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Profile STvB - History - Legal Services

STvB Advocaten (“STvB”), formerly Smeets Thesseling van Bokhorst, is a leading Netherlands Antilles law firm with an internationally acclaimed reputation built on integrity and professionalism. STvB has offices in Curaçao and Amsterdam (the Netherlands). The firm specializes in international transactions and provides legal advice to legal entities and individuals engaged in international operations.

The firm was founded in 1938 by Antonius A.G. Smeets, who laid the ground work of the off-shore investment and finance industry in the Netherlands Antilles.

In over 70 years of existence, STvB has become a renowned and reliable law firm in the Netherlands Antilles offering both legal and notarial services. The notarial services are presently rendered in close cooperation with civil law notaries in the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.

STvB serves many leading international banks and other financial institutions requiring advice on Netherlands Antilles or Aruba corporate, banking and finance matters. The firm is counsel to most Netherlands Antilles listed companies and assists many other companies – including (offshore) banks, finance companies, insurance and investment companies, holding companies and royalty companies – and wealthy individuals that use the Netherlands Antilles or Aruba in their international operations.
As such STvB has been involved in most international transactions involving Netherlands Antilles companies or Netherlands Antilles law.

In addition, the firm over the years has been instrumental in the development of new financial products such as finance companies, off-shore investment funds and private foundations. The commercial law of the Netherlands Antilles, laid down in a new Book 2 Civil Code that was introduced effective March 1, 2004, was prepared by a committee chaired by Gerard C.A. Smeets, former civil law notary in Curaçao.

Since the laws of Aruba are virtually identical to those of the Netherlands Antilles and lawyers admitted to the Netherlands Antilles bar can plead in Aruba as well, the firm also renders legal services in matters subject to said jurisdiction.

For many of the Fortune 500 corporations, major banks, as well as prominent accounting firms, tax advisors and law firms in the United States, Europe, the Pacific Rim and Latin America, STvB has been and remains the logical choice for obtaining advice and assistance as to matters of Netherlands Antilles law.