Projects

Through Port of Rotterdam, Halsten came into contact with PortXchange, formerly known as Pronto. PortXchange owes its success to the tool it developed, which provides insight into port calls and accurately organises ships' voyage schedules. Now that PortXchange's field of activity is in a specific sector, a deeper understanding of the jargon and the business is a must. In consultation, we put a junior legal counsel at the wheel, with the Halsten team as an additional source of knowledge.

Halsten is the legal business partner of an international organisation that processes a large amount of special and other personal data. We provide support for a variety of legal matters, including contract law and privacy law. The organisation experienced a sizeable data breach, not just once but twice within a few months. A data breach occurs when an unauthorised third party obtains access to personal data.

Projects involving the construction of wind parks are complex. They involve a variety of different issues that are interrelated, requiring broad knowledge and experience. Developers and owners of wind parks, like our client, include us in their development project teams at an early phase, as many decisions that are crucial from the legal perspective must be made in every phase. Based on our expertise, we are often called in for one specific component.

Port of Rotterdam (Havenbedrijf Rotterdam) is an important economic engine for Rotterdam, the Zuid-Holland province, and the rest of the Netherlands. However, like many other companies, it is plagued by restrictive regulations concerning nitrogen deposits. The strict rules applicable to the construction and operation of new industries, to the reorganisation of industrial parts, and to infrastructure projects, for example, are counterproductive to development in that area. Therefore, the central issue for all the parties involved is how to continue to grow despite the restrictions.

The client intended moving all the solar energy activities of one of its subsidiaries to a new subsidiary to be created by means of a legal demerger. However, before the final decision-making, the conditions under which this legal demerger would be possible had to be determined. This required an analysis of all contracts with customers, suppliers, and other business associates. To perform this analysis, Halsten's team applied the contract analysis tool Luminance. The Luminance software can read legal documents and grasp the legal terms used in them. As a result, the software can perform an analysis very quickly and present the outcome. Furthermore, using artificial intelligence, Luminance identifies the clauses that are directly related to control and the conditions under which control can change, in this case, because of the legal demerger. Halsten was able to provide the client efficiently and effectively with a comprehensive report and the advice it needed.

With formats such as Intersport and Libris, Euretco is a fixture in the retail landscape. We are at home at Euretco, we have worked closely together for a long time and took care of the recruitment of the current in-house lawyer. In the heart of summer comes a request for support in a compelling information request from the European Commission. It is investigating whether tech giant Apple is guilty of abuse of power following complaints from competitors such as Spotify. There is also the lawsuit by Epic (known for the game Fortnite) against the company. Wanting to understand the market and the playing field, the European Commission is questioning Libris about its share of online/electronic content sales. In the case of Libris e-books and audiobooks. This is highly confidential information for the client but due to the compelling nature of the EU Commission's information request, not answering was not an option, as a breach. By responding quickly, acting strategically and engaging the right people, we completed the assignment within the European Commission's firm deadline.

Atelier Munro is a men's fashion boutique specialised in tailor-made attire. The tailor-made suits, jeans, shoes, and coats are available in its shops under the Atelier Munro brand but are also available online from men's fashion stores in North America, Europe and elsewhere. For Munro, the entire breadth of our added legal value is utilised and grows along with the company.

Visma provides software that simplifies operating processes in the private and public sectors. Visma is active in Scandinavia, the Benelux and central and eastern Europe. In recent years, Visma has regularly acquired companies, strengthening its market position. Halsten provides support for the entire process, for example, by utilising the innovative strength of Halsten Legal Operations. Sometimes we also provide part of the post-transaction process: harmonising activities, such as getting the new asset off to a flying start.

After our successful initial collaboration, the client asked us to support their international reorganisation project in employment law. This concerned the client's division, which is active throughout the world, therefore involving not only a wide range of legal systems but also various time zones. Nevertheless, two things were certain: all employees throughout the world were to be informed of redundancies, while all employees were to receive a comparable proposal that obviously also had to be in line with the local laws and regulations.

We work primarily on corporate legal matters for Gr8 Hotels and Gr8 Investments. This young and ambitious company has seven hotels besides its Burger King franchise and Starbucks licence in the Netherlands. Gr8 Investments is also involved in the necessary property investments. For a time, we were the standing in-house counsel. When the need for support grew, we provided the recruitment and selection of their legal counsel.

Expereo was the world's market leader in Internet, cloud access and SD-WAN solutions. In October 2020, Expereo – which provides Internet connections in 196 countries and has 450 employees – acquired its closest competitor: Globalinternet, which is also a Dutch company. To create an organisation that would also be sustainable in the future, soon after the acquisition, it became apparent that restructuring was unavoidable. Halsten supported Expereo in making the organisational changes that were needed.

One of our clients is a worldwide specialist in cargo insurance. The company provides effective and innovative solutions for safe transport. Halsten supports it with a multidisciplinary approach. The project began with a maturity analysis to gain insight as a point of reference into the legal department and its tasks and processes. This analysis laid the foundation for phased optimisation of the processes in terms of both legal substance and operations.

Maturity analysis is used for clear and targeted optimisation of legal processes in various organisations.

ASML, one of the Netherlands' largest high-tech companies, initially engaged Halsten to oversee a smooth transition from the Dutch Personal Data Protection Act to the General Data Protection Regulation, the new European privacy regulation, in 2018. Since then, we have been working together on all the rules and contractual conditions laid down in the law. Halsten is part of the team of legal experts that drafts the policy and reviews and amends contracts. We will continue to be involved as part of the legal team after that, as well.

Our client in this project is one of the largest wholesalers of pharmaceutical and self-care products and distributors in Europe, supplying more than 115,000 pharmacies, physicians, care centres and hospitals each year from 300 distribution centres in 11 countries. The Netherlands has both pharmacies of its own and a franchise formula with independently operating pharmacists. Halsten has a longstanding relationship with this client: we provide support in particular regarding the purchase and sales contracts, storage and distribution agreements, lease agreements and franchise agreements.