As we speak (8:25 p.m.), Sander Janssen, Mark Teurlings and Yehudi Moszkowicz are eating at the Amsterdam restaurant MOMO and receiving their respective 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes from Quote crime journalist Nikki Sterkenburg. The three lawyers were chosen by "people from crime" as Dutch Best Criminal Lawyer 2012. The other top lawyers in this top ten are: Nico Meijering, Geert Jan Knoops, Adèle van der Plas, Inez Weski, Jan-Hein Kuijpers, Serge Weening and Peter Hermens. It is abundantly clear that all but a few of the better-known names in criminal law have had to make way for a new guard. From the survey that brought about this composition, it appears that big law names - perhaps due to busyness and limited capacity - cannot always give their clients the feeling that they are not a number. A good personal yet businesslike contact, appears to be a must for criminals.
Sander Janssen of Cleerdin & Hamer Lawyers, has scored high marks for, among other things, the way he has maintained his angelic patience in the Amsterdam Passage case. In his professional attitude, he is more than once compared to the late Gerard Hamer, who is undoubtedly a huge inspiration to Sander Janssen. It is now widely known that Mark Teurlings was the lawyer of the early 2012 liquidated criminal bigwig Stanley Hillis. The way he knows how to kick the necessary sacred houses of justice on TV (regularly on RTL4 or SBS6) is much appreciated. As if he has come out of nowhere, there is Yehudi Moszkowicz. This scion of the Netherlands' most famous family of lawyers has managed, entirely on his own steam, to attract a number of top criminals as clients. This summer Yehudi Moszkowicz's actually impossible feat was getting someone suspected of very extensive drug smuggling suspended after barely a year in pre-trial detention awaiting sentencing.
For many a criminal, Nico Meijering is not only a rock, but also a true support and advocate. Those surveyed see Nico Meijering as the figurehead of the Meijering - Van Kleef - Ficq & Van der Werf law firm. A firm with all top players, where certainly the sporty Nico Meijering will share his acquired title of Best Criminal Lawyer 2012. Geert Jan Knoops, former Marine and lawyer of the then Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, among others, also appears to always have a listening ear for persons who are not direct clients. More than once, Geert Jan Knoops refers criminals to colleagues from this top ten. Adèle van der Plas's audacity in testifying against the top boss of Justice Joris Demmink before a U.S. Senate committee was received with great respect. Adèle van der Plas appears to be a hoodlum in gown.
Clearly, criminals often have more in common with male lawyers than with their female colleagues. Whether it is because of her unusual appearance or fear of the unknown as a columnist in the women's magazine Opzij is unknown; but Inez Weski is high on the wish lists of "the Guild. Jan-Hein Kuijpers was there years back just as Yehudi Moszkowicz is now suddenly there. Since then he has been everywhere. Always professional but with a Brabant flair. Under the joking rubric that Jan-Hein Kuijpers unfortunately did not win an Oscar with his film role in 'De Bende van Oss,' someone campaigned hard for him among criminal colleagues to make sure he would be in this top ten. Serge Weening may not be related to the Moszkowicz clan, but that is where he received his training. With the same ever-considered strategy in the style of nestor Max Moszkowicz, he manages to corner the prosecution time and again. Then Peter Hermens, office mate of Nico Meijering, invariably called their silent force by a certain family with Indonesian roots. Peter Hermens is an extremely smart and sympathetic criminal lawyer, who will most likely be featured again in the 2013 edition of Dutch Best Criminal Lawyer.
