Adriaan Grijns

Partner | Corporate

About

Adriaan Grijns is a corporate specialist in the New York office who has extensive expertise in assisting European and Brazilian clients with their entry and expansion into the U.S. markets. Conversely, he is able to work effectively for U.S. clients in M&A and investment transactions in Europe and Brazil, as he was trained as a civil lawyer in The Netherlands, and worked both with law firms in Europe and Brazil, and in-house as European Regional Counsel for a U.S. multinational company. He is fluent in five major European languages (including Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish) as well as Brazilian Portuguese which is a major asset in both such inbound and outbound transactions.

  • Recently, he has worked closely with European tech start-ups and scale-ups at an early stage of their preparation and journey to growth and funding in the U.S. market. A co-founder of a business that focuses on bringing tech companies to the U.S. market he is intimately familiar with the workings of early-stage companies and how entrepreneurs think and what they are looking for. As a result, he builds long term trust relationships that enables him to provide tailor-made and hands-on legal advice.

    Adriaan is a Legal Adviser with Legal Response International (LRI) advising Governments on REDD+ issues during the COP meetings of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. He is also a co-founder of the Access to Remedy Institute (ARI) which focuses on the prevention of human rights violations in business operations.

Practices

  • Commercial Transactions

  • International Trade

  • Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Private Equity and Venture Capital

  • Securities

Admissions

  • New York

Education

  • Columbia University School of Law, LL.M., 2002

  • European University Institute, Florence, LL.M. in European Law, 1994

  • University of Amsterdam, Master of Civil Law, 1991

Law Firm Experience

  • FisherBroyles, LLP

  • Hughes Hubbard & Reed

  • Baker McKenzie

  • Lexence (formerly, Van Schoonhoven In ‘t Veld)

Corporate Experience

  • INVISTA (a subsidiary of Koch Industries, Inc.), Regional Counsel EMEA

  • Gryphon Partners, Co-Founder

Representative Transactions

  • Representation of numerous European tech companies expanding to the U.S. market, advising on corporate and commercial transactions, as well as funding rounds.

  • Representation of certain family shareholder groups of a European Family Office with contract, governance, auditing and tax matters.

  • Representation of INVISTA Sarl in the Butachimie SNC $500 million joint venture operations and affairs with French chemical company Rhodia SA.

Presentations and Teaching Experience

  • Lecturer, Corporate Governance Standards in the United States for Mexican Companies, U.S.–Mexico Chamber of Commerce Seminar, “Strategies for Trade and Investment in Mexico.”

  • Lecturer, Climate Change and Access to Justice, Yale/UNITAR Seminar, “Climate Change Governance” at Yale University.

Publications

  • Contributing Author, Rule 144, in SECURITIES LAW TECHNIQUES, Chapter 38 (Matthew Bender & Company, Inc.).

  • Co-Author, Normas de gobernanza corporativa en los Estados Unidos para emisores privados extranjeros. Publication for the Florida International Bankers Association, discussing corporate governance standards in the United States for foreign private issuers (in Spanish, translated from English).

  • Climate Change and Access to Justice, in Freedom from Fear Magazine, UNICRI.

  • Co-Author, An Access to Justice Approach In Climate Change Policies: The Case of REDD, academic paper presented at Yale University.

  • Author, Access to Justice and Climate Change, UN Policy Report.