Carla Simmelink

More about me

Carla is a committed, interested interlocutor and goes for the best results. She combines accessibility and professionalism so clients always feel at ease. Pragmatically and effectively she represents your interests.

Already during the first introductory meeting, she gives her vision of your situation. She can also articulate complex legal issues to her clients in a straightforward manner with her clear vision and communication.

Her primary goal is to find sustainable and efficient solutions that will allow you to move forward. It is often possible to reach a lasting solution by mutual agreement with the other party.

If that fails, Carla puts her knowledge and experience to use during legal proceedings at the District Court or the Court of Appeal.

Carla assists both individuals and businesses. She herself comes from an entrepreneurial family, so entrepreneurship has been instilled in her. As a result, she feels a strong connection with entrepreneurs: strong characters who are used to directing their lives according to their own views and opinions.

Expertise

Within her areas of knowledge and expertise, Carla has a number of specialties: personal and family law, name law and private international law.

This means she can help you with (international) divorces, alimony, custody and relocations with children. She also knows a lot about first name changes and now, often relatedly, about obtaining non-binary status (gender neutral). International cases involve questions such as when which court of a country has jurisdiction and which country’s law should be applied.

Training

Carla studied Dutch law at Maastricht University and also attended a year of European Law School (ELS). The ELS is a special study making comparisons between the different legal systems of EU member states.

In the final phase of her studies, she took additional modules in insurance law, psychiatry and psychology as well as ICT and law at Utrecht University.

Work Experience

After completing her studies, Carla worked as a lawyer in a bailiff’s office for six months. In 2004, she was sworn in as a lawyer and began the three-year training as a lawyer at a law firm in Rotterdam. There she worked in general practice which consisted mainly of criminal law cases, real estate law (also as counsel to VBO brokers) and personal and family law. At the same time, Carla began specializing in personal and family law. She has now been involved in this multi-faceted area of law for seventeen years. In 2018, Carla founded law firm Simmelink.

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
• Personen & familierecht
  • Private International Law;
  • Divorces;
  • Alimony cases;
  • Access arrangements;
  • Parenting and recognition
• Psychiatric patient law

Pursuant to this registration, she is required to obtain ten training points in each registered main area of law each calendar year according to the standards of the Dutch Bar Association.