Introducing: Elise Bink

Today, Elise Bink started working for us an attorney specialising in labour and employment law. And she’s not just any lawyer: she has been a member of the bar since 1988! With her 33 years of experience, she has earned the title of Maes Law’s ‘Grande Dame’! She will operate from our branch in Schiphol-Rijk. She will continue to shape our relatively new labour and employment law practise group together with Ronald Beltzer and Tessa Lust and provide heaps of experience. If there is one thing that Elise likes and is good at, it is delivering very high-quality work while simultaneously training – although ‘drilling’ might be a better word – people in the legal profession. All attorneys will probably agree that subject matter expertise is just one aspect of being a good attorney.

Bart Maes and Elise met each other under peculiar circumstances. Elise is fluent in Spanish and, as a result, was one of the first to be involved by appointment order of the mayor of Haarlemmermeer in the case of the Spanish-Portuguese couple who allegedly fled a quarantine hotel. That was after they were the subjects of a spectacular and thus very humiliating arrest by the Dutch Border Police on the plane which was to fly them to Spain after transit through Schiphol. The case garnered plenty of national and international media attention. When Bart got involved, the couple had already been locked up in “forced isolation” in the Beatrixoord in Haren. Of course, this case involved something entirely different than labour and employment law, so Elise called Bart late on a Monday night because he had already gained a great deal of experience with corona-related cases. Elise managed to convince Bart to cooperate. When Bart saw via Facetime how the couple was locked up and learned of the grounds based on which they were locked up – there weren’t any – he was on board at once. They were free in less than 20 hours and Bart and Elise were able to meet them at the Spanish Consulate in Amsterdam. The couple returned to Spain shortly afterwards.

Right there and then, Bart and Elise started forging nefarious plans, because it does not often happen that a collaboration proceeds in such a professional manner with such quick results. She immediately clicked particularly well with the colleagues in the labour and employment law practise group, as a result of which Bart can now call her not just a fellow lawyer or co counsel, but also colleague. That is something to be proud of!

A warm welcome to Elise, Maes Law’s team looks forward to a particularly pleasant collaboration!