Roeland Zwanikken

Career

Roeland Zwanikken (1968), studied both at the University of Amsterdam and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (United Kingdom) and graduated in 1993. He started his career in 1994 in Sint Maarten, where he worked for five years and became a partner at the oldest law firm of Sint Maarten. In 1999 he repatriated to the Netherlands, where he worked for two years at one of the bigger law firms in Amsterdam. In 2001 Roeland returned to Sint Maarten and one year later in 2002, at the age of 33, he started his own law firm (first under the name Zwanikken Law Office, then, since February 2003, under the name Zwanikken & Snow and since November 2006 under the name ZwanikkenSnowEssed ("ZSE"). As per January 1, 2009 ZSE joined forces with the Bergman brothers, resulting in BZSE Attorneys at Law / Tax Lawyers ("BZSE"). As from the inception of BZSE Roeland oversees the day to day management of BZSE.

Fields of Expertise

Roeland is an expert in the fields of banking and finance, civil litigation and real estate and property law. Furthermore, Roeland is an enthusiastic, renowned and if necessary an aggressive litigator. He always takes a very pro-active approach, whenever he represents a party in litigation.

Roeland advises local and international (corporate) clients with business interest on Sint Maarten. Among Roeland’s clients arebanks, project developers, international (corporate) clients and local businesses. As a rule, Roeland never represents government, but he has a lot of experience litigating against government and government owned companies.

Other activities

In 2004 and 2005 Roeland was Dean of the Sint Maarten Bar Association. Since August 1, 2008, Roeland is also a member of the Supervisory Board of Attorneys. Roeland is also an active and critical follower of Sint Maarten politics and a proponent of good corporate governance and proper administration. Roeland strongly believes attorneys do have a task as watchdog in society; abuse of power or improper administrative behavior should be identified, criticized and spelled out to the public at large in newspaper articles or on social media.