Wouter de Clerck

The disputes in which Wouter assists his clients often involve commercial contracts for the supply of services or goods (incl. energy, oil and natural gas), M&A agreements or joint venture agreements. Wouter has experience of arbitration before various institutions (NAI, ICC, PCA, LCIA and SIAC) as well as of ad hoc arbitration (UNCITRAL). Wouter furthermore regularly conducts proceedings before the national courts in matters related to arbitration such as international jurisdiction or recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards. Wouter also sits as arbitrator.

Wouter started his career as a lawyer in 2006 with Houthoff, following which he worked in the international arbitration practice of DLA Piper from 2012 to 2019. In 2020 he joined Legaltree. Wouter regularly writes on subjects of arbitration law and of private international law and has been a guest lecturer at Leiden University and at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Below are some of the cases in which Wouter has been involved of late:

• Co-counsel for a football consultancy company in NAI arbitration against a European football club;
• Dutch law expert in foreign proceedings concerning a global accounting fraud of EUR 2.6bn;
• Dutch counsel for Gazprom in a dispute with Ukrainian state-owned energy company Naftogaz about recognition and enforcement in the Netherlands of a USD 3bn Swedish arbitral award;
• ICC arbitration about a project for the construction of a port in West Africa; lead counsel for a Belgian multinational involving claims representing a value of
  USD 10m;
• Lead counsel for American energy company in NAI arbitration about a
  EUR 40m post M&A claim;
• Lead counsel for an American private equity firm in a dispute with the State of the Netherlands over the sale of a nationalised real estate fund;
• NAI arbitral preliminary relief proceedings; lead-counsel for Russian airline company in a dispute with Dutch airline company over turbine engines.

• Guest lecturer of arbitration law Leiden University (2016-today)
• Lecturer of arbitration law at Law Firm School (2014-today)
• Dutch Arbitration Association

• Bond University Australia, 2005 (LL.M international dispute resolution)
• Leiden University, 2004 (civil law, with honours)