Our firm has been ranked 'standout' for the creation of the LEAN Academy and highly commended in the category 'Creation of new collaborations' for the advice regarding the protection of the Bonaire National Marine Park. Furthermore we are ‘commended’ in the category 'Technology and Data Analytics' for initiating the collaborative venture of 20 Dutch law firms in the preparations for the digitisation of procedural law. These rankings resulted in the 23th place for our firm in the FT Law 50: the top 50 of most innovative law firms in 2016.

A great result that confirms our ability to innovate. With the opening of the Innovation Lab at our Rotterdam office only one week ahead, we trust we will continue to work on new and improved services and work processes which are of added value to our clients. 

Legal Expertise: Creating New Collaborations: ‘the Bonaire National Marine Park’ 
NautaDutilh is ‘highly commended’ in the category 'Legal Expertise: Creating New Collabora-tions' because of our advice to the World Wide Fund (WWF) and the Bonaire National Parks Foundation (STINAPA) against a maze of public law decisions facilitating commercial building activities in Bonaire National Marine Park. Anne-Marie Klijn and Berend Haagen brought their unique expertise to Bonaire, which resulted in new and refreshing methods and insights on good spatial planning and marine protection. In the multilateral approach they emphasised that through cooperation and trust the mutual goal of a secure sustainable future for Bonaire could be achieved.

Resourcing and Efficiency: NautaDutilh’s LEAN Academy
Ebbo Haantjes and Laurens Braaksma launched the NautaDutilh LEAN Academy. The LEAN Six Sigma Methodology focuses on continuous improvement of work processes and performance. The overall aim is to offer clients better value. Client satisfaction is a priority at NautaDutilh, an attitude that will be reaffirmed in the years ahead by the growing number of lawyers, staff members and clients who are well versed in the LEAN Six Sigma Methodology.

Technology and Data Analytics ‘Interface to work with new online document portal’: Silex
NautaDutilh is the initiator of Silex. This is a unique collaborative venture between 20 large, medium-sized and smaller law firms to prepare for digitalisation programmes of the judicial system commencing over the next 4 years. The first milestone is the creation of an interface for law firms’ systems to work with the Netherlands’ Department of Justice’s new online document portal. Our IT director Jurian Hermeler is one of the Project Executives and our ICT business analyst Alexander Hijmering is a member of the central project team for the 20 firms and the spokesperson on behalf of Silex.

FT Innovative Lawyers
The yearly FT Innovative Lawyers Report represents a unique analysis of the legal industry, assessing lawyers on their innovation both for clients and in their own businesses. Law firms, in-house legal teams and other legal service organisations are invited to submit their innovations. These are researched through telephone interviews. Each entry is scored out of 10 points for originality, rationale and impact for a maximum score of 30. They are then benchmarked against each other to arrive at the final rankings and shortlists.

The report is online (FT Members only)