Evelyn Tjon-En-Fa

Practice Areas

Dispute Resolution & Insurance.

Evelyn focuses on all aspects of civil dispute resolution: pre-trial negotiations and documentation, litigation including Supreme Court litigation, arbitration and mediation. Evelyn has extensive experience in dealing with domestic and international contractual disputes, complex liability cases, internal investigations and insurance work. She specialises in handling disputes involving the intersection of regulatory and civil law and cases requiring detailed fact finding and working with technology experts, such as major infrastructure or IT projects. Evelyn has successfully negotiated out-of-court settlements in some of the most complex cases where confidentiality was required in the interests of all parties.

Career

Evelyn was called to the bar in 2001 and joined Bird & Bird in 2010. In addition to her busy practice, where she leads a highly talented team of litigators, Evelyn is co-head of Bird & Bird's International Dispute Resolution Group, International Insurance Group and International Investigations Group. As of 1 January 2023, Evelyn is also co-managing partner of Bird & Bird's offices in The Hague and Amsterdam.

Professional Memberships

Dutch Arbitration Association, Association for Civil Procedural Law, Association for Insurance law, Association for Civil Law, Association of the Supreme Court Litigators Bar of the Netherlands.

Publications

Evelyn regularly publishes on international and domestic procedural law, insurance and liability law and annotations of Supreme Court judgments: https://www.lexology.com/firms/bird-and-bird/evelyn_tjon_en_fa and is a frequent speaker at webinars.

Evelyn also is co-founder and co-head of Bird & Bird Netherlands’ knowhow portal www.birdbuzz.com and publishes know how blogs on a regular basis: https://birdbuzz.nl/category/praktijkgebieden/dispute-resolution/

Personal

Evelyn graduated as a professional classical violinist. She still performs and is chairperson of the board of an orchestra organising concerts for young professional musicians. Evelyn is convinced that this also boosts a creative and collaborative side which she uses in her work as a lawyer.

Clients

Palladyne International Asset Management B.V., Lagerwey Systems B.V., Veolia Papier & Plastics Recycling Nederland B.V., Huljsbro Steel and Dalwire Oy, Koninklijke VolkerWessels, Innovative Water Care Global Corporation.

Work Highlights

- Evelyn is the lead lawyer in a cross-border team representing major construction companies in various legal and technical disputes with commissioning parties and subcontractors in relation to civil construction and infrastructure projects. In these and many other cases, her team focuses on all aspects of liability and insurance.

- She is the lead lawyer in major internal investigations for a global player in one of our core sectors. Our work includes advising the client on compliance matters and acting on their behalf in parallel investigations initiated by the relevant European authority.

- The Dutch team and a team from our London office are involved in insurance claims pertaining to earthquakes in the Netherlands as a result of gas winning in the Groningen area, with a maximum potential risk of more than 150 million euros.

- Evelyn has acted as the lead civil lawyer in numerous private enforcement claims, acting on behalf of both claimants and defendants, with a total value of more than one billion euros, making use of sophisticated collaboration agreements and special purpose foundations.

- She acted as a Supreme Court lawyer for biopharmaceutical company Ablynx in proceedings against Unilever, concerning a number of patents regarding 'Nanobody'-technology, and the demarcation line of the license agreements given to Ablynx and Unilever with regard to the use of this technology. I worked in close cooperation with the IP practice that represented Ablynx in the proceedings in the first instance and in the subsequent proceedings at the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of Ablynx.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

The Netherlands

Languages Spoken

Dutch, English

Experience

Evelyn has ample experience in handling all aspects of complex commercial disputes, often with international aspects, with a cross-over to sector specific work and with a heavy component in technology and the civil law/B2B aspects of regulation.

Evelyn is also a specialised and registered Supreme Court litigator and has an in-depth knowledge of civil procedural law, combined with the capability to quickly get acquainted with high-end legal issues on a wide range.

Evelyn is also a recognized specialist in the field of insurance and liability law, as well as in mass claims/ private enforcement cases, claims to the State (compensation for unlawful regulations or behaviour) and construction/infrastructure claims.

Education

Awards