Laura van Gardingen
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Laura is partner and a key member of Houthoff’s Supreme Court Litigation practice group. Specialising in Supreme Court litigation and civil procedural law, she brings over a decade of experience in Supreme Court practice. Her involvement spans many high-end cases before the Supreme Court across an impressively broad commercial spectrum, including contract law, financial law, company law, liability law, insurance law, arbitration, aviation law, and EU law and sanctions.
Dedicated, thoughtful and always calm, Laura keeps an eye on the bigger picture and provides strong and to-the-point analysis of even the most complex cases. She is regarded as one of the top Supreme Court litigators of her generation.
Recognised in Legal 500, Laura is also a guest lecturer on Supreme Court procedural law at Radboud University. She speaks and regularly publishes, primarily on civil procedural law, and is co-author of the upcoming second edition of the leading textbook on Supreme Court litigation. Additionally, she is a member of the Dutch Association of Civil Cassation Litigators and the Dutch Association for Procedural Law.
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RecommendedLegal 500, Dispute Resolution: Arbitration (2023 Edition)
QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE
- LL.M. Dutch Law (cum laude) (Utrecht University)
- LL.B. Dutch Law (Utrecht University)
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Secured a win for various aviation industry parties, including 18 airlines, in challenging the Dutch State's proposed downsizing measures for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, suddenly reducing the maximum number of flights from 500,000 to 460,000 in the next year. The Supreme Court ruled that the Dutch State must complete the 'balanced approach procedure' under the EU Noise Regulation before implementing such measures, overturning a previous decision by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal.
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Represented Fortenova Group, the largest food producer and retailer in South-Eastern Europe with an annual turnover of EUR 5 billion and 47.500 employees, in the implementation of a comprehensive restructuring resulting from the presence of sanctioned debt and equity holders in its capital structure and cross-border litigation in connection therewith.
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Represented Capgemini at the Dutch Supreme Court in a dispute on the execution of a large-scale software development project.
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Acting as the administrators appointed by the Amsterdam Court in the suspension of payment proceedings of Steinhoff International Holdings N.V. (a company listed on the Johannesburg and Frankfurt Stock Exchange), Houthoff oversaw the process leading up to the confirmation of the composition plan. This enabled Steinhoff to settle alleged claims for damages from 66,000 creditors totalling EUR 14 billion following from the group's disclosure of accounting irregularities in 2017.
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Advised OSX Brasil S.A. and its Dutch subsidiaries. on the restructuring of their consolidated debt of over US$ 2.5 billion, including representing the OSX companies in various litigation matters in the Netherlands as well as coordinating litigation abroad. The team worked also on the debt restructuring of OSX 3, the USD 450 million bond structure and the syndicated debt of USD 850 million.
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Advised Ballast Nedam on an appeal case against Max Bögl, a former joint venture partner. Ballast Nedam wins court of appeal case against Max Bögl. The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal in cassation, lodged by Max Bögl. For Ballast Nedam this ruling means an elimination of a risk of over 9 million euros, without further financial impact. Ballast Nedam brought action in 2003 against Max Bögl for breach of contract in the tendering stage of three underground stations on the North-South Line.
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Advised the Independent Derivatives Committee - appointed by the Minister of Finance - in preparing and drafting a uniform repair framework for compensation by the Dutch banking sector of SME clients that bought interest rate derivatives.
