Background
Reinier Smeets was born in 1961. His education and legal career took place in the Netherlands, where he studied at Leyden University and became associated with an Amsterdam law firm.
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Reinier Smeets
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Reinier Smeets is a lawyer based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, documented as a partner of the law firm Stibbe, Blaisse & De Jong. He studied at Leyden University, now Leiden University, and his professional life is connected with Stibbe, one of the leading international law firms of the Benelux region.
Education
Smeets studied at Leyden University, the older English form of the name of what is now Leiden University. Founded on 8 February 1575 by William of Orange, it is the oldest university in the Netherlands. Its founding was linked to the Eighty Years' War, the uprising of the northern provinces against Spanish rule, and it was intended to give the Northern Netherlands an institution that could educate its citizens and supply the government with educated men in many fields.
The university's motto, Praesidium Libertatis, translates as Bastion of Freedom and refers to the city's resistance during a Spanish siege. Today Leiden University is a public research university with seven faculties and campuses in Leiden and The Hague. The documented record of Smeets's studies does not give a degree, department, or dates, so his academic path is described here only in these general terms.
Career
Smeets is documented as a partner of Stibbe, Blaisse & De Jong, a law firm based in Amsterdam. The firm's Amsterdam origins date to 1911, and it operated under the Stibbe, Blaisse & De Jong name until 1991, when it merged with Simont & Simont of Brussels to form Stibbe & Simont.
After a 1993 combination with the Paris-based Monahan & Duhot, the firm adopted the name Stibbe Simont Monahan Duhot, and a few years later it became known simply as Stibbe. Today the firm has main offices in Amsterdam, Brussels and Luxembourg, with a branch office in London, and it offers full-service advice across commercial, dispute resolution, and regulatory practice areas.
