Five new lawyers have joined VANEPS since the beginning of this year already. Junior associates Sixiènne Janssen, Carlos Winkel and Navid Zahedi started at the office in Curaçao. There, they were accompanied by experienced lawyer Daan Jacobs, who joined from the Dutch office Nauta Dutilh. Junior associate Lorena Navia is the newest member of the team of VANEPS in Bonaire.

On Tuesday 5 April, the first lawyer in this series of newcomers was sworn in by the Common Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, and of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba. Sixiènne Janssen, who started in February of this year in the Corporate & Banking department, obtained her Masters Transnational Legal Studies and Contract Law at the VU University Amsterdam in 2013. After graduation, she worked as a legal consultant for Deloitte NL for more than a year. Subsequently, she chose to continue her career at VANEPS in Curaçao.

Sixiènne deliberately chose to switch from a role as legal consultant to that of attorney at law. “As a legal consultant, I could not represent any clients in legal proceedings. Nor could I issue any legal opinions or draw up agreements. Although I enjoyed being a legal consultant, I was not trained to be an all-round and thorough legal adviser and representative of my clients. I do get that training at VANEPS, due to which I can give better substance to my ambitions.” The administration of the oath was a special moment for Sixiènne. “By taking the oath my switch from being a lawyer to being an attorney at law is official. In addition, I thought it was very nice that I could share this moment with my colleagues, friends and my relatives originating from Curaçao.”