Next to the 'standout' ranking and recommendation, we have been listed in the FT Law 50: the top 50 of the 'Most Innovative Law Firms'. Last year we were ranked 50th, this year we are on the 27th position.

'This recognition in FT Innovative Lawyers underlines NautaDutilh’s ability to innovate. Innovation is an important tool for reinforcing our added value for clients – not just in terms of legal content but also in developing effective, efficient work processes,’ says Michaëla Ulrici.  

The rankings above are a result of our submissions on the More for Less project and the R&D commitment and equity investment of Intel in ASML.

Value Resourcing: the More for Less project
NautaDutilh delivered the standard credit & security documentation for a major international bank (the "Bank") in a way that reaches beyond the traditional way of delivering legal services. The aim was to optimize the client's internal processes.

Following the drafting of the standard documentation, NautaDutilh automated this documentation in an extensive manner. As a result, users within the Bank's credit documentation team are now able to independently generate a complete set of as many as 39 tailor made contracts simply by filling in a single online questionnaire. The generated documents themselves subsequently cross-refer to one another and contain shared variables, resulting in a uniform package of documents. Thus allowing the Bank to work more efficiently and to increase the quality of the output. In summary: our client can generate more documents, of a higher quality, in less time. The project has sparked interest of other clients. One of them has recently started a pilot with NautaDutilh. Project More for Less is an initiative of banking & finance partner Thijs Lommen, assisted by senior associate Judith Edixhoven.

Legal Expertise: Corporate
NautaDutilh is ranked 'stand out' in the category Legal Expertise: Corporate, because of our part in a deal that was aimed at a multi-party industry endorsement of costly R&D and innovation to develop technology that will benefit the global semi-conductor industry. Our firm acted on behalf of the pathfinder investor Intel in its series of agreements with ASML Holding N.V. Tailored solutions had to be found for putting in place both commercial agreements and a large equity investment by multiple customers residing across the globe. One of the crucial legal goals was to maintain the balance of power within ASML Holding N.V. whilst protecting the investor's interests. This was accomplished through the design of an orphan structure on the basis of which the various equity holdings are now administered. Another deal specific item worth mentioning is the synthetic buy back effected to neutralise any disturbing effects for the existing shareholders as a result of the issue of new shares. The fact that the transaction is not a traditional M&A deal and is rather aimed at a multi-party industry endorsement of costly R&D and innovation, give a deal like this a very different dynamic than any other corporate deal. Subsequently, both Samsung and TSMC made their own commitments in the second stage of the multi-customer programme on the basis of the innovative transaction concepts as negotiated by us for Intel. The deal was led by partners Leo Groothuis and Gaike Dalenoord.

About FT Innovative Lawyers
With the rankings, the Financial Times and legal strategy consultancy RSG are trying to provide an alternative to rankings that are based on the size of transactions. These rankings are about innovative ideas, either in terms of legal content or in the field of the processes and organisation of a law firm.