Top 25 Law Firms Dutch Caribbean and Aruba now also including Suriname

August 13, 2010 7:49 AM

Curacao Legal Portal has composed a list of the Top 25 Law firms of the Dutch Caribbean and Aruba and Suriname for 2010, as well as the Top 10 Law firms of the relevant seperate Dutch Caribbean jurisdictions, being Curacao, Aruba, St Maarten and Bonaire and of Suriname (by number of lawyers).

The leading position in the Top 25 is for law firms VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne and HBN Law, both with their main office on Curacao and branches on Aruba, Bonaire, while HBN Law also has an office on Sint Maarten.

Dutch Caribbean and Aruba

Of the 25 largest law firms in the Dutch Caribbean 13 firms have their main office on Curacao, 7 on Aruba and 5 on Sint Maarten.
The firms on Bonaire have not been able to enter the Top 25 yet. However this could very well change when Bonaire will become part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands later this year.
This also applies for Saba and Statia, where at this very moment no law firms have established themselves yet.

At the Joint Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba approximately 275 lawyers are officially registered.
Of these 275 lawyers, 150 are working at law firms on Curacao (ca. 55 %), 80 on Aruba (ca. 30 %), 40 on Sint Maarten (ca. 15 %) and 5 on Bonaire (ca. 2 %).

On Curacao the 150 registered lawyers are working at circa 50 law firms.
Approximately 30 % of the Dutch Caribbean lawyers work at firms with only one or two lawyers.

Suriname

In 2004 the Country of Suriname introduced a law, creating the Suriname Bar Association. Every lawyer that has been admitted to the Bar is therefore by law also a member of the Bar Association.

There are approximately 160 lawyers in Suriname. Of these 160 lawyers, about 40 are working for law firms (mainly partnerships or limited liability companies) and 80 lawyers have a so-called "one-man businesses". The rest are in effect inactive.

Law firm Lim A Po, established in 1937, is currently the oldest and largest law firm in Suriname. At present the firm consists of ten lawyers, all members of the Suriname Bar, and one legal counselor.

Curacao Legal Portal has composed this list below based on information provided by the law firms concerned (a.o. websites and official information from the Bar Association). The position of the law firms is based on the number of lawyers employed on 30 June 2010. Tax lawyers and notarial lawyers are not included.

The intention is to publish an updated list on a yearly basis, showing inter alia the climbers and descenders in comparison with the previous year.