrative tasks including the integration and management of data from multiple sources, and the handling of unique claims.

Kovach has gained valuable expertise handling large and high-profile consumer matters, having most recently overseen a confidential remediation program related to lead-based paint, as well as most of the major settlements relating to the gig economy.  Kovach also has in-depth experience handling cases involving complex financial instruments, including the administration of the nearly $2 billion Credit Default Swaps Antitrust Litigation - one of the largest private antitrust settlements in U.S. history. In recent years she also oversaw key operational components of the GM Ignition Compensation Claims Resolution Facility which was established to administer claims made by alleged victims of the ignition switch defect in certain GM vehicles.

A highly regarded thought leader, Kovach frequently writes and speaks about the nuances and challenges of complex settlement administration programs on the national and international level.  She received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in finance from Florida State University and a Juris Doctor degree from Florida State University College of Law.

Gus is founder of Byfield Consultancy. He provides reputation counsel to legal and professional services firms and to companies and individuals facing reputational risk. Gus is relied upon by clients to help build and protect their reputations through effective brand building campaigns, and to manage reputational risk in sensitive and often business critical situations. He is a litigation PR specialist and works closely with litigators, in-house PR teams and senior management teams in managing the reputational aspects of disputes. Gus has significant experience of working with third party litigation funders and represents clients across a broad range of disputes nationally and internationally, including class actions where he has a particular interest. Gus is also well known for advising professional services firms and their partners who are subject to regulatory investigations.

Gus is founding chairman of the PRCA Legal PR group and is passionate about the development of legal sector communications as a valuable and specialist branch of public relations.

Martina is a litigator and investigator, and co-head of our financial industries disputes group.

Martina is very comfortable with high-profile multijurisdictional disputes and complex investigations.

Her broad experience in handling various large-scale litigation and investigation mandates enables her to comprehensively assess the strategic and economic aspects of each complex dispute.

Clients value her hands-on approach and her skills in helping them to manage their risks when facing acute problems.

She speaks German and English.

Raimond Dufour is a partner in Pels Rijcken’s Litigation & Arbitration department. He has extensive experience with complex cross-border disputes, such as class and group actions, competition follow-on proceedings and commercial arbitration proceedings. As defence counsel, he frequently works with clients that operate on a multi-jurisdictional scale. At Dutch courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union, Raimond has litigated on a variety of high-profile cases on, for example, diesel engine emissions, international interest rate benchmarks (e.g. LIBOR) and foreign currency rates (Forex).

Tom Hoyer has been working with BarentsKrans since 2014. He advises and litigates on the full spectrum of corporate and commercial matters, at both national and international level. Besides contractual matters and directors’ liability, also in case of bankruptcy, Tom focuses on financial litigation and is a member of the cartel damages team.

In 2019 Tom graduated cum laude from the post-graduate specialization program on Financing and Securities at the Grotius Academy. Tom regularly publishes on various civil law matters.

Wesley Vader is a partner at bureau Brandeis in the Corporate & Commercial litigation practice group.

Wesley’s practice focuses on resolution of corporate and commercial disputes. He advises and litigates on, inter alia, (civil) fraud cases, (directors’) liability, shareholder disputes and also contractual disputes. Wesley is also involved in various class actions, in particular mass tort litigation.

Wesley completed his studies in Dutch law at the University of Groningen in 2007. During his studies, he also studied in Canada at the University of Western Ontario. In 2013, Wesley graduated cum laude from the postgraduate specialization course in Business and Liability at the Grotius Academy.

I founded Redi Litigation, the first law firm in Spain focused in claims for damages arising out of antitrust infringements, after having worked at other renowned law firms in Spain where I became a business and antitrust litigation specialist before the civil and criminal courts of justice.

Nina deals with various issues relating to the cartel ban, abuse of a dominant position and concentration notifications. Regulations on foreign direct investment are also part of her expertise.

Nina has a good business sense, is pragmatic and looks for workable solutions for our clients.

Branda specializes in collective actions and in complex contractual disputes, often with cross-border or regulatory aspects. She has acted in a broad spectrum of cases comprising ESG-related matters, industrial accidents and consumer rights cases.

Jennifer A. Riley, Vice Chair of Duane Morris’ Class Action Defense group, has defended companies faced with significant complex litigation matters for more than two decades. Ms. Riley regularly defends companies facing class actions, collective actions, pattern or practice lawsuits, and other types of representative proceedings, ranging in size from dozens to tens of thousands of claims. Working on the forefront of the developing law in an ever-changing arena, Ms. Riley regularly develops strategies for navigating some of the largest challenges faced by corporate America today and counsels employers confronted with a range of complex theories that span from claims of discrimination or sexual harassment to myriad types of alleged wage & hour and statutory privacy violations.

Ms. Riley develops and employs strategies to navigate and to defend complex actions at inception, including strategies to fracture large-scale actions and structure creative solutions. She has represented clients facing bet-the-company cases in a wide range of complex civil litigation matters in federal and state courts across the country.  Ms. Riley defended a nationwide restaurant chain against one of the largest class and collective actions ever filed in the Southern District of New York alleging wage & hour violations on behalf of a nationwide collective action and at least a dozen Rule 23 state law classes.  Ms. Riley defended multiple international staffing and logistics companies faced with nationwide claims for alleged misclassification and failure to pay overtime to various categories of workers across hundreds of work locations.  Ms. Riley defended myriad employers against allegations of nationwide pattern or practice discrimination based on membership in various protected categories challenging their various hiring, promotion, and employment practices. 

