Wesley Vader is a partner at bureau Brandeis in the Corporate & Commercial litigation practice group.

Wesley’s practice focuses on resolution of corporate and commercial disputes. He advises and litigates on, inter alia, (civil) fraud cases, (directors’) liability, shareholder disputes and also contractual disputes. Wesley is also involved in various class actions, in particular mass tort litigation.

Wesley completed his studies in Dutch law at the University of Groningen in 2007. During his studies, he also studied in Canada at the University of Western Ontario. In 2013, Wesley graduated cum laude from the postgraduate specialization course in Business and Liability at the Grotius Academy.

Wesley has been an attorney since 2007. At that time, he joined the firm now called Eversheds Sutherland. From 2010, Wesley worked in Lexence’s Litigation practice and in 2019 he joined bureau Brandeis, where he became partner in 2023.

Recent work:

• Wesley is involved in several class actions. For instance, he acts as claimant counsel in five class actions in the diesel scandal against conglomerates of car manufacturers, including Volkswagen, Mercedes, Fiat, Renault, Peugeot and Opel, among others.
• Wesley acts in multiple fraud-related matters. For example, he litigates in civil proceedings concerning the misappropriation of confidential corporate information, misappropriation of funds by directors or employees, but also assists clients who join criminal proceedings as aggrieved parties and claim compensation for damages resulting from fraud.
• Wesley assists directors in civil law (liability) proceedings.
• Wesley assists parties in inquiry proceedings before the Enterprise Chamber of the Court of Appeal in Amsterdam.
• Wesley acts in disputes concerning unlawful competition.
• Wesley handles commercial disputes and litigates on matters, for example, relating the interpretation of contracts.
• Wesley has extensive experience in (prejudgment) attachments (a. on evidence), exhibition claims and enforcement disputes.

Memberships:

• Association for Corporate Litigation
• Dutch Association for Procedural Law
• Association for Mass Damage Lawyers

Wesley regularly gives (in-house) courses on, among other things, directors’ liability and preventing and combating fraud. He also publishes with some regularity, including in the Tijdschrift voor de Ondernemingsrecht Praktijk (TOP), the Monthly Magazine for Business Law (MvO), Financing & Enterprise (O&F) and annotates case law, such as in JBPr.

Publications:

• Duty of care in corporate law practice in TOP 2014/583.
• Fraud in corporate law practice: thresholds in taking recourse in TOP 2016/346.
• Profiting from fraud: the sliding scale from unlawful to unjustified in TOP 2018/482.
• Liability for frivolous inquiry request in MvO 2023, issues 1&2.
• Annotation in JBPr under the judgment of the District Court of The Hague of 20 September 2023 in the collective action against Airbus cs (JBPr 2024/18, ECLI:RBDHA:2023:14036).
• How much control may an external funder have over an advocacy collective action? in O&F 2024-1, pp. 31-46.

Testimonials:

Legal 500 (2024):

• ‘Wesley Vader is an outstanding lawyer with an exceptional knowledge of Dutch civil procedural law. He is someone who immediately understands the needs of his clients.’

Legal 500 (2023):

• ‘Louis Berger is a seasoned and knowledgeable lawyer and great to work with. Frank Peters and Wesley Vader stand out.’
• ‘Wesley Vader is an excellent litigator. Very energetic and on the ball. We work together seamlessly.’
• ‘Senior associate Wesley Vader has an outstanding knowledge of Dutch civil procedural law.’