Eric van Niekerk

Eric van Niekerk specialises in cases involving technical damage, for example damage to buildings and other structures, infrastructural works and ports. He advises and litigates in matters concerning liability and policy disputes (e.g. all risks, corporate liability, fire, CAR, fraud, machinery breakdown and PDBI insurances).

Eric also deals with product liability and professional liability disputes and regularly acts for insurance companies in recourse cases, for example in relation to fire insurance. In addition, he advises on the wording of national and international policy schemes and has helped draft various sets of policy conditions.

Eric has advised a large Dutch multinational on the continuation of its international PDBI programme. Other prominent cases in which he has been involved have been the Bovenkarspel Legionnaires’ disease case, the MPA contamination crises, the Burger King fire at Schiphol Airport, the fire at Philips’ semiconductor plant in Caen, the fire at the Faculty of Architecture of Delft University of Technology, the subsidence of the 't Loon shopping centre in Heerlen and the fire on the Chemelot site.

Eric graduated from the University of Leiden in 1982, where he subsequently worked for a year. He was admitted as a lawyer in 1983 and was a partner in NautaDutilh from 1992 to 1 September 2014, when he and Tjitske Cieremans left to set up the law firm VanNiekerkCieremans.

Eric is a member of a number of insurance-related associations such as the Dutch Co-assurantie Sociëteit, the Beursclub Technische Verzekeringen, Sociëteit CausaRie and the Rotterdam Beurs Brand Club. He currently sits on the board of the first two of these associations.

Eric is also a member of the Association for Insurance Studies (Vereniging voor Verzekeringswetenschap) and the Liability and Compensation Law Association. He publishes on a regular basis. He is recommended by Legal 500 (Pritchard, Chambers ("one of the most experienced lawyers in the Netherlands, especially with regard to technical insurance, liability and policy issues") and has been listed as one of the leading lawyers in the field of insurance by Who’s Who Legal.