Boudewijn Smit
Expertise
Boudewijn has advised clients on Dutch law from the firm's Amsterdam, London, and New York offices, contributing to his understanding of cross-border complexity in finance transactions. He often works as trusted Dutch co-counsel alongside top US and UK law firms. As part of the New York team, he is amongst the "go to" Dutch finance counsel in the New York time zone.
Boudewijn is active in the Secured Finance Network (SFNet) and also serves as Chair of the International Finance Subcommittee within the ABA Commercial Finance Subcommittees. He recently co-authored ‘Bank Account Security in the Benelux’, featured in The Secured Lender (Sept. 2025). He has also been appointed to SFNet’s FY26 Executive Committee as Chair of the Emerging Leaders committee. In 2024, he was a recipient of SFNet’s 40 Under 40 Award that celebrates achievements of young lawyers in the secured finance industry.
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Work highlights
Acted as Dutch Counsel to:
- Morgan Stanley and MUFG, as the joint lead arrangers and bookrunners, for a EUR 16.2 billion bridge credit facility in support of Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.’s acquisition of JDE Peet's.
- A syndicate of investment banks on the USD 2.925 billion refinancing of Trivium Packaging B.V., a Dutch-headquartered global leader in sustainable metal packaging.
- A US headquartered financial institution in its role as First Lien Facility Agent in connection with the recapitalization of Vialto’s existing first lien facility, including a USD 550 million debt-for-equity swap and a USD 225 million new money bridge facility.
- A US-based financial institution in the cross-border acquisition financing of eLabNext by SciShield, a US life sciences software company.
- A US headquartered global investment bank as lead arranger in relation to the issuance of USD 500 million in secured notes due 2034 and USD 500 million in unsecured notes due 2034 by Organon as issuer and Organon Foreign Debt Co-Issuer B.V. as co-issuer.
- A US headquartered financial institution in connection with Clarios Global LP’s $1.2 billion offering consisting of (i) EUR 800 million 4.750% Senior Secured Notes due 2031 and (ii) $300 million add-on 6.750% Senior Secured Notes due 2030.
- Superior Industries International, Inc., one of the world’s leading aluminum wheel suppliers, in its definitive agreements to be acquired by a group of its term loan investors, including Oaktree Capital Management.
- Transom Post Netherlands B.V. as borrower in connection with the ABL Financing Agreement and related amendment to the agreement with FGI Worldwide.
- Kidkraft, Inc. in the financing transaction and debt restructuring of the KidKraft group with KidKraft Netherlands B.V. and KidKraft Inc. as borrowers under the US Credit Agreement.
- The NVB, the Dutch Bankers Association to develop a Dutch Security Agreement template as a resource for NVB member banks to be used in commercial financing transactions.
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Inclusion & Diversity
As part of his passion for advocating for corporate queerness, Boudewijn has:
- been instrumental in founding ND+, the first internal LGBTQ+ employee resource group in a law firm in the Netherlands;
- took the initiative of founding Forward, the first and only Legal LGBTQ+ network in the Netherlands;
- took the initiative of founding Lequal, the first and only network for cultural and ethnic minorities in the Dutch legal profession;
- helped found 'De Roze Zuidas', a cooperation between ABN AMRO, Accenture, Deloitte, McKinsey & Company and NautaDutilh, which provides a place for professionals to meet and share their experiences of being queer in the professional services industry;
- authored the ‘LGBTQ+ Best Practices for Inclusivity’ handbook for all law firms and other professional services firms in the Netherlands, which was published through the Forward foundation; and
- developed a gender inclusive language training for legal professionals which training he offered to over 20 organisation in the Netherlands.