Deanship in Amsterdam becomes a job sharing
Lawyers Jacqueline Schaap and Barbara Rumora-Scheltema will succeed Evert-Jan Henrichs as deans of the Amsterdam Bar as of 1 September 2021. This is reported by the Advocatenblad. For the first time, the supervision of the more than 6,000 lawyers in the capital becomes a shared job.
The special new blankets will be formally presented at the end of March during the annual meeting of the Amsterdam Bar Association. Jacqueline Schaap (60) is a partner at Visser Schaap & Kreijger; as a lawyer she specializes in intellectual property and media law. She has been a lawyer since 1988 and was already available. She is also a member of the Court of Discipline.
Barbara Rumora-Scheltema (57) is a partner at NautaDutilh, where she specializes in corporate law, insolvency law and international arbitration. She has been a lawyer since 2001 and was already a member of the council of the Amsterdam Bar.
Together they therefore form a co-deanship, this in connection with the weight of the position. “It is no longer of this time to do that alone,” says Rumora-Scheltema against the Lawyers magazine† “The deanery in Amsterdam is already more than a full-time job. Both Jacqueline and I also want to remain active in our own practice.” They will both form the deanery three days a week, for a total of six days a week. “That’s more than one person can provide.”
When Evert-Jan Henrichs leaves, he has been dean for six months. Schaap and Rumora-Scheltema are facing the start of turbulent times like blankets, now that the call from politicians and public opinion for stronger supervision of the large (Zuidas) law firms is getting louder. That pressure has only started in recent weeks, since the Amsterdam dean’s appeal to lawyers to be extremely cautious in serving Russian interests.