Fieldfisher has opened an office in Amsterdam staffed by five partners recruited from local TMT specialist firm Kennedy Van der Laan (KVdL).

The office, which will go live on 1 May, will operate under a Swiss verein structure. It will adopt the Fieldfisher name and will be led by litigation partner Marcel Willems, who co-founded KVdL 25 years ago.

The launch will take Fieldfisher's global office total to 16, increasing its headcount to around 600 professional advisers. The base will focus on corporate, finance and insolvency, business structuring, commercial contracts, compliance and governance and corporate litigation.

The other partners in the office are Jan Schouten, Frans-Jozef Crousen, Marinus de Waal and Louis Bouchez. Schouten, Crousen and Bouchez all have 20 years' experience in the firm's corporate transactions practice, while De Waal made partner more recently.

The Dutch market was earmarked as a key expansion target in the firm's latest strategy plan, which was set out last June.

Managing partner Michael Chissick said: "We've been looking at setting up an office in the Netherlands for a while. We've had a footprint in the Benelux region for years and it was a natural step to have a Dutch presence as well. We send more work to this jurisdiction than any other where we don't have an office.

"Amsterdam in particular, is a hub for the firm's key sectors including TMT, energy, life sciences and tech. As well as the natural sector crossover, investments from China and America are two key markets for us and are a particular feature of Dutch-bound investment."

Willems added: "We've worked with Fieldfisher for years and have an established relationship. As well as our natural rapport, we were looking for a new and exciting challenge, and joining such an ambitious firm was a superb opportunity."

Last year Fieldfisher opened a number of other international offices. In November, the firm launched in China with an office in Beijing, followed by a move into Shanghai earlier this month.

In November it also merged with Birmingham's Hill Hofstetter, a 19-partner UK firm that spun off from Reed Smith in 2008. In July last year it also merged with Italian firm SASPI, taking on four offices across Italy.