Solenn is an avocat registered at the Paris Bar and a Solicitor of England and Wales. She is a former Secretaire de la Conférence du Barreau de Paris. She is co-chairing the Paris-London International Commission of the Paris Bar.

She acts for her clients before French and foreign state courts and in mediation proceedings.

Leonore Bruining has been a practicing attorney since 1998 and joined Wijn & Stael as partner in 2025. Her practice involves counseling and litigating complex commercial disputes, with a focus on corporate law disputes and (international) arbitrations. She also acts as defense counsel in class actions. 

Driven and Dynamic Litigator
Leonore is a tactful, results-oriented litigator with a strong drive to win. “I’m always looking for that one factor that can make the difference in a case: what argument or strategy will achieve the best outcome for my client? And while I enjoy convincing the court or arbitrator with clear and compelling arguments, I also take great satisfaction in securing a favorable settlement for my client.” Pragmatic where possible, creative when necessary, Leonore brings a unique blend of sharp strategic acumen and strong persuasive powers to the table. 

Leonore represents a wide variety of clients, including major international corporations and financial institutions, companies in the aviation, private equity, automotive, manufacturing, leisure, and tech industries, as well as executive and supervisory board directors. She has extensive experience in litigating disputes relating to mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, director and shareholder liability, prospectus liability, cartel damages claims, enforcement of securities, squeeze-outs, and a wide range of commercial disputes. 

She has published articles on squeeze-out cases in the ‘Annual Review of the Corporate Litigation Association’ (Geschriften vanwege de Vereniging Corporate Litigation) and provides workshops on class actions.

Jessica advises and litigates in complex and cross-border commercial, financial and corporate disputes. Her areas of expertise include M&A disputes, shareholders disputes and D&O liability matters. Jessica regularly litigates and advises on collective actions and settlements.

Marnix Holtzer is head the Litigation & Regulatory practice in the Netherlands. He specializes in corporate governance and corporate litigation and is experienced in advising leading global companies on strategic matters.

He has been involved in litigation in many high-profile corporate inquiry proceedings (enquêteprocedures), focussing on corporate governance issues. He is a well-respected boardroom advisor and active as defence counsel in class actions.

Dr Borbála Dux-Wenzel primarily deals with civil class actions, large individual proceedings, and international arbitration proceedings. This includes representing clients in court and managing class actions in the areas of product liability, antitrust damages, capital investment and insurance law, as well as providing advice and representation in matters regarding manager liability and internal recourse. Conducting post-M&A proceedings, both on the part of the claimant and on the part of the defendant, is another important part of Borbála Dux-Wenzel’s work.

Christine is partner dispute resolution, specialising in commercial contracts, commercial dispute resolution and class actions. Christine practises as an attorney at law since 2006. Prior to joining Florent in 2025, she worked at other leading law firms, lately for eight years at NautaDutilh in Amsterdam. 

A trusted advisor and seasoned litigator, Emmanuel Plasschaert has 30 years of experience representing Belgian and multinational companies as well as individuals before the Belgian courts in commercial and complex litigation matters, including seizures and cross-border litigation issues. He was one of the first to represent a client in class-action proceedings in Belgium.

Chris Chorba is co-chair of the firm’s Class Actions Practice Group.  He specializes in defending class actions and complex litigation.  He has substantial experience across a broad range of complex commercial matters at the trial and appellate level in California and throughout the country, and in multi-district litigation (MDLs).  His litigation and counseling experience includes work for companies in every industry—including automotive, beauty / cosmetic, consumer products, education, entertainment, financial services, food and beverage, health care, insurance, life sciences, retail, social media, sports and gaming, technology, telecommunications, and utility / energy. Chris is a nationally recognized expert in defending class actions, including claims involving California’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising Laws (Business & Professions Code § 17200 and § 17500), the Consumers Legal Remedies Act (California Civil Code § 1750 et seq.), the Lanham Act, and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. His representative class and representative actions include the following:

Anca Cojoc consults on antitrust and competition matters, with a focus on competition litigation, investigations, and mergers. Dr. Cojoc has substantial expertise in implementing applied econometric and statistical models to competition economics, damages, and regulatory issues. She has worked on damages litigation before the UK High Court, as well as competition matters—including several Phase II investigations—before the European Commission, Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and other authorities.

Dr. Cojoc has more than a decade of experience leading teams in both consulting and regulatory settings. In these contexts, she has addressed competition issues related to anticompetitive behavior, market definition, barriers to entry, exclusive contracts, and vertical restraints. In antitrust litigation matters, she has assessed liability and estimated damages. The global W@Competition platform has recognized Dr. Cojoc in its “30 in their 30s” Notable Women Competition Professionals survey.

In her research, Dr. Cojoc has examined how cooperation among mobile telecom providers affects network quality and efficiencies. She has also evaluated the role and impact of big data on competition policy, particularly how current competition frameworks can address the increased presence of big data in digital ecosystems. Dr. Cojoc’s work covers a range of industries, including energy and commodities, financial services, healthcare, media, telecommunications, and transportation.

Thorsten is a Partner in our Dispute Resolution team in Düsseldorf, focusing on competition litigation.

He has long-standing experience in defending clients against cartel damage claims and has been involved in cartel cases across a variety of industry sectors including trucks, various automotive supplies, plant protection, rail tracks and chipboard. Thorsten's expertise includes the strategic defense against international mass claims and the negotiation and drafting of customized settlements. Furthermore, he provides legal advice in all contentious commercial matters and represents clients both before German civil courts as well as in national and international arbitration proceedings.

He has been listed in "Best Lawyers in Germany” for Dispute Resolution by Best Lawyers/Handelsblatt for several years.