Meet our EU focus group

Nadia Adnani has been with Palthe Oberman since May 2011. Nadia is concerned with all aspects of employment law and public service law. She assists Dutch and international organisations as well as employees and public servants.

She advises and conducts legal proceedings on matters such as individual and collective redundancies, reorganisations, workplace privacy, and employment contracts (competition clauses, study costs clauses, etc.).

Nadia is involved in the work of War Child and the Najib Amhali Foundation. She also provides guidance in the prestigious programme The Boardroom of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In addition, Nadia regularly writes blogs on employment law topics, provides workshops, and has collaborated on the book ‘The Influence of Dismissal.’

Nadia graduated in the fields of Private Law and International & European Law from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and has a broad legal background. Before she started practicing as a lawyer, Nadia worked for the Education Centre of the Vrije Universiteit as a coordinator in the Diversity and Study Success Department.

Pilar Albert obtained her law degree at the University San Pablo CEU of Madrid in 1986. She has also completed an LLM in Human Resources Direction at IDE-CESEM.

She started her professional career in the law firm Estudio Legal and headed the labour law area at Deloitte, Abogados and Araoz & Rueda. Pilar was Human Resources Director at UNED. She joined Suarez de Vivero in April 2018.

Pilar provides legal advice to local and international clients on:

• Labour and employment law
• Employment contracts
• Collective agreements negotiations
• Corporate restructuring
• M&A labour implications (business transfer, outsourcing and sub-contracting of activities)
• Employment benefits
• Due diligence reports
• Individual and collective employee terminations (redundancy procedure)
• Employment litigation
• Industrial disputes
• Social security
• Local, national and European works councils
• Trade union recognition procedures and elections
• Occupational health & safety matters.

She also has extensive experience in representing clients in court and in the negotiation of out-of-court settlements and is comfortable in global, multinational and multidisciplinary environment.

Florence Bacquet specialises in advising international companies on collective labour law issues: staff representative bodies, collective status, group disputes and litigation with major financial implications. She also advises on restructurings and transfer of undertakings.

A member of the American Bar Association, Florence, who is bilingual, graduated from the École des hautes études commerciales de Paris (HEC Paris); she holds two Masters degrees (business and tax law, labour law) from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Florence began to practice with Joël Grangé’s labour law team at Gide Loyrette Nouel in 2007, and joined Flichy Grangé Avocats in 2009. She is actively involved with the firm’s work on legal aspects of the latest digital and information technologies.

Gautier Busschaert is attorney at Van Olmen & Wynant, specialised in employment law.

Before joining Van Olmen & Wynant in 2013, Gautier was a teaching assistant at his Alma Mater in the Department for European and international law from 2011 to 2013.

Gautier is fluent in French and English and has a good knowledge of Dutch. He was admitted to the Brussels Bar in 2013.

Gautier graduated from the University of Louvain (UCL, 2005) and obtained a Masters in European Law from the University of Brussels (ULB, 2006). He holds a PhD in law from the University of Leicester which he obtained in 2014. In 2022 he teaches European labour law to the master students in law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Gautier is a member of the European Employment Lawyers Association, regularly publishes in both national and international law reviews and is a national contributor to the “European Employment Law Cases” (EELC) review.

Alina Giżejowska is a practising attorney with over two decades of experience in providing services in the field of strategies in individual and group employee processes. In the Law Firm, she is responsible for servicing foreign clients in international cases and matters concerning Compliance. She advises Clients in resolving sensitive employee matters, in particular those of discrimination and mobbing, protection of confidential information, accidents-at-work claims, disciplinary proceedings of civil service employees, termination of employment relationship of high-level managers and specially-protected employees. She develops custom solutions for so called “difficult cases” and strategies for individual employee cases and for relations between employers and trade union organizations. She participates in internal procedures concerning cases of mobbing and discrimination. Alina conducts trainings and internal workshops (also in English) for employees in labour law and dedicated to managing groups and individual managers on subjects that are significant from the client’s perspective. Author of a dozen or so publications and educational and awareness-raising statements.

Barbara has a significant experience in employment law and industrial relations. She advises domestic and foreign clients in implementing and managing personnel restructuring plans, in dealing with business crisis situations as well as in procedures involving the relocation of business. She assists clients in labour-law issues over both the pre-litigation and the litigation stage. She has a wide experience in agency relationships, thus assisting clients in drafting agency contracts as well as in managing the relevant litigation.

