Carla Simmelink

About Carla Simmelink

Carla Simmelink is a lawyer specializing in family law, international family law, and inheritance law at Simmelink Lawyers in Maarssen. The majority of her practice consists of cases with an international element: clients with dual nationalities, partners living in different countries, or Dutch nationals residing abroad who are dealing with family or inheritance law. In over twenty years of legal practice, she has built extensive experience in legally and fiscally complex divorce and estate files.

In international cases, the first question is often strategic: in which country will litigation take place and what are the legal consequences of that choice? For cross-border matrimonial matters and parental responsibility, she works with the Brussels IIter Regulation. She regularly collaborates with notaries, corporate lawyers, and foreign attorneys on files involving multiple disciplines or jurisdictions. Clients living abroad are assisted via video consultation.

She also handles Dutch cases: divorces involving custody, visitation, or property settlement, and inheritance cases involving multiple heirs. In files involving a company or a director-major shareholder (DGA) structure, she maps out the business and personal asset position early on, as this directly influences the legal strategy and negotiating position.

At Simmelink, clients have one dedicated lawyer for their file. Carla guides her clients from the initial consultation to completion and remains the central point of contact, even when notaries, tax advisors, or foreign lawyers are involved in the case. For clients operating internationally, this is an important distinction: one person who oversees the entire file and maintains control, rather than changing contact persons or juniors.

Approach

In international files, Carla usually begins with the strategic question before the substantive one. In which country can litigation be initiated, which law applies, and how will a judgment be recognized in the other jurisdiction? A judgment that is legally correct in the Netherlands but is not recognized in the ex-partner’s country yields little in practice. Carla builds cases backward from that desired outcome.

In divorces involving a company or DGA structure, she maps out the business and personal asset position at an early stage. The valuation of shares, the position within the community of property, and the tax consequences often determine the course of a file more than the legal arguments themselves. Discretion and careful coordination with tax and corporate legal advisors are part of the approach from the very first week.

Background

Carla studied Dutch Law and European Law School at Maastricht University and has been practicing as a lawyer since 2004. Prior to founding Simmelink Lawyers, she worked at Van de Sande Advocaten, Guarda Advocaten, and B&A Advocaten.

In addition, she completed the postgraduate program in Private International Law under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Ian Sumner. Carla works in Dutch and English and actively keeps up with developments in private international law.

Register of Jurisdictions

Carla Simmelink is registered in the Register of Jurisdictions of the Dutch Bar Association in the following areas of law:

• General practice
• Persons & Family Law
  • Private International Law
  • Divorce and separation cases
  • Child and spousal maintenance
  • Parenting arrangements and parental authority
  • Acknowledgment of parentage
• Inheritance Law
• Law on Psychiatric Patients

Based on this registration, she is required to obtain a minimum of ten training points per registered main area of law each calendar year, as required by the Dutch Bar Association.