18 October 2019

Anja Mutsaers and Marnix Leijten - new Managing Committee

Anja Mutsaers and Marnix Leijten are announced as practice head and managing partner respectively at law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. Together with an external non lawyer board member, yet to be announced, they will form the new managing committee on 1 January 2020. Leijten succeeds Geert Potjewijd, who returns to practice. Mutsaers takes over the management of the practice areas from Bommel van der Bend and Bernard Spoor.
Marnix Leijten: "I am proud to lead De Brauw together with Anja. The firm forms a uniquely strong collective, and the quality of our people is impressively high. We have the ambition to both further strengthen De Brauw's market-leading position in the Netherlands as well as further accelerating the growth of our international practice. Our clients face increasingly complex, multidisciplinary, often international, challenges. De Brauw’s vision, expertise and passion matches perfectly with this complexity." Marnix Leijten (47) became a lawyer at De Brauw in 1996. Since 2004, he has built up a leading international arbitration and litigation practice as a partner. In the last decade, Marnix has assisted many Dutch and foreign multinationals as well as sovereign States in complex international disputes. Under his leadership, the arbitration practice group has grown into a practice with around 50 lawyers, 8 of whom are partners. Since 2015, Marnix has been Vice President of the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris, a position that he will continue to hold. Marnix is ​​qualified by independent market analysts as one of the worldwide "thought leaders" in arbitration and as the leading litigation lawyer in the Netherlands. Marnix will remain strategically involved in arbitration and litigation matters, and continue to work as an international arbitrator, but he will lead De Brauw for the majority of his time. Anja Mutsaers (49) is one of the most successful Corporate / M&A partners at De Brauw. She moved to the office in 2000, after gaining many years of experience in international business, including at Exxon Mobil. Her highly acclaimed expertise varies from renewable energy projects to national and international transactions. Her strategic and pragmatic vision is widely recognised. As the head of the Energy Industry Practice Group, De Brauw has established a leading position in energy and sustainability. She was also closely involved in setting up various pro bono initiatives. As a Hiring Partner, Anja has reformed De Brauw's recruitment and thus stood at the cradle of a new generation of talented lawyers. Anja is also a member of the Supervisory Board of the Concertgebouw and will continue this role. Geert Potjewijd has held responsibility for the firm from 2016 to the end of 2019. "With Marnix at the helm, we have a great lawyer with vision, able to advance the strategy and to continue our social role. Together with Anja, there is strong management and I transfer my responsibilities with full confidence. I myself return, with great pleasure, back to litigation, to realise our international ambitions in that role."