Leyden University
Ellis Stolp was born in 1949, in the years when the Netherlands was rebuilding its economy and legal institutions after the Second World War. His formative years therefore coincided with the postwar expansion of Dutch commerce and the growing international business that later shaped the work of large Amsterdam law firms.
Ellis Stolp's documented university education is associated with Leyden University, the English form of the name of what is now Leiden University. Founded in 1575 under William of Orange, it was established to educate citizens of the northern Netherlands and to supply the government with educated men in many fields, and it is the oldest university in the Netherlands.
His admission to the bar in Amsterdam in 1980 linked his legal qualification to the city where he later worked as a partner in a commercial law firm.
Ellis Stolp practised as a lawyer in Amsterdam and became a partner of Stibbe, Blaisse & De Jong, the name the Amsterdam firm used before its 1991 merger. The Amsterdam practice was founded in 1911 by H. W. Stibbe.
In 1991 the Amsterdam firm merged with Simont & Simont of Brussels to form Stibbe & Simont, which became one of the most prominent law firms in the Benelux. After a 1993 merger with the Paris-based Monahan & Duhot, the firm was renamed Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot, and it later adopted the simpler name Stibbe. Today it has main offices in Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg, with branch offices in London.