Partner Jan Koval heads the labour law and corporate immigration practice at Havel & Partners (Band 3 ranking in Chambers Europe 2021; awarded ‘Czech Law Firm of the Year – Employment’ by Právnická firma roku 2021), consisting of 2 partners, 13 employment lawyers and a 20-member support staff. Jan specialises in labour law and employee benefits, primarily dealing with contractual arrangements between companies and their top managers, restructuring of human resources, and setting complex employee remuneration systems. Clients also benefit from his extensive practical experience and specific knowledge gained over years of advising on major projects and operating in diverse sectors, including agriculture, food and forestry; metallurgy, mechanical engineering and chemical industries; as well as telecommunications and IT.

Sara Ledergerber is recognised by the Swiss Bar Association (SBA) as a certified specialist in employment law. As a published author and seasoned lecturer, she is regularly called-upon by educational institutions and professional organisations to share her expertise on matters of Swiss employment law.

Before joining lelex Attorneys at Law, Sara worked in business law firms and employment law boutiques in Zurich and Lucerne.

André Lerch is a partner of the Swiss employment law firm, Lelex Attorneys at Law. He advises and represents Swiss and international clients on all aspects of labour and employment and related fields of law (including social security, immigration and data protection). He is recognized by the Swiss Bar Association as a certified specialist of employment law and is regularly appointed as lecturer or speaker by academic institutions and professional ogranisations.

Lydia Milders is a tenacious lawyer with a pragmatic approach. 

Lydia is involved in:

• Guiding (international) reorganisations, advising on (individual and collective) dismissals and employee co-determination law. 
• Litigation, including on (breach of) confidentiality, non-solicitation and non-compete clauses.
• Fraud & workplace integrity issues, including: theft, breach of non-compete and/or non-disclosure clauses, unlawful competition. Collaboration with private investigation agencies, internal integrity departments and forensic IT experts. 
• Evidence gathering & seizure of evidence.
• Complaint procedures concerning transgressive behaviour in the workplace (including sexual harassment).
• The sick employee (problems with rehabilitation, illness & dismissal).

Lydia has been affiliated with Palthe Oberman since 2010. She studied at the University of Groningen.

Lydia regularly provides training on employment law issues and fraud in the workplace.

Dr. Pieter Pecinovsky is of counsel at Van Olmen & Wynant, specialised in employment law.

Pieter graduated from the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) as a Master of Laws in 2013. Additionally, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Laws at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in 2018. His PhD on EU economic governance and the right to collective bargaining was awarded the Brian Bercusson Award on European Labour Law 2019.

Currently, Pieter works as a legal advisor (Of Counsel) and knowledge manager at Van Olmen & Wynant. In addition, he is Affiliated Senior Researcher at the Institute for Labour Law of Leuven University (KU Leuven) and he teaches comparative labour law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and comparative industrial relations law at the UCLouvain. In the previous years he functioned as lecturer in social law at KU Leuven.

Pieter is a part of the Editorial Board of the Arbeidsrecht Journaal and of the Nieuwsbrief Arbeidsrecht. He is also a member of BEGASOZ/ABETRASS (Association of Belgian Professors of Social Law), the Belgian Association of Industrial Relations (BVVA) and the Academic Network on the European Social Charter and Social Rights. In addition he is appointed as expert in the Belgian Advisory Council of Social Criminal Law.

Pieter regularly speaks on academic and practical conferences and seminars in Belgium and internationally and publishes in academic journals, blogs and books.

Nicolas Simon is a Partner at Van Olmen & Wynant, specialised in employment law, with a focus on psychosocial risks (i.e. harassment, violence), discrimination and privacy issues related to the use of new technologies in the workplace. He also regularly advises international clients on cross-border work.

Nicolas Simon graduated from the University of Brussels in 2006 (ULB). He holds a Master’s in business law from the University of Ghent (UGent, 2007).

Nicolas Simon has extensive experience as a litigator before the courts. He covers the various aspects of individual employment law, such as employment contracts, service agreements, individual dismissals and self-employment issues, as well as collective labour law, including collective dismissals and closure or transfer of undertakings, collective actions and strikes, social security.

Furthermore, Nicolas Simon acquired an expertise in day-to-day advice both from a law firm and client perspective, through secondments with large corporate clients. He is recognized for his responsiveness and practical advice.

