Sander Schouten

Sander has in excess of 20 years of experience as a lawyer and bankruptcy trustee. After gaining experience at two medium-sized law firms, Sander and three partners founded AMS Advocaten N.V. in Amsterdam in 2011. Sander focuses on litigation and consultancy in the legal areas of insolvency law and corporate law.

Insolvency law

In particular, he is appointed as a trustee or administrator in insolvencies of major companies. In these positions, he has gained extensive experience in insolvency law. As a lawyer Sander is therefore ideally placed to assist clients in (imminent) disputes with trustees regarding, inter alia, directors’ liability and Actio Pauliana's, or for advice on restarts following bankruptcies.

For instance, Sander successfully represented the global watch brand TW Steel in proceedings against a trustee of a failed distributor and has assisted Indian pharmaceutical company Maneesh Pharmaceuticals in proceedings against a trustee of a subsidiary and has advised on implemented restructurings.

WHOA

Furthermore, Sander assists companies seeking to offer their creditors a composition under the WHOA (Act on the confirmation of private restructuring plans) with the aim of restructuring their debts. By the same token, Sander also advises shareholders and creditors who are offered a composition under the WHOA. For example, Sander has advised the German shareholders' association SdK on the WHOA settlement offered by Steinhoff International Holdings N.V., which is one of the largest WHOA proceedings since this law came into force.

Corporate law

Sander has extensive experience in civil litigation of commercial disputes. He also advises his clients on shareholder disputes, (employment) reorganisations and non-competition clauses.

In 2022, for example, he represented a shareholder in proceedings that focused on the interpretation of a shareholders' agreement and the question of whether the shareholder was obliged to have his shares certified, and he successfully represented a franchisor in a dispute with a franchisee who wished to terminate the franchise agreement and was of the opinion that the non-competition clause contained therein was no longer applicable.

Specialist course

Sander has successfully completed the post-graduate specialist programme in Insolvency Law at the Grotius Academy. This is the most comprehensive and complete post-graduate training programme in the field of insolvency law in the Netherlands. Furthermore, Sander is a member of the Insolvency Lawyers Association (INSOLAD) and its international branch INSOL Europe.

Register of legal areas

Sander has registered as principal areas of law in the register of legal areas of the Dutch Bar Association: insolvency law. On the basis of this registration, he is obliged to obtain ten training credits in each registered principal legal area per calendar year, according to the standards of the Dutch Bar Association.