Maaike Faber joined Wijn & Stael in 2015, focusing her practice on labor and employment law. She represents employers and employees in numerous labor and employment cases involving individual and collective termination of employment, co-determination and collective bargaining agreements. She is well-versed in the Senior Executives in the Public and Semi-Public Sector (Standards for Remuneration) Act (WNT).

Pragmatic Advice and Transparent Communication
Maaike is a down-to-earth, enthusiastic and pragmatic attorney. Clients can count on her for actionable advice. She engages clients in every strategic deliberation, giving them her honest opinion about the case. Her passion for labor and employment law is palpable: “The relationship between employers and employees is characterized by inequality and dependence, even though the legal practice is constantly changing. That’s what makes disputes in this area so complicated. I became an attorney to help people navigate the many legal pitfalls and to achieve the best possible result based on the law.”

Publications and Blogs on Labor and Employment Law
Prior to coming to Wijn & Stael, Maaike worked at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Shell. She regularly publishes legal articles, writes notes for the Jurisprudentie Arbeidsrecht (JAR) [Labor and Employment Law Jurisprudence] and posts blogs on the labor and employment law website of Sdu.

Professional Activities & Memberships

• Member, VAAMN - Association of Employment Lawyers of Central Netherlands
• Member, VAAN - Association of Employment Lawyers of the Netherlands

Academic Background

• Labor and Employment Law, Postgraduate, cum laude, 2014, Erasmus University
• Dutch Law, cum laude, 2009, University of Groningen

Representative practice 

• Counseled the supervisory board of a healthcare institution in a complex matter regarding the termination of its managing director’s contract.
• Counseled a director of a publicly listed company on the involuntary termination of his employment and successfully negotiated a generous severance package.
• Acted as house counsel for various domestic and international companies, handling all day-to-day employment law inquiries, employment law matters, and restructuring initiatives.
• Assisted with the closure of company sites and facilities, as well as with mass layoffs, and negotiated with trade unions over severance packages.
• Counseled an employers’ organization on its refusal to allow a number of trade unions to attend collective bargaining negotiations.
• Counseled a works council on requests for advice regarding a company sale and subsequent integration with its parent company.
• Counseled a client in a dispute involving alleged misrepresentations that led the client to sign a termination agreement based on false information about the elimination of his position.
• Counseled the CEO of a multinational company who was wrongfully denied his rights under a profit-sharing plan.
• Counseled a client involved in a dispute regarding the transfer of its business to a company that had taken over its operations.

Recommendations

• Legal500 - 2025: ‘Maaike Faber is a stand-out specialist employment lawyer. She is a terrific character and someone who inspires trust.’
• Legal500 - 2024: ‘Maaike Faber specialises in employment law and really knows her stuff! She knows how to compile a compelling narrative that can highlight the injustice of a situation and swiftly ties it to the decrees and code of the Dutch legal system. Her energy is next to none and she will see the case through to the end.’

Bar register of legal practice areas

Maaike has registered the following principal (and secondary) legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal practice areas (rechtsgebiedenregister):

• Labour law (Collective redundancies, International labour law, Co-determination, Employment intermediation, Pension law)

Based on this registration, she is required to obtain ten training credits per calendar year in each registered principal legal practice area in accordance with the standards set by the Netherlands Bar.