Nicolas Simon has been a speaker at numerous conferences for i.a. the Belgian Institute of Company Lawyers, the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Belgium and the European Employment Summit, on various topics such as whistleblowing, the meta-verse, strikes and lock-outs, psychosocial risks and privacy in the workplace. He is also a regular speaker at in-house client seminars. Nicolas is the author of the Belgian chapter in The Labor & Employment Disputes Review (The Law Reviews) and has contributed to various publications on the International Employment Lawyer.

Nicolas Simon is a member of the International Bar Association (IBA). He is a regularly speaker and contributes to the preparation of international reports.

Ștefania Stanciu is a senior attorney at the law firm Magda Volonciu & Asociatii at their secondary office in Constanta, Romania. Her practice focuses on all aspects of Romanian and European Labour and Employment Law. She has a litigation practice that covers both collective and individual disputes involving private companies and also manages cases that involve public servants. She is effectively consolidating her knowledge in this field and has attended several national and international conferences and panels, such as the annual European Employment Lawyers Association conferences and the annual International Bar Association Employment Law Conferences, as well as several national conferences.

Robert Stromberg has specialised in employment and labour law for the past 17 years. He became partner and head of Cederquist’s Employment & Benefits group in 2007.

Robert advises clients in all collective and individual employment law matters such as company restructurings (transfer of undertakings, reorganizations and organizational changes, outsourcing, plant closures and relocations), as well as day to day advice regarding employment protection, key manager contracts, consultancy contracts, trade secrets, pensions, incentive schemes and other remuneration issues. He has developed a specific expertise in the areas of Employment and Benefits, Dispute Resolution as well as Corporate Sustainability, Risk Management & Compliance.

Over the course of his career, Robert has frequently handled litigation, dispute resolution and internal investigations, including a large number of cases before the Swedish Labour Court as well as arbitration proceedings. Robert has significant international experience and provides labour and employment law advice on a daily basis to multinationals with a presence in Sweden.

Mr. Suárez started his professional career in June 2001 with the Law Firm Bufete de Servicios Profesionales. In 2003, he moved to work at the international law firm Baker & McKenzie.

In April 2005, Mr. Suárez started to work for its own firm, Suárez de Vivero.

Alberto has significant experience in the handling of disputes and out-of-court settlements, with particular regard to executive employment relationships, the implementation of company transfers procedures and the planning and implementation of restructuring, reorganisation and downsizing plans for companies belonging to national and international groups.

Dr. Michael Witteler has many years of experience in all areas of employment law. As Head of PWWL’s Data & Privacy Practice Group, his particular focus is on data protection law in connection with employment law.

He advises employers on the wide range of issues relating to the handling of personal employee data, e.g., the permissibility of processing employee data in compliance investigations, the generation of information (Art. 13 / 14 GDPR), the handling of requests for information (Art. 15 GDPR), the generation of deletion concepts (Art. 17 GDPR), data protection impact assessments (Art. 35 GDPR), the handling of data breaches, or the permissibility of transferring data to other group companies, including outside the EU. This also includes drafting agreements with processors or in the context of joint responsibility.

Another focus of his work is the drafting and negotiation of works agreements in connection with the introduction of hardware and software or the use of artificial intelligence (AI). In this context, he represents employers both in negotiations with works councils and in conciliation bodies.

Dr. Michael Witteler regularly lectures and publishes on data protection law topics. Since May 2013, he has been an honorary judge at the Berlin Labor Court.

Dr. Alexander Lorenz’ legal practice encompasses all matters of individual employment law and collective employment law. His areas of expertise are focused on restructurings and the reorganisation of companies including insolvency labor law as well as the development of modern employment and remuneration systems.

Furthermore, another focus of his work are works constitution law, the European Works Council and drafting and negotiating collective bargaining agreements.

He is a frequent speaker at HR conferences.

Håkon Andreassen specialises in collective and individual labour law, as well as personal data and privacy issues. He assists private and public actors both with advice in negotiations and as a legal assistant in disputes. He has extensive experience with reorganisations and downsising, business transfers, staff conflicts, dismissals, notification cases, privacy and pension-related issues.

Håkon’s background includes the establishment and interpretation of collective agreements and related procedures. He also counsels foreign companies on matters of pay and working conditions and the secondment of employees. Head of privacy networks for managers and for legal director networks, Håkon joined Helmr as a partner in 2020.