Martje Verhoeven-de Vries Lentsch

Martje Verhoeven-de Vries Lentsch specialises in national and international arbitration and litigation, with a particular focus on energy-related issues. Martje assists several large energy companies on critical strategic matters and has represented these companies in a range of arbitrations and court cases. She has acted for buyers as well as sellers in more than ten gas-price review arbitrations relating to long-term, high-value agreements for the supply of natural gas. In addition, Martje has extensive experience in recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards, and dealing with related attachment proceedings. She also acts for clients and advises on post-M&A disputes arising in a variety of sectors.

Martje’s recent work includes advising and representing:

• an international energy company in a gas price review arbitration under a long-term gas sales agreements under the ICC rules, successfully defending against a price decrease;
• an international energy company in a gas price review arbitration under a long-term gas sales agreements under the UNCITRAL rules;
• Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) and the Nigerian operating company Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) before the Dutch courts in a case under Nigerian law brought by four Nigerian farmers and environmental organisation Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth, Netherlands) to hold RDS and SPDC liable for oil spills from two underground pipelines and an oil well in the period 2004-2007;
• Enel S.p.A. and Enelpower S.p.A. in its successful defence against the recognition and enforcement of a EUR 435 million foreign Albanian judgment, and a de novo review of the case applying Albanian law, including multiple attachment-related proceedings;
• an international energy company in an ICC arbitration under New York law arising out of a long-term LNG purchase contract.

Martje is a board member of the Dutch Arbitration Association and publishes and lectures on legal privilege and emergency arbitral proceedings. She has contributed to the publications Gas and LNG Price Arbitrations: A Practical Handbook (2014 and 2020) and International arbitration in the Netherlands (2021).

In 2013 and 2014, Martje was seconded to the Shell Global Litigation Group in Houston for six months, followed by a six month posting at US law firm Haynes & Boone’s Houston office, where she worked on energy-related litigation.