About Hidde
About Hidde
Hidde has been a lawyer since 2002. In addition, he has almost 20 years of experience as an insolvency practitioner. Hidde gained broad experience in civil law practice at a medium-sized firm in Amsterdam and specialised in insolvency law, corporate law and inheritance law (as the administrator of estates). In 2011, he together with three fellow partners founded AMS Advocaten.
Corporate law
Hidde conducts legal proceedings and provides advice on corporate law mainly in cases concerning directors’ and officers’ liability, shareholder disputes and post-closing disputes. He also regularly conducts legal proceedings at the Enterprise Division of the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam. Furthermore, he is regularly appointed as the liquidator of dissolved companies, after the reopening by the court of the dissolution of a company and sometimes upon the request from the Public Prosecution Service.
Insolvency law
The court has been appointing Hidde for almost 20 years as the insolvency practitioner or administrator of medium-sized and large enterprises. Due to this work experience as an insolvency practitioner, Hidde can provide excellent practical and strategic advice regarding relaunches, or during (imminent) disputes with insolvency practitioners or creditors in cases concerning directors’ and officers’ liability and prejudicing (fraudulent preference).
Court approval of a private composition (prevention of insolvency) act
Related to the Court Approval of a Private Composition (Prevention of Insolvency) Act entering into effect, Hidde completed the specialist course “Restructuring Expert”. The Court Approval of a Private Composition (Prevention of Insolvency) Act offers the option to enterprises to offer a composition to their creditors and shareholders, which can be declared binding by the court. Hidde was involved in the advice by AMS to the German shareholders’ association SdK concerning the settlement under the Court Approval of a Private Composition (Prevention of Insolvency) Act offered by Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., which has been one of the largest proceedings under the Court Approval of a Private Composition (Prevention of Insolvency) Act since its implementation.
Inheritance law
The courts have also been appointing Hidde for years as the administrator of estates. In that position, Hidde has settled a multitude of complex and various cases, many of which involved complex debts, complex assets to be converted into cash, or complex family relationships and often a combination of these aspects. From this role, Hidde is available to be nominated for appointment as administrator after prior consultation. Furthermore, he regularly acts for executors, creditors or beneficiaries of estates.
Specialist courses
Hidde completed two specialist courses at the Grotius Academy: “Enterprise and liability” and subsequently (cum laude) the INSOLAD (the Dutch Association of Insolvency Practitioners)/Grotius Insolvency Law specialist course. This is the most comprehensive and complete post-graduate study programme in the field of insolvency law. In 2022 Hidde also completed the Inheritance Law course of the AVDR (Dutch Legal Practice Academy).
Track record
District Court reopens cooperative following turbo liquidation
Acting as lawyer (Lennard) and bankruptcy trustee (Hidde), they requested the reopening of a cooperative following a turbo liquidation in application proceedings before the Amsterdam District Court. The court granted the request, holding inter alia that the liquidated cooperative needed to exist in order to be a party to legal proceedings.Court of Appeal: lessee liable for damage following theft of rented vehicle
Hidde represented the lessor of a car rental company based in Curaçao, which sought compensation from a lessee after a rented vehicle was stolen. The Court of Appeal held, on a provisional basis, that the lessor had informed the lessee at the time of entering into the rental agreement of the risks of theft (and of not taking out theft insurance), or at least that the lessee had consciously chosen not to take out such insurance. The lessee was allowed to submit counter-evidence but failed to do so.Director ultimately released from liability for bankruptcy deficit
Hidde represented a director of a transport company who had been held liable by the bankruptcy trustee for the full bankruptcy deficit. The district court had upheld the claim in first instance. On appeal, the director was ultimately successful. The Court of Appeal ruled that it had not been established that manifestly improper management was an important cause of the bankruptcies. Although the annual accounts had been filed more than 11 months late, the director succeeded in rebutting the statutory presumption under Article 2:248(2) of the Dutch Civil Code.District Court and Court of Appeal: no fraudulent conveyance in bookstore acquisition
Hidde represented a purchaser in a transaction involving the acquisition of the entire business of a bookstore. Shortly thereafter, the seller was declared bankrupt. The bankruptcy trustee brought claims against the purchaser on the basis of the actio pauliana. Both the District Court and the Court of Appeal dismissed the trustee’s claims.Bankruptcy trustee held personally liable for unjustified unequal treatment of creditor
Hidde represented a creditor in a bankruptcy who, unlike other creditors, had not received any distribution. The bankruptcy trustee had agreed and allowed a third party (the purchaser of the bankrupt business) to pay the recognised creditors a fixed percentage of their claims. However, the trustee disputed the claim of the creditor in question. After the creditor’s claim was eventually admitted, it was established between the trustee and the purchaser that the purchaser was not obliged to pay this creditor. The trustee was held liable both by virtue of his office and personally on the grounds that he had acted unlawfully by agreeing to a distribution by a third party in breach of the statutory principle of equality of creditors, thereby allowing unequal treatment. The District Court, and later the Court of Appeal, upheld the claim and ordered the trustee to pay the amount that the creditor should have received under the arrangement with the purchaser, plus interest.Recent blogs
All blogsExpulsion of a 50% shareholder in summary proceedings
Earlier this year, the Amsterdam District Court granted in summary proceedings a claim for expulsion on the grounds that the 50% shareholder did not sufficiently consider the interests of the company, a childcare centre. A drastic measure, which sometimes proves necessary. Corporate lawyer Hidde Reitsma explains. Highly charged conflict in childcare centre Due to illness, one […]
NCC allows monetary claim in summary proceedings
On 11 June 2021, the Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC) allowed a monetary claim of a US-based company on a Dutch holding company, and its statutory director, in summary proceedings. Attorney-at-Law Mathijs van Riet discusses the position of the NCC and its recent verdict. Netherlands Commercial Court The NCC was founded on 1 January 2019, as a […]
Essilux claim rejected: GrandVision is not required to provide access to accounts
The law sets out that a party may demand access to the accounts and documents held by another party, if that party has a legitimate interest in doing so. Of course, this right is not unlimited. At the beginning of this week, the interim relief judge of the Rotterdam District Court ruled against such a […]
Practice areas register
Hidde has registered the following principal legal practice areas in the register of legal practice areas of the Dutch Bar Association: inheritance law, insolvency law, and corporate law. On the basis of this registration, he is obliged to obtain ten training points in each registered principal legal practice area per calendar year, in accordance with the standards of the Dutch Bar Association.