In the past five years the legal landscape has changed dramatically in all European jurisdictions and the Dutch legal market has been no exception. It remains to be seen how that market will continue to develop, but for the moment at least, the large Dutch firms that have remained independent seem to have been remarkably successful in maintaining their autonomy without sacrificing economic strength.
The international law firms started entering the Dutch market in the mid-1990s, when the legal services departments of the large accounting firms started to develop into credible law firms in their own right. At the time, lawyers in the market expected them to become serious competitors to the established firms. This did not happen.
