Addleshaw Goddard has agreed to merge with Florent, a full-service Amsterdam law firm, marking the UK firm’s entry into the Dutch legal market and the creation of its 22nd global office. The deal, expected to complete on 1 July subject to partner votes and regulatory confirmations, brings 104 legal and business services professionals into Addleshaw Goddard, including 17 partners and 44 lawyers based in Florent’s offices in the Zuidas financial district.
Florent has built a corporate and disputes practice covering M&A, restructuring and insolvency, commercial real estate, employment, banking and finance, and asset recovery. Its managing partners, Chris Jager and Kees van de Meent, will continue leading the combined Amsterdam office once the integration completes, a structure that signals continuity for existing Florent clients during the transition period.
Andrew Johnston, Managing Partner of Addleshaw Goddard, said the firm had heard sustained demand from clients and colleagues for Dutch law capability and had been selective in finding a partner that matched its growth ambitions.
Jager and van de Meent described the move as an opportunity to extend Florent’s client service through Addleshaw Goddard’s wider international network while retaining the entrepreneurial approach that built their Amsterdam practice.
The merger forms part of Addleshaw Goddard’s AG2030 international growth strategy, which has produced a steady sequence of office openings rather than a single large push: Warsaw and Abu Dhabi launched in 2025, following earlier entries into Madrid, Riyadh, four German cities, Dublin, Luxembourg and Paris. The Florent integration fills what the firm has called a gap in its European platform, since the Netherlands functions as both a standalone jurisdiction for corporate and finance work and a routing point for pan-European transactions.
In-house counsel managing matters that span multiple EU jurisdictions gain a single-firm option for Dutch corporate, real estate and banking advice alongside Addleshaw Goddard’s existing UK, German and Gulf coverage, reducing the need to instruct separate local counsel on Netherlands-linked deals.
The move places Addleshaw Goddard alongside firms such as CMS, Eversheds Sutherland and DLA Piper, each of which has already built integrated Benelux or wider European networks, and underlines that mid-size UK firms are increasingly closing continental coverage gaps through acquisition of established independent practices rather than slower organic build-outs.
Partners and associates at firms with overlapping practice areas in corporate, disputes and real estate should expect continued competition for Netherlands-based mandates as Addleshaw Goddard integrates Florent’s existing client relationships into its broader network over the coming months.