John Paans heads the Corporate Structures Group, and supervises a team of nine corporate lawyers and two paralegals. He works closely with corporate, commercial, banking, tax, employment and intellectual property lawyers — in Amsterdam and other offices of Baker & McKenzie. Mr. Paans was made local partner in 2003, appointed by her Majesty Queen Beatrix as Civil-law Notary in 2005, and appointed by the international partnership of Baker & McKenzie as principal in 2006.

Practice Focus

Mr. Paans’s practice is focused on corporate law, with particular emphasis on international restructurings and M&A. As a corporate lawyer and civil-law notary, he routinely handles mergers and acquisitions, financing and restructurings, as well as setting up joint ventures, partnerships and corporations. He also advises national and international companies on corporate governance issues from a Dutch corporate law perspective. In addition to his practice, Mr. Paans regularly publishes articles on recent developments related to Dutch and European corporate law. He also frequently organizes and speaks at internal and external courses in the field of corporate law.

Representative Legal Matters

• Involved in a large European migration project for a UK listed media enterprise.
• Involved in a European reorganization for a listed US electronics company in connection with the acquisition of a listed German competitor.
• Involved in the legal spin-off of a large US process control and automation company in the Netherlands.
• Involved in the cross-border legal merger of a Dutch software corporation with an Israeli listed company.
• Establishing and structuring various international joint-ventures and other corporate vehicles.

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Dutch Professional Association of Notarial Law
• Dutch Association of Commercial Law
• Dutch Trade Law Association
• Amsterdam Civil-law Notaries Society
• Dutch Corporate Finance Association

Admission

Amsterdam~Netherlands (1995)

Education

University of Amsterdam  (Notarial Law) (1997)
Erasmus University Rotterdam  (Law Degree) (1994)