Leendert Kruidenier has been with Wijn & Stael since 1991 and is as an attorney and managing partner. He focuses his practice on labor and corporate law and overlapping aspects in both areas. He counsels clients in restructuring, disputes and conflict mediation, insourcing and outsourcing, transfer of business, (individual and collective) involuntary termination of employment and reorganizations. Leendert represents midsize and large businesses, directors, supervisory directors and senior management. He counsels, negotiates and litigates in complex cases and acts as a sparring partner for directors and regulators. He also serves as deputy judge at the District Court of The Hague and as a mediator in labor law and business conflicts.

Advocate in Heart and Soul
Leendert is an enthusiastic, pragmatic and driven lawyer with strong strategic insight, who can quickly translate complex issues into actionable solutions. He works closely with his clients and vigorously advocates for their interests. “Having justice and getting justice don’t always go hand in hand, but the challenge is to achieve the best possible result in every situation.” Leendert is a real linchpin that is, by and large, regarded as a trusted advisor. His clear and astute analysis of complex issues consistently earn him high praise from clients.

Background in Insolvency Law
Leendert draws on the experience he gained in his former 15-year career as trustee and administrator to provide advice and assist in reorganizations and restructuring.

Professional Activities & Memberships

• Member, VCL - Corporate Litigation Association
• Member, UOS - Utrecht Entrepreneurial Society
• Member, VAAA - Association of Employment Lawyers of Amsterdam
• Member, VAAN - Association of Employment Lawyers of the Netherlands
• Member, VAAMN - Association of Employment Lawyers of Central Netherlands

Academic Background

• Mediator, 2020, Dialogue
• Financing & Securities, specialist program, 1996, Grotius Academy
• Institut Universitair d’Études Européennes, postgraduate, 1990, Geneva
• Civil Law, 1989, University of Groningen

Recommendations

• Legal500 - 2024: ‘Leendert Kruidenier is to be commended as an employment specialist. With his ‘iron fist in a velvet glove’ approach, he was able to step in when needed and in tandem with Maaike deliver fair but brilliant results.’
• Legal500 - 2022: ‘Leendert Kruidenier knows and understands our business very well’.
  ‘Leendert Kruidenier gives adequate advice and has a good sense of business’.
• Legal500 - 2021: ‘Leendert Kruidenier is well aware of all details and history of our company and enables him to give immediate and accurate answers or input when needed’.

Representative Practice

• Counseled a consortium of companies on the risk of a ‘transfer of business’ due to the outsourcing of hard facility management by an airline company.
• Represented a director/shareholder involved in a serious dispute with his co-director/shareholder over the operations and future policy of a hotel and restaurant business they operated.
• Represented the interests of a party to a joint venture that is the subsidiary of a large international group operating in the public domain. The party had hired a project director with whom a dispute had transpired over the latter’s performance.
• As preferred attorney, counsels an international engineering firm on (ongoing) business and organizational reorganizations.
• Coordinated the optimization of the contingent workforce for a large international helpdesk organization, ensuring, together with local partners in various countries, compliance with local employment regulations.
• Represented an executive board member who had been held personally liable for failure to fulfill a contractual obligation.

Bar register of legal practice areas
Leendert 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)
• Corporate law (Company law, Professional liability, Corporate law, Directors' and officers' liability, Associations and foundations)

Based on this registration, he 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.