Mirjam de Blécourt Baker McKenzie

Mirjam de Blécourt heads the Amsterdam employment law practice group, comprising 14 dedicated lawyers.

She has extensive experience in advising boards of directors and multinationals on major collective dismissals and provides boardroom advice concerning works councils, trade unions, and the harmonisation of employment-condition packages in connection with mergers and takeovers. Furthermore, she advises on complex issues in the fields of outsourcing, collective agreements, and stock-option schemes. She also specialises in issues pertaining to European and Dutch works councils. Mirjam conducts legal proceedings relating to social plans, major dismissals, and resignations of board members as a result of, for instance, a reorganisation or fraud. In the case of European reorganisations, she works closely with Baker & McKenzie's European employment group.

Mirjam represents large national and international companies, such as APM Terminals, Nidera, Oracle, Applera, Mitsubishi, Eaton, and several works councils. She inter alia advised on a major reorganization of SABIC's operations and related collective dismissal of over 400 employees.

Mirjam chairs Baker & McKenzie's global diversity and gender initiative. She is also a board member of the firm's global ethical committee. She is a frequent speaker at international conferences, is often approached to provide her expert point of view on matters of public debate, and publishes articles in both professional journals as well as all the leading Dutch newspapers. She is regularly asked to provide recommendations to the SER (Socio-Economical Committee), the VVD (the Dutch Liberal Party and member to the government), and the legislator. She was, for example, one of the main drivers behind now-implemented legislation on the equal representation of women in board positions. Additionally, she is responsible for the establishment of an alternative to the 'last in, first out' approach in collective dismissals, which is known as the 'Method de Blécourt'.

In light of the WWZ (Dutch Employment Law Reform), the increasingly international environment and the need for non-Dutch speaking clients to fully understand Dutch Dismissal Law procedures, Mirjam recently wrote a comprehensive English guide on the workings of the WWZ, which was published in February of 2016.

Mirjam has been recognised as leading employment lawyer by top legal directories. She was named 'Best in Labour and Employment' in Europe at the 2011, 2012 and 2016 Euromoney Legal Media Group's Europe Women in Business Law award ceremony. Chambers Europe recognises her as band-1 individual, commenting that she is "a linchpin of collective dismissals" and that Mirjam "is very proactive, giving you the feeling that she is part of the company," "can always come up with hands-on, strategic advice. She is creative, thinking outside the box yet within the legal framework."