History

Our firm was oficially founded on 31 March 1937, when Mr. Abraham Papier was registered with the Court as an attorney at law. Mr. Papier had a general commercial practice, which was conducted from his offices at Columbusstraat 1, Curacao.

In 1949 Alex "Shon Papa" Rojer, after learning the trade from Mr. Papier, took over the law firm. Mr. Rojer trained many local lawyers, including Mr. Jaime M. Saleh, later in his career to become President of the joined Court of Appeal of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba and Governor of the Netherlands Antilles. Also Peter van Schendel, presently member of the Court of Appeal of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, started his career as a lawyer with Mr. Rojer.

In last century's late 50's and 60's, due to Mr. Rojer's close  involvement with the then shifting Caribbean hospitality industry leading to strong growth of the sector in the Netherlands Antilles, a first client industry focus was created. Our firm has been the leading legal advisor to the hospitality and leisure industry ever since. 

In 1978, the first partnership between a Netherlands Antilles and a Dutch law firm was established. Amsterdam based large law firm Van Doorne & Warendorf was the overseas partner and several individuals cemented the relationship by joining our team in Curacao. Also, the firm changed its name to Rojer Van Doorne & Warendorf. More importantly, this marks the beginning of our  close ties with the financial services industry, because the partnership entailed an association with one of the largest Dutch trust firms.

Shortly after this groundbreaking transatlantic deal, a Dutch novelty occurred. In 1979 Van Doorne & Warendorf  merged with Rotterdam based Swart & Sjollema. In the early 1980's this was followed by the unavoidable retirement of Mr. Rojer. However, Mr. Frank Promes, a former Attorney General of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, joined the firm as a partner. Consequently, the firm changed its name once again, into Promes Van Doorne & Sjollema. More than a name change, Mr. Promes did bring a wealth of experience and a healthy practice in administrative law, including legislation processes and civil servants cases. A practice we have embraced since.

In 1990 the Curacao office at Pietermaai that had been the home base for our firm for so many years, was changed for the current monumental office building at Julianaplein.

Since the second half of the 80's, Aruba has been an  independent country within the Kingdom of The Netherlands. In 1997, the firm opened its first office there. That was our  first outside Curacao and it is one of the largest of the country. Also in the 90's, another name change occurred due to a merger of Van Doorne & Sjollema with rival firm Nolst Trenité. Our name changed into Promes Trenité Van Doorne and later, after a split-up of the Dutch firm’s Amsterdam and Rotterdam offices in 2000, into Promes Van Doorne.

Mid 2006, the firm changed its name for a last time, for now at least. Mr. Promes left the firm and two of the existing senior partners connected their names to the partnership: VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne.

In an ongoing drive for optimal service to our clients and anticipating constitutional changes, the firm opened an office on Bonaire in 2009.

The firm has been - and probably will be - one of the largest in the Dutch Caribbean. As such, we have always been privileged to handle landmark cases. For example, in the early 90s, the firm handled the case where Philippines’ President Mr.  Marcos unsuccessfully claimed ownership of the Crown Building at 5th Avenue, NY, USA. In the same era, our firm handled the so called "carnival case" leading to new tax legislation.