Marie-Hélène Berghuijs

Partner

Languages

Dutch, English, French

Practice notes

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.

Furthermore, Marie-Hélène has a special interest in the energy sector: advising in and litigating on various disputes including disputes regarding renewable energy.

In addition to litigation before the civil courts, Marie-Hélène handles cases in arbitration (acting as arbitrator at the Netherlands Arbitration Institute) and in mediation. She completed the mediation training of the Amsterdam ADR Institute in 2019. This makes her ideally suited to explore and establish the possibilities of reaching a settlement both before and during proceedings.

Marie-Hélène is a member of various professional associations and is the chairman of the Foundation Ambassadors of the Canal Festival (Stichting Ambassadeurs van het Grachtenfestival).

Qualifications and education

• Training Legal Mediator, ADR Institute, 2018-2019
• Postgraduate course Financing, Securities & Insolvency, Grotius Academy (cum laude), 2012-2013
• MBA Highlights, INSEAD, 2012
• Postgraduate course in energy law, Vrije Universiteit, 2009-2010
• Law Firm School, Professional education for trainee lawyers, 2008-2009
• Master European Private Law, University of Amsterdam (weighted average: 8.5), 2006-2008
• Master’s degree of Dutch Law, University of Amsterdam, 2001-2006

Mediation in WHOA - The use of mediation (skills) to increase the success rate of WHOA processes

Rescuing the family business in financial difficulties - the new perspective of the WHOA

Accompanying measures to facilitate a composition plan (Flankerende maatregelen om een akkoord mogelijk te maken) in: The Act on the confirmation of out-of-court restructuring plans, from act to law (De WHOA van wet naar recht)

Are the requirements for granting authorisation pursuant to Section 42a of the Dutch Bankruptcy Act met and how should they be

Rejection of the request for detention under the Deferral of Payment Act (Betalingsuitstelwet)

Entry into force Temporary provision for deferral of payment COVID-19 (Betalingsuitstelwet)

Annotation to Dutch Supreme Court, 5 januari 2018, ECLI:NL:HR:2018:1 and ECLI:NL:HR:2018:12 (Chemours/Stedin) regarding the horizontal accession of a network

Annotation to Dutch Supreme Court, 22 September 2017 (ECLI:NL:HR:2017:2452) regarding the civil law liability of an accountant and the obligation of the court to motivate its judgments if it deviates from a disciplinary judgment

Knowledge of a person’s possible liability for the damage suffered is not sufficient for the short limitation period of five years to start running (Dutch Supreme Court, 31 March 2017).

Blog: Dutch Supreme Court rules that property of foreign states is presumed to be immune from attachments and execution

JOR 2016/85 Annotation M-H.S. Berghuijs to Supreme Court, 11 December 2015 , ECLI:NL:HR:2015:3568, ECLI:NL:PHR:2015:2389

Dutch Supreme Court allows arrangements among parties regarding the apportionment of liability for public fines:

JOR 2015/304 -Annotation M-H.S. Berghuijs, District Court Gelderland, 2 February 2015

Eigendomskwesties bij gasopslag