Attorney-at-law

Specialization

Renate particularly specializes in corporate criminal law. She assist clients in more complex criminal law procedures in the field of, inter alia:

• tax fraud and financial fraud (such as V.A.T. fraud, forgery of documents, investment fraud, suspicions of criminal activities by professionals such as lawyers and civil-law notaries)
• environmental offences (such as pollution, waste transports, infringements of the European Waste Shipment Regulation (EWSR), legionella infections)
• various other economic offences (such as infringements of the Food and Commodities Act, animal welfare, industrial accidents, Customs related offences)
• the more criminal-law dimensions of the Public Administration (Probity Screening) Act (Wet Bibob)

Renate provides guidance to clients from the moment of a (possible) criminal investigation onwards, she monitors the entire process and aims to prevent a case from ending up before the criminal court.

Generally speaking her clients are undertakings, managers and employees with companies in the financial sector, the waste sector, the transport sector and the (petrochemical) industry. Renate also regularly provides guidance to witnesses and aggrieved parties and assists clients who want to report a violation.

Renate’s approach is professional, thorough, matter-of-fact and efficient. Together with the client she devises a strategy adapted to the client and the case. Renate is involved and accessible to her clients, so that they know what they can expect. With this approach she has managed to secure the best possible outcome for a great number of cases.

Renate regularly acts as a teacher or speaker in courses, workshops and lectures.

Work experience

Renate has been a partner with Legaltree since October 2019. From 2004 until 2013 she was employed with the Corporate Criminal Defense practice group at Simmons & Simmons. She is a co-founder of the law firm of Franken Zuur van Kampen Croes, which was incorporated in 2013 and which focuses on comprehensive criminal cases, both in general and in corporate criminal law. Renate has extensive experience in handling large and publicity-sensitive criminal cases.

Education and other positions

Renate studied law at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she graduated in 2003, specializing in civil law and criminal law. She has successfully completed the specialist course for criminal defence lawyers. Renate has for years been a teacher of criminal law and criminal procedural law at the NOvA (The Netherlands Bar Association) professional training for trainee lawyers.

From 2005-2007 Renate was on the board of the Jonge Balie (Young Lawyers Association) Rotterdam (from 2006-2007 as chair). Since 2008 she has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Criminal Law with the Netherlands Bar Association. This committee advises on proposed laws and regulations in the field of criminal law. In 2018 Renate joined the board of the Nederlandse Vereniging van Strafrechtadvocaten (NVSA) (the Dutch Association of Defence Counsel), the specialists association of criminal defence lawyers in the Netherlands.

Areas of law

Renate has registered the following area of law in the register of the Netherlands Bar Association.

• Criminal law (financial economic criminal law, tax criminal law and environmental criminal law)

Each calendar year ten training points in accordance with the standards of the Netherlands Bar Association must be collected under this registration.

Publications

• Renate is a regular editor of Thema’s van het omgevingsrecht (environmental law themes) (Thom), an online reference work published by Kluwer. Renate edits the environmental criminal law part.
• Eigen verantwoordelijkheid bestuursorgaan bij toepassing Wet Bibob. In Nederlands Juristenblad (NJB), 2012 no. 18, pages 1248 – 1254, co-author: Liesbeth Driest, Legaltree.
• Meer rook zonder vuur. Nieuwe wetgeving voor opslag politiegegevens. In Advocatenblad, 2008, no. 6, pages 208-212.