Kirsten Maes

Kirsten Maes has been working as a lawyer at VBK in the Commercial Contracts, Liability & Litigation and Liability & Insurance teams since 2015. Kirsten specialises in the law of civil procedure, contract law, and liability law. She advises and litigates on a wide range of issues concerning these areas of the law.

In addition to her work as a lawyer, Kirsten is affiliated with Utrecht University as a university lecturer and researcher. Kirsten also obtained her PhD from Utrecht University on 30 October 2020, with a thesis on "Secundaire aansprakelijkheid" (secondary liability). Kirsten regularly publishes articles in academic journals, including in AV&S (journal on liability, insurance and damage), MvV (monthly journal for property law), TVP (journal on compensation for personal injury) and NTBR (journal on civil law). 

She also gives lectures and courses on contractual and non-contractual liability law, and regularly acts as (external) guest speaker at conferences, including in 2017 on the training day for the Judiciary (SSR), in 2021 for the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (LSA), in 2022 for the Association for Civil Law (VBR), in 2024 at the Platform Personal Injury Congress of the Insurers' Association (PPS), and in 2025 at the Liability Event of the Dutch Association of Insurers and the conference of the Association of Young Professionals in Personal Injury (VJPP). In addition, Kirsten is a regular lecturer at the Professional School of Business Law (Beroepsopleiding Bedrijfsjuristen). 

With her knowledge on liability law, Kirsten often appears as an expert in the media, including in Financieel Dagblad and NRC, as the main guest on Dr. Kelder en Co and in radio and television broadcasts of NPO Radio 1, RTL Z, RTL Nieuws and EditieNL (RTL4). She also hosts the podcast ‘De Claimcast’.

Expertise

• Law of Civil Procedure
• Contract Law
• Liability Law

About Kirsten

Kirsten completed her bachelor's degree in Law in the honours programme of the Utrecht Law College of Utrecht University, graduating cum laude, and completed her master's degree in Private Law at Utrecht University, also cum laude. During her studies she published articles in the area of contract law, attachment law and liability law. In 2015, Kirsten received the Molengraaff Institute Thesis Prize for her thesis ‘The scope of the duty of care of secondary, private parties’. In 2016, she won the national thesis prizes of the Beer Impuls Foundation and JBL&G (Personal Injury & Health Law Legal Office) with this same thesis. Kirsten was made ´Mr. of the week´ in 2020 and was the runner-up for Sdu and Advocatie’s Young Talent Awards in 2021. In 2026, Kirsten was nominated for the Woman in Media Award. In 2026, Kirsten was also a finalist for the prestigious Legal Woman of the Year Award 2025/2026.

Kirsten is a member of the Dutch Association for Procedural Law (NVvP), the Dutch Association for Sport and Law (Vereniging voor Sport en Recht) and the Association for Liability and Compensation Law (VASR).