Member in the Spotlight - Frank Penders of OTIS Advocaten

Member in the Spotlight - Frank Penders of OTIS Advocaten

Tell us about your company!

We are OTIS Advocaten, a law firm that specialises in employment and company law. We’re based here at Tribes Amsterdam Amstel with around 10 employees, and we also have some offices in Spain. The Spain mothership office is in Barcelona, and we’re also in Madrid, Marbella and Ibiza. There’s a cool synergy between the two countries because a lot of Dutch companies are settling down in Spain and vice versa, so that’s quite cool and sets us apart from other law firms.

What kind of legal issues do you help clients with?

Here in Amsterdam, we really focus on scale-up companies. We help them from the start of becoming scale-up, because when a company goes from having 1 employee to 200-300 employees in the space of a year for example, there are a lot of issues that come with that and that’s where we’re able to help. Besides this, we can help with other issues such as if you have a bill that hasn’t been paid – it might not seem like there’s rocket science behind it, but often it helps to have an attorney on that. We can help you with company law matters too, for example, shareholder agreements, general terms, drawing up contracts, entering into new partnerships, raising your company to a higher level, a dispute in the workplace, etc. We work with companies from all different industries; in Amsterdam we have a lot of clients in FinTech and Recruitment. Likewise, we assist employees, but our focus is mainly on the employer, so usually companies of around 50 staff or more.

How did the pandemic affect your work?

We got a lot of questions concerning employment law issues, for example, with companies wanting some kind of policy and guidelines in place for offering staff the choice to work from home or the office. This was obviously a new doc that needed drafting, so that was pretty cool. The government of course had monies available to support businesses, so we helped companies to apply for those too. Everyone was expecting to have a lot of bankruptcies – I worked previously as a trustee, but now I’m on the other side, so when a company is going bankrupt I help the directors of the company. I personally thought that my whole practice would explode because a lot of companies would go bankrupt, but that absolutely did not happen because of the monies available from the government. It was actually the lowest bankruptcy numbers in a long time, so that’s good!

How long have you been with Tribes for?

For a long time now! We moved in when Tribes Amsterdam Amstel first opened in 2016. We began with one office, then our team grew, and so we expanded into a second office opposite. Now our office is full, so if our team continues to grow we will look to expand again into another office. That’s the cool thing about Tribes in my opinion, it’s quite flexible in that way.

What inspired you to join Tribes, and what benefits have you found from being here?

It’s a good way to meet other people, and we’re really happy with all the extra services that we receive as well. That’s not just a sales pitch for you, but it’s really cool to have the Hosts and Hostesses at reception taking care of almost everything, it makes it really simple. We’ve been able to build some great relationships here, and we now have other Tribes members as clients.

What is your favourite thing about coming to work?

Seeing the big smiles of my colleagues! Interaction with others is important for me. I have a hybrid working week, so on Wednesdays I work from home in the morning, so I can be with my children in the afternoon. Hybrid is good as it means you don’t need to commute every day, but for me, I like to be around people, so I prefer going to the office. But not every day! It’s nice to have a mix of both.

Have a legal issue you need assistance with? You can reach Frank and OTIS Advocaten below!
Website: https://www.otisadvocaten.nl/
Email: penders@otisadvocaten.nl