Christiaan A Alberdingk Thijm

Practice Areas

Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm is a partner at bureau Brandeis. With his clients, he has been creating landmark case law since 1998, often on the interaction between new technologies and the law. Few can match his experience in complex litigation with high stakes in information law.

Alberdingk Thijm is considered an expert on free speech, privacy and reputation management. He is regularly asked to fight or defend a publication in summary proceedings.

His experience in the field of (digital) copyright law is unrivaled. Especially when it comes to the duties of care of Internet platforms such as Meta, Twitter, TikTok and Google, companies that he has often battled with in court. The complexity of the cases he handles has brought him to the European Court of Justice many times.

Clients describe him as “incredibly knowledgeable” and “the definition of calm”. His legal peers say he is “difficult to outsmart” and “able to handle the most difficult cases, because he masters both technology and law”. The quotes are from Chambers, the authoritative guide that has ranked him 17 years. He is one of the few lawyers ranked in two bands: TMT Media (band 2) and Intellectual Property (band 3).

Freedom of speech, privacy and reputation management

Alberdingk Thijm knows both sides of press and defamation cases. These are challenging cases, often conducted under high time pressure. He regularly represents companies and individuals whose honor and reputation have been adversely affected. For example, the Dutch Financial Times had to rectify on its front page after successful proceedings. He is the go to lawyer of the business glossy Quote, published by Hearst, for whom he often defends publications. Within media law, Alberdingk Thijm has a particular focus on cases concerning #metoo allegations or other forms of inappropriate behavior with in the workplace.

Copyright

As a lawyer, Alberdingk Thijm pleaded in a large number of cases that have become part of the regular teaching of the intellectual property profession. Cases that have been fought all the way to the Supreme Court or even the European Court of Justice. Examples are the cases on digital exhaustion, (Tom Kabinet), hyperlinking (GS Media), cable transmission (NLKabel), home copying (Norma) and e-lending (VOB).

Intermediary liability

Alberdingk Thijm has conducted unprecedented proceedings on the duty of care of online platforms and internet intermediaries. This involves the question of what measures platforms must take to protect the rights of third parties. He litigated for over ten years for KPN and XS4all against the anti-piracy organization Brein about the blocking of The Pirate Bay, via the Supreme Court to the European Court of Justice and back again to the Supreme Court. He assisted Marktplaats in a landmark case against Stokke. For Tommy Hilfiger, he successfully sued Facebook on several occasions.

Pro bono

Alberdingk Thijm devotes 15% of his time to socially relevant cases; proceedings he handles at a greatly reduced rate. The condition is that answering the legal question serves an interest that transcends the individual case. Examples include proceedings about wiretapping by the secret services, proceedings on European citizenship and Brexit, proceedings on the right to interrogatory assistance by criminal lawyers and proceedings on Samsung’s update obligation.

Class actions

Alberdingk Thijm has unique expertise and experience in class actions. He has a long track record as counsel to claim vehicles and assisting funders in class actions. He was the first to litigate GDPR claims under the WAMCA, the new Dutch regime for collective redress introduced in 2020. Currently, he acts against Oracle and Salesfore on behalf of The Privacy Collective and against TikTok on behalf of the foundation Massaschade & Consument.

Career

In 1998, Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm was admitted to the Amsterdam bar. He started his career at the international firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. He is one of the founders of bureau Brandeis. In 2017 he was part of the committee of the Netherlands bar that redrafted the Code of professional conduct for lawyers.

Professional Memberships

The Netherlands Association of Computer Lawyers (VIRA);

Netherlands Association for Information Technology and Law (NVvIR);

Netherlands Association for Copyright Law (VvA);

Netherlands Association for Media & Communications Law (VMC);

International Bar Association (IBA).

Personal

In addition to his work as an attorney, Alberdingk Thijm is a senior lecturer at the internationally renowned Institute for Information Law at the University of Amsterdam. His academic publications appear regularly. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the law faculty.

Christiaan is also a novelist. His novel “The Trial of the Century” was published in 2011 and is a classic among lawyers. In 2021, “The Family Watchman” was published and is currently running its fourth edition.