Jeroen van Helden acts as lead counsel in IT transactions and IT disputes. He has specific expertise in software licensing, data protection, IT contracts and compliance issues. He likes to share his knowledge of IT law and his enthusiasm for the field in professional journals and through seminars and courses.
Education and career
Jeroen studied law at the University of Amsterdam and the University of Michigan. He graduated cum laude. During his studies he worked as a tutor European legal history, gained experience at a law firm in The Hague and learned basic programming skills. After obtaining his master’s degree, he worked for several years as IT legal counsel within the government. Since April 2018 he joined the IT, IP & Privacy section of De Clercq Advocaten Notariaat. In 2022 he graduated with honors from the Grotius postgraduate course in Information Technology Law.
Selection of recent work
- Lead counsel for several corporates and public international organisations on various multi-million euro transactions, including Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Amazon Web Services, IBM Passport Advantage, MS Azure and anti-DDoS services.
- Lead counsel for a.o. an IT service provider and semi-government organisation in the aftermath of a ransomware attack.
- Lead counsel for an IT service provider in a lawsuit over a failed agile software development project that resulted in the plaintiff’s multimillion euro claim being rejected.
- Lead counsel on behalf of a leading European retail company in an international (mediation) procedure regarding a failed ERP implementation, resulting in damages from both the software supplier and the implementation partner.
- Support counsel for a Dutch government organisation in a landmark arbitration case about a failed IT project, with the result that tens of millions of euros were recovered from the supplier for the benefit of the Dutch taxpayer.
Selection of recent publications
- Airlines and data breaches: lessons learned, BARIN newsletter 11-2021
- Privacy and COVID-19 apps, in: Multidisciplinary aspects of COVID-19 apps (DeLex 2021)
- Settle or litigate? Government rarely litigates against failing IT supplier, AG Connect 11-2020
- Is this an international data transfer? AG Connect 06-2020
- Data privacy and AI, in: Multidisciplinary aspects of artificial intelligence (DeLex 2020)
- Privacy and blockchain, Data, Cybersecurity and Privacy 09-2019
Memberships
- The Hague Bar Association
- Dutch Association for Information Technology & Law (NVvIR)
- Privacy Law Association (VPR)
- Royal Dutch Association of Information Professionals (KNVI)
- Dutch Association of Information Technology Experts (NVBI) (associated member)