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. Presently, as part of the New York team, he is amongst the "go to" Dutch finance counsel in the New York time zone.
Boudewijn graduated from Leiden University in 2015 (with highest honors) in civil law and is admitted to the Amsterdam Bar. He is a board member of various DE&I non-profit organisations and also active in the young professionals chapter of the Secured Finance Network (SFNet).
Boudewijn was awarded the "Future Leader – LGBTQ+ Equality" at the European Chambers Diversity & Inclusion Awards for his contribution to a more inclusive and diverse climate in the legal sector and his commitment to LGBTQ+ rights.
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Work highlights
